With the health and behavior challenges we have faced with Blaze, we have received help from many different people; local and not-so-local training/behavior professionals, our local vet, not-so-local specialists, local specialists, and many friends.
Today we had a trip to visit the neurologist at MedVet and had a good time. This was my first time to MedVet, though I'd heard the many horror stories of high fees. We weren't visiting as an emergency so our bill was very reasonable! More importantly the vets we met were very professional and excellent about explaining things.
The trip didn't result in good news or bad news. The aspects of Blaze's seizures and less than normal behaviors make it very likely that there was some sort of permenant non-changing damage to his brain. This news does not really change much, and as we already knew he would never attain 'normalness'.
Where would we be if we had not met with the neurologist? With our many vets? With the behavior consultant that sent us to the veterinary behaviorist? What if I had stuck with the initial advice from a very well-meaning instructor that "He needs to know what he is doing wrong. You need to spend more time training him. This is a simple training issue." I can't begin to imagine what situations we would be in or my frustration levels.
Please do what is necessary to find appropriate professionals. Check out this article from the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior about how to choose an animal professional. Get your network of professionals and get the help that your pet needs.
Happier things and my new training tool later!
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