The agony of waking up to blind Laila
In a short period of four days we crossed all the five stages of grieving (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) as listed by Dr Kubler Ross in her ground-breaking book ‘On Death and Dying’. The news that our seven-year-old pet Labrador had turned blind was received with firm denial even though my daughter had been insisting that there was something seriously wrong with Laila.
She pointed out that our dog was disoriented and kept bumping into walls and furniture. The guy who used to walk her also expressed concern over her inability to navigate her usual route. But not convinced, I looked at Laila and ordered her to come to me. She was slow to react, but walked toward me, albeit slowly, while keeping her head uncharacteristically low. She was able to move around the dining table before stopping in front of me.
“See, she can see, it’s just that she is a little unwell and may be feeling low and lethargic,” I tried to pacify everyone. However, I was restless the entire night with a strange feeling that things were not well with Laila.
Dogs have a terrific sense of smell, touch and hearing. She was perhaps using these senses to move around. I snapped out of the denial mode, and took her out the first thing in the morning. It took me an hour to come to terms with the fact that she just could not see anything. My desire to believe that she could see partially could not withstand the overwhelming proof. The sight of her bumping and stumbling overwhelmed me with grief.
It was hard to accept that a healthy dog had turned blind overnight for no reason whatsoever. A visit to the local vet confirmed our worst fears. It was not only blindness but it was permanent blindness. The next 24 hour were spent on social sites contacting various groups of blind dogs, dog lovers and vets. May be, there was a cure somewhere. The mixed feelings of anger, helplessness and guilt gave way to sadness before I finally accepted the truth and collected the family to relay the devastating news.
As a military aviator for more than three decades, I had witnessed many tragic events and there were a few times when I had to break the worst possible news a family could receive in their lifetime. Trying to be as strong as possible, I started, “It’s sad but Laila has gone permanently blind. The disease, Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS) causes total destruction of rods and cones in the retina. The typical onset of SARDS is sudden and sometimes the dogs go blind within hours, and that is what has happened to Laila. As of now, there is no cure or treatment. The good news is that SADS is not painful and they adapt quite well, with little training, to blindness due to their highly developed senses of hearing, touch, and smell. Unlike humans, sight is not the primary sense in dogs and losing eyesight for a dog is akin to a human losing his sense of smell.”
I told my family that I could see the tears in their eyes. “Grieving is normal and therapeutic, hence we can all have a tear break and assemble after one hour to discuss how to help Laila be the same playful, funloving and naughty pet that she has always been.”
AS A MILITARY AVIATOR FOR MORE THAN THREE DECADES, I HAD WITNESSED MANY TRAGIC EVENTS AND THERE WERE A FEW TIMES WHEN I HAD TO BREAK THE WORST POSSIBLE NEWS A FAMILY COULD RECEIVE IN THEIR LIFETIME