The Terrorist

On Tuesday the Saint took Fiona to the vet for her annual exam and vaccinations. He said she was acting odd on the ride home, but she ate her dinner that night. She didn't want to go out at bedtime which we thought strange, but it wasn't worrisome.

When I went out to the kitchen Wednesday morning I honestly thought she was gone. She was still in her bed and didn't move when I came into the room. I called to her softly a few times and got no response. I took a deep breath and touched her - she was warm and breathing. I went back to the bedroom and woke the Saint to tell him I thought something was very wrong.

We went back to the kitchen and after some petting and coaxing she opened her eyes, but made no move to get out of bed. I finally picked her up, carried her outside and put her down. After a bit she did her thing and came back in on her own. But something was off, you know? Just..off.

I called the vet when I got to the office and told them what was going on. They said she may have had a reaction to the vaccinations and could be running a fever. They said if she didn't seem better later in the day we would bring her back in.

The Saint went home in the afternoon and once again he had a hard time waking her so he took her back to the vet. They examined her and couldn't find anything. No fever, her ears and chest were clear, they concluded due to her age she may just be lethargic after the goings on Tuesday.

When we were eating dinner that night and the Saint said he thought he knew what might be wrong. He thought Fiona couldn't HEAR. Precious Youngest jumped up to ring the doorbell. NOTHING. So there was much clapping loudly, calling her name, dropping things on the floor, etc. and NOTHING.

Now we started to realize the reason she's not waking up is because she doesn't hear us coming! There are no audible cues that we're coming into a room. She's not hearing the coffee start to brew and me going out for the newspaper to wake her in the morning. She doesn't hear the garage door going up indicating that someone is home from school/work. She's all jumpy because we're basically sneaking up from behind and yelling "Boo" ALL THE FREAKING TIME!

I'm thinking GOOD GOD how does a dog just "go deaf"? How weird is that? She was FINE. I had to put her in the yard last Saturday before Prom because every time someone rang the door bell she went nuts. But it appeared poor Fiona couldn't hear.

I put in another call to the vet's office Thursday. When I finally spoke to someone that afternoon they told us to bring her back Friday. Which we did. And the vet confirmed that yes, in fact, Fiona can't hear. It appears she is deaf. With no rational explanation. That the vaccines wouldn't have caused this.

So WTF people? Have any of you had an experience like this? Have you any advice to dispense? Please?