I forgot to mention that the Annie excitement of Christmas Eve came when I took her upstairs (from the basement where we were watching It’s a Wonderful Life) to let her out back. She did her business and I let her back in and we headed back downstairs. I stopped at the landing, because she had stopped at the top of the stairs.

The poor thing is losing what’s left of her eyesight and has fallen down the stairs many, many times. She just loses track of where she is and takes a header down whatever is left of the staircase. She’s done it enough that she has learned to turn her body so that she lands on her side instead of on her face. Sad.

Anyway, I urged her down and as I half expected, she lost it with one more step to go and landed on her face on the landing. But she picked herself up quickly and headed down the rest when I noticed red spots on the carpet.

Mom and I corraled her back upstairs to investigate and discovered the bleeding came from her mouth. We figure she must have lost a tooth, but it was definitely before the fall because we found older small spots of blood in the place where she had been sleeping at my feet. I dabbed at her mouth with a towel and tried to get a good look in her mouth, but she didn’t cooperate. We saw clots though, so she had been bleeding for a little while. I took her to the water bowel where she drank quite a bit. She left no blood in the bowl so the active bleeding had stopped.

Poor old girl.

We’re going to switch her to a softer food - probably canned. It’ll be more expensive, but she’s gotten really skinny and I think it’s painful for her to eat crunchy kibble. And her already horrendous breath will get worse. Thankfully she’ll eat Breath Busters, which help.

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1. Is she too big to carry up and down the stairs?  Seems like that might help out in preventing injuries if she keeps falling all the time.

   Posted by  on  12/26/07  at  11:14 PM

2. Jennifer, I realized on my way home from work last night that I should have included something about the carrying idea. She hates to be picked up and wriggles and nips when carried. I have dropped her several times in the past when I’ve tried to carry her.

   Also, I’ve often got Jesse in my arms already when Annie follows me up and down the stairs, so that’s a problem, too.

   Believe me, I’m trying to think of how to prevent more falls short of crating her all day/night.

   Posted by jen  on  12/27/07  at  10:07 AM

3. How about a ramp or a slide? Could be fun for her and Jesse? Poor Annie. This situation sounds very sad. Not sure what to tell you.

   We’ll we look forward to seeing you all later today.

   Posted by  on  12/29/07  at  07:30 AM

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