# Sticky  SARDS UPDATE



## Dee Dee

I flew from Washington state to Dr. Grozdanic in 2011 when my beloved longhaired doxie, Hallie, went blind virtually overnight from SARDS. This is not new information unfortunately, the article was released in 2007. My Hallie's retinas were still intact when she was examined and diagnosed, unfortunately Dr Grozdanic was out of town for 3 weeks at that time (why he didn't have a stand in I will never understand) so in that amount of time her retinas went from looking normal, to detached in many places and full of holes the worst he said he'd ever seen and she was no longer a candidate for treatment.  The treatment is controversial as it carries a lot of risk but it's wonderful if and when it works!


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## Dee Dee

My longhaired doxie, Hallie, also went blind overnight from SARDS. I am so sorry this happened to your baby also. It's shocking and so hard when they go blind so quickly, the adjustment period is tough. But Hallie did much better than I dreamed she would (and better than I did!) in fact I taught her to paint to give her something to do and she loved it. Her story went viral and we ended up on many TV and radio shows, magazines around the world, she was on Yahoo, Google, etc home page, celebrity blogs, we did public demos, she won a humanitarian award and we are in a documentary on Animal Planet (Million Dollar Duck). So she had a great life even after going blind. She raised over $35,000.00 in sales of her art work which we donated all to rescue.
Also, you might consider looking into nosework. That was the best thing I did for her after she went blind! Nosework is all about their nose which they use so much more after going blind.It built her confidence a ton and gave her joy again. We ended up competing and she won her first title coming in 8th out of 33 sighted dogs. I'll bet your little one would love it if you can find a class in your area.

and please feel free to email me anytime if there is anything I can help with. [email protected]

Also people have been asking for a book on Hallies' life for years I finally got it done not too long ago. Here is the cover that shows her painting, she always wore her little red beret and she often would reach a front paw out to try to feel the paper but her paw wasn't long enough to reach.

Her blindness didn't really slow her down after we adjusted to it, it just became our new normal. <3 I'm sure Sam will do fine!


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## krandall

Dee Dee said:


> I flew from Washington state to Dr. Grozdanic in 2011 when my beloved longhaired doxie, Hallie, went blind virtually overnight from SARDS. This is not new information unfortunately, the article was released in 2007. My Hallie's retinas were still intact when she was examined and diagnosed, unfortunately Dr Grozdanic was out of town for 3 weeks at that time (why he didn't have a stand in I will never understand) so in that amount of time her retinas went from looking normal, to detached in many places and full of holes the worst he said he'd ever seen and she was no longer a candidate for treatment.  The treatment is controversial as it carries a lot of risk but it's wonderful if and when it works!


Did you mean to link an article Dee Dee?


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## Dee Dee

krandall said:


> Did you mean to link an article Dee Dee?


i was replying to a post higher up (I thought but don't see it mentioned now!) that had posted the link. This is a new look here which looks great but I don't have the hang if it yet I see! I also couldn't see how to private message them about Sam was hoping to send them a book to see some of the things I did with Hallie to cope with her blindness although they probably have figured many of those out by now. <3


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## krandall

Dee Dee said:


> i was replying to a post higher up (I thought but don't see it mentioned now!) that had posted the link. This is a new look here which looks great but I don't have the hang if it yet I see! I also couldn't see how to private message them about Sam was hoping to send them a book to see some of the things I did with Hallie to cope with her blindness although they probably have figured many of those out by now. <3


Click on their name *under their photo on the left) then on the next screen, click "start conversation"! It does take some getting used to! But it's nice once you get the hang of it!!!


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## EvaE1izabeth

This is the recent thread I remember about a new member with a recent SARDS diagnosis. SARDS diagnosis . Dee-Dee was mentioned in the post because of the experience with Hallie. But Dee-Dee also has a Havanese with a health history, and always seems to have good insight on dealing with complications. I love to imagine I would jump on a plane or teach my Havanese something special if he lost his vision or had a sudden impairment, but I tend to be messy about these things, so the story is especially inspirational and humbling for me.

Is there a way to tag the member in this new post so it isn’t missed?


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## 31818

EvaE1izabeth said:


> Is there a way to tag the member in this new post so it isn’t missed?


A moderator cannot Tag a post, thread, or member. What a moderator can do is make the thread a "sticky" which means it is permanently placed at the top of a specific sub-forum topics. That is what I have done at your request. I agree that the story of Hallie and @Dee Dee is an inspirational and educational experience and it will never be missed since it will always appear at the top of the list. Thank you for the suggestion.


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## EvaE1izabeth

Thank you for doing that  I actually meant to ask if there was a way to alert the person of the response since it’s a different thread, for the average user. For instance, when you tag @dee_dee, does it link to her member profile or also notify her?

I know for me the default setting for threads was to receive notifications to my email when there is an update to a thread I posted in. Thankfully, I don’t get notifications for every new thread! I’ve changed the settings, but maybe a member that hasn’t checked in recently would see a notification that way. I will just link this in the previous thread.


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