This is quite a story! I have to admit that when I first read this I thought that maybe your vet knew about your acoustic neuroma and was just displaying a rather odd sense of humor when diagnosing your dog -- obviously that's not the case. You can tell your vet that he has certainly impressed a lot of people with his knowledge! As all pet owners know, our pets depend on us to do the right thing by them, and I'm sure you will know, and do, what's best for your dog in this situation.
My now 11-year-old Cavalier K.C. Spaniel experienced early onset deafness about five or six years ago. I was really upset and asked my vet if there was anything we could do, since I figured that Bailey was going to be pretty traumatized by his deafness, even though he already knew hand signals from obedience and agility training. He told me of some studies at one of the vet schools in the country (can't recall which one he mentioned) -- dog hearing aids were being developed, but they were pretty expensive and since most dogs don't like having things stuck in their ears they would often work the aids out of their ears and eat them. This didn't sound too promising! My vet went on to assure me that since dogs pretty much "live in the moment" Bailey was much less distressed by his deafness than we were, and would simply hone his other senses to compensate. And indeed he has. And I still talk to him as though he can understand every word I say. I have to say that I've viewed him as something of a role model as I live with my SSD.
I hope things will go well with your dog and that your vet will be able to prescribe something that will help with the symptoms and make her feel a lot better.
Catherine (JerseyGirl2)
