It's understandable if you don't recognize this as blind Gabe, and no, he's not undergoing sensory deprivation either! He has had a rough go of it since coming home from three weeks of radiation therapy for his nasal tumor at WSU. The side-effects of the radiation caused the skin around his eyes and the top of his snout to become inflamed, bleed, and eventually peel off; this itched like crazy, too, but of course that's why he had to wear a cone, because scratching at the skin eruptions would only make them much worse. His mouth developed oral ulcers, too, and infection developed. So he's been on a long course of eye ointments, antibiotics and pain medications. All of this the oncologist at WSU had prepared us for. (We did not experience these side-effects from blind Callie's brain tumor radiation treatment because of where the radiation field was located.)
Fortunately, we are through the worst of it now, and though he has lots of bare skin around his eyes and his nose, his skin has stopped new rounds of blistering. One thing he still loves is a warm, wet compress over his eyes and nose; it's soothing and clearly feels so good he'll just sit there with it draped over his face like this. I took the photo of Gabe enjoying his compress this morning. He's wearing a soft cone that's padded and flexible. He's just disappointed it didn't come in camouflage.
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for us every
day in The Animal Rescue
Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.
Thanks
to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the
animals in the previous contest. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the
$20,000 grand prize! Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask
your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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