Hearing loss?

[dhollister]

Hi -

I have an 11-year old German Shepherd, Watson, and I was wondering if it is possible/common/whatever for a dog to go deaf? I was premiering something at a film festival and had to leave for about 3 days, during which time I had him staying at a kennel. In the past few days that I've been back, I suddenly notice him not hearing well. The doorbell rings and normally he goes nuts... now it seems he doesn't hear it at all. Also when I call him, it seems like he only hears it when I'm very near to him already. And sometimes when I'm far away and call him, he can hear, but he can't tell where I am from my voice. He'll look in all the wrong directions.

Any chance this is temporary or anything? It seemed to occur so fast. I had him do some tests at the doctor (the kennel is at his vet's) and he gave him a clean bill of health otherwise. But he did some x-rays and the like, and is on some antibiotics because of a wound he got last week. Could that have anything to dow ith it?

Any reason Watson would lose hearing so darn fast??? He seemed fine not that long ago...

 

[DanL]

I think our 12 year old is going deaf too. She used to howl at the sirens from the fire company, she rarely does that anymore. When you call her she doesn't always seem to hear (don't know if that is selective or not though!). One day she was on the porch standing at the back door, I walked up behind her calling her name, she never moved until I clapped right near her and surprised her.

Our girl's seemed to go pretty fast too. Now that we understand what she's going thru we help her out by making sure she can see us and using more hand signs and gestures, and making sure she isn't startled.

 

[dhollister]

Any chance it could be from temporary from an infection or something? I overheard some other woman at the vet saying her dog was deaf from an infection and that "his eyes are still goopy" and whatnot. I was wondering if this could be the case?

I mean, I know dogs go deaf, but this did not appear to be over time, it just seemed like within a week period he went from hearing me anywhere in the house to not hearing someone knock at the door while he's sitting right next to it.

 

[bubbatd]

Some come on very quickly.... that's why I start early on with hand signals as well as speech. I've tested Chip ( though his hearing is fine ) and he'll be fine if/when he goes deaf.