Bailey's FCE (spinal stroke) - One month

[Annie]

One month ago today, our very athletic, young dog Bailey had an FCE. It has been one of the most difficult and heart wrenching months of our lives. And I don’t know if we could have done it without all of you. Although I never started my own thread, and did not write to anyone at first, just reading all of your stories gave me hope and truly helped me to stay strong. We no longer felt so alone. Bailey is such a loving little girl and has such a strong spirit. Her condition today, compared to when we first brought home is, we think incredible. She was completely paralyzed in both rear legs. She had no tone to her legs and had suffered lower neuron damage. She was completely incontinent. The vet said we would have to express her. That we thought was bad enough, however, to our dismay, urine would just pour out of her when we would pick her up. She also developed colitis from the steroids. The only positive note was that she had deep pain sensation but the vet was guarded in her prognosis. We have been doing exercises, massage, nursing care, playing with her, and mostly giving her tons of love! I am SO VERY HAPPY to say that she now gets up, stands, walks on her own, and even “wags” her tail! She “runs” and plays! She does wobble and fall down and it is not really a wag, more like a swing but we’ll take it! She is completely continent and can sometimes roll all the way over. Her caboose or trunk (as we sometimes call it) sometimes gets ahead of her but it doesn’t stop her. I have been charting her progress and it is amazing to see how far she has come in relearning how to do everything that we all took for granted. She still has limited sphincter control and can not use steps so we are still hoping for more progress. She misses not being able to jump on the bed or to have complete freedom around the house (we use baby gates to protect her from the stairs). However, if this is as much as she gets back we are just so grateful for what she can do and to have her in our lives. We love her so much as she is part of our family. When this first happened to her we had never heard of an FCE or spinal stroke. I would do anything for her, but we really had no idea if she would ever get better or have a good quality of life. But all of you have truly had a huge impact on our success and us. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and admire you all for the love and care you give to your pets and the hope and inspiration you share. And a giant thanks to Mark who has created this wonderful site of support and information. Tracy and Kaeley and Patti and Bella: we hope you are all doing well. Bailey, Bob and I wish all the very best for all of you and your beloved pets. And I would be more than happy to help anyone in any way I can. (and p.s. Sorry for such a long message.)

[Debbie-Spain]

Annie, it sounds as though Bailey is doing great! I think that if all that has been achieved in one month you will continue to see some improvement still!

It seems you are doing all the right things. You may want to give acupunture a try if you have a veterinary acupuncturist in your area, I know a dog that is 8 months post FCE and is trying it and they are surprised to be seeing improvements.

Please try and come back and visit whenever you can, it is so helpful when somebody finds themselves in the situation you were in a month ago and suddenly finds other people who have been there and who understand!

I hope Bailey keeps on improving! By the way, the other day I saw some interesting and well-designed ramps for animals that want to get up on the bed! Let me know if you're interested and I'll search out the link.

Debbie

[critters]

Sounds really good! There are several ramp companies; I'll look later (maybe tomorrow) and see if I can find some, too,

[Annie]

Thanks Debbie for your reassurance and encouragement! When we love our pets we want to know that we are doing the best for them. I have heard of accupuncture for pets. I don't know if there are any in the area but I will keep researching our resources. And if you can find that info about the bed ramps, that would be wonderful!!! Bailey so misses not being able to jump up on the bed whether she is relaxing or up higher with her "big" people. (I will not be able to check back until Monday.) I will definitely come back often. Absolutely, I agree, it is so helpful to know that you are not alone!
Thanks!
Anne

[Tracy]

Hey Annie, and hello to Bailey Too. Congratulations on your progress. It was great to hear how well Bailey is doing. Keep up the great work. Kaeley is doing good so far. I had to have surgery, so the progress has been slow due to me not being able to lift her and get her into the wheelchair we got for her. But Oh Boy when she does get into that chair it's all out. She has run over every one of her brothers and flipped herself a couple of times. But we right her and off she goes again. We have been hooking her up to a stim machine,(perks of working at a Dr's office), and she is responding slowly. She has much better feeling in her left leg that she does in her right. We had a bad problem with a bladder infection. We thought that we were expressing her bladder completely because she would stop urinating as we were expressing her, and we would stop, not realizing that she was not actually empty. This caused a major bladder infection, and we had to spend a few days in the hospital. Luckily the vet on duty at the emergency clinic is a rehab vet, and was VERY encouraging. we discovered that no one expected us to actually keep trying with her because she is such a large dog, and so hard to handle, and was so severly debilitated. But things are coming along slowly. TIME TIME TIME. Thats what it is going to take. We alsogot her a blow up pool so she could exercise. The front works great, but the back just drags along. When we put her in her chair tho she moves both back legs as she travels, and can stand for short periods of time without the chair as long as we balance her. So patience is the key I guess. Anyway, let me know how Baily is progressing, and keep doing what ever you are doing. My prayers and love to Bailey.