Hello all.
I am new to this group. I recently adopted a small terrier approx. 1 yr. old that was hit by a car and lost use of her back legs. A neurologist didn't give me much hope that she would walk again. However, I refused to give up on her and have been taking her for weekly laser acupuncture treatments and doing water therapy at home and lots of love of course! She had made significant advances in that she now has strength to stand with some help with balance and recently started trying to stand up on her own outside in the grass. When I first got her, she had absolutely no ability to do any of these things. Her legs were limp as wet noodles. Now she moves them, stiffens them, etc. Her feet still turn under though. It has been 4 months since her accident. No back surgery was done (they said it wasn't an option) but the break fused back together. No MRI was done to confirm that the cord was severed.
I'd like to hear from anyone with similar situations and most importantly, if anyone has had success with their pets regaining use of their back legs.
Thank you!
Priscilla
Dogs: back leg paralysis
-
laura
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
hi my dog sort of had a stroke well a piece of cartlidge went in to his spine and blocked the blood flow to his legs. (cant remember the name of happened to him sorry) the vet gave us a 1% chance of him gaining back the use of one leg and 90% of the other, we got one leg working properly and the other has about 60-70% use which we r stoked about considering we were practacly told it would not work again. it has taken a long time to get it to were he can move it tofair bit but he still has no feelings in his foot and toes so he drags it. we take him to laser therapy and do exercise on his legs every night so it does not seize up, lazer therapy was one of the best things we ever done. so all i can say is dont give up no matter what every one tell (exspecialy the vet) sorry hope this makes sense
laura
p.s please tell me of anythink else that u have done that has helped ur dog
laura
p.s please tell me of anythink else that u have done that has helped ur dog
-
kate
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
just read your message our dog is suffering back leg paralysis . the vet says if shes not walking in 3 weeks he wants to put her to sleep over the last 3 weeks since her op she has learnt to stand again but appears to have no feeling in her lower legs and toes.any ideas please we are desperate she is only 4 years old and otherwise in ggod health.
-
Rene
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
Please don't loose hope! On Sept. 27 my dog instantly became paralyzed while out in our backyard. I rushed her to a vet. 600.00 later, they sent her home with supposingly an embolism in her spine. They said perhaps surgery would help maybe... maybe not. Well, I took her to a woman who does muscle testing and she came up with fire ant poisoning. WE are detoxing her with a kidney flush. I went ahead and had a wheel chair made for her so she can get out of the house and walk. Being a 60 lbser I can't run behind her holding up her legs! I also contacted an animal communicator
www. mysticalheaven.com. The most interesting thing was that she told me about the fire ants and that my dog was allergic to them. I have been giving her benedryl! She is starting to put pressure on one of her back legs. We go to the beach daily and swim so that she can work out her back legs. I have noticed her making more progress each day! What ever you do... don't give up hope!
www. mysticalheaven.com. The most interesting thing was that she told me about the fire ants and that my dog was allergic to them. I have been giving her benedryl! She is starting to put pressure on one of her back legs. We go to the beach daily and swim so that she can work out her back legs. I have noticed her making more progress each day! What ever you do... don't give up hope!
Whoa! No Way!!!!
Don't you DARE let that vet put your dog to sleep. In the first place, a dog can have a perfectly happy life without being able to walk. In the second place, it can easily take longer than 6 weeks for the spine to heal, nerve injuries take longer to heal than broken bones. And in the third place, IF SHE CAN STAND UP ALREADY SHE IS HEALING REALLY-REALLY WELL!!! Don't listen to him, don't listen to him, don't listen to him.
When my dog was 6 weeks post-surgery for a spinal fracture, I was just glad she could turn herself over in her bed without help. It took her MONTHS to stand up. It took her even longer than that to walk. But she ***is*** walking. Do you know how many people on this message board would have jumped for joy to see their dog standing up 3 weeks after surgery??? The very idea of putting her down!
As I always say, your dog will heal on HER schedule and not your vet's or anyone else's. Your job is to give her time. If your vet keeps up like this, Get Another Vet.
Aaaarrrgghhh!!!!!!!!!!
Interpreting deep pain response is a very subjective thing. I really can't tell whether my dog has deep pain response or not, if you ask me it seems like she doesn't, but she can walk.
Earlier today I posted a list of exercises for someone to do with their dog who had a spinal injury. (That dog is paralyzed on one side.) Here is a copy:
* * * * *
While your dog is lying down, stimulate her feet on the affected side. This is for proprioception, the ability to feel her own feet and know where they are in space. Massage her feet, rub the paws, dig your fingers in between the pads and see if she'll kick, tickle them. Her body needs to remap the pathway from her brain to her toes, and the more you stimulate her feet the more you give it to work with. So as often as you can during the day, whenever you walk by her bed, just give her feet a little rub. I did This Little Piggy with my dog and she thought it was funny.
Also, do passive range of motion exercises on both legs. Gently bicycle each leg through its full range of motion, do a number of reps on each leg, do it twice a day. This increases circulation and perserves the flexibility in the joints. You don't know how soon she will be able to walk again, a few days, a few weeks, or longer, and it would be a shame if her joints had frozen up through non-use by the time her nerves were ready.
You can also try resistance exercise. While she is lying down, press up on the pads of her affected feet and see if she will resist or push back. It is very exciting when this happens.
Weightbearing exercise is also good, but you will need the harness. Help her stand on her four feet and let her feel her left feet on the ground and see if she will support a little of her weight. My dog's physical therapist had a Yorkie who had a stroke and lost use of 2 legs. The ability in one leg came back first so she taught the dog to walk on 3 legs, then eventually the 4th leg came back as well.
The last exercise is the funnest. I call it Scratch All Over. You get down with your dog and start scratching her neck, side, ears, etc., and see if you can find a really itchy spot so she will kick in reflex with either of her affected legs. Even if she doesn't kick, she will like this exercise.
* * * * *
There may be a pet physical therapy facility in your area, depending on where you live. They often offer either swimming or an underwater treadmill, which are good for letting the dog exercise without bearing full weight.
1) Is your dog still on crate rest and steroids?
2) How is her bladder control?
3) What was the surgery for, was it a disk problem?
4) What kind of dog is she?
There are people on this message board with different kinds of dogs in different stages of recovery from spinal problems. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask--someone will probably have experience with it!
When my dog was 6 weeks post-surgery for a spinal fracture, I was just glad she could turn herself over in her bed without help. It took her MONTHS to stand up. It took her even longer than that to walk. But she ***is*** walking. Do you know how many people on this message board would have jumped for joy to see their dog standing up 3 weeks after surgery??? The very idea of putting her down!
As I always say, your dog will heal on HER schedule and not your vet's or anyone else's. Your job is to give her time. If your vet keeps up like this, Get Another Vet.
Aaaarrrgghhh!!!!!!!!!!
Interpreting deep pain response is a very subjective thing. I really can't tell whether my dog has deep pain response or not, if you ask me it seems like she doesn't, but she can walk.
Earlier today I posted a list of exercises for someone to do with their dog who had a spinal injury. (That dog is paralyzed on one side.) Here is a copy:
* * * * *
While your dog is lying down, stimulate her feet on the affected side. This is for proprioception, the ability to feel her own feet and know where they are in space. Massage her feet, rub the paws, dig your fingers in between the pads and see if she'll kick, tickle them. Her body needs to remap the pathway from her brain to her toes, and the more you stimulate her feet the more you give it to work with. So as often as you can during the day, whenever you walk by her bed, just give her feet a little rub. I did This Little Piggy with my dog and she thought it was funny.
Also, do passive range of motion exercises on both legs. Gently bicycle each leg through its full range of motion, do a number of reps on each leg, do it twice a day. This increases circulation and perserves the flexibility in the joints. You don't know how soon she will be able to walk again, a few days, a few weeks, or longer, and it would be a shame if her joints had frozen up through non-use by the time her nerves were ready.
You can also try resistance exercise. While she is lying down, press up on the pads of her affected feet and see if she will resist or push back. It is very exciting when this happens.
Weightbearing exercise is also good, but you will need the harness. Help her stand on her four feet and let her feel her left feet on the ground and see if she will support a little of her weight. My dog's physical therapist had a Yorkie who had a stroke and lost use of 2 legs. The ability in one leg came back first so she taught the dog to walk on 3 legs, then eventually the 4th leg came back as well.
The last exercise is the funnest. I call it Scratch All Over. You get down with your dog and start scratching her neck, side, ears, etc., and see if you can find a really itchy spot so she will kick in reflex with either of her affected legs. Even if she doesn't kick, she will like this exercise.
* * * * *
There may be a pet physical therapy facility in your area, depending on where you live. They often offer either swimming or an underwater treadmill, which are good for letting the dog exercise without bearing full weight.
1) Is your dog still on crate rest and steroids?
2) How is her bladder control?
3) What was the surgery for, was it a disk problem?
4) What kind of dog is she?
There are people on this message board with different kinds of dogs in different stages of recovery from spinal problems. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask--someone will probably have experience with it!
OH, Kate...
Oh dear Kate,
You are UNfortunately another one among us who has discovered an IMPATIENT vet. It happens fairly often. They are the kind that think that YOU are suffering and want to help you get started with a NEW pet that is just PERFECT. Got the picture?
You seem like an independent thinker, right? Well, then, listen to the voices of experience from CarolC and others who will tell you that this is an injury that will take a BIT of TIME to heal. Do you have time? Is there any rush to end his life in THREE WEEKS, or would you feel like you would forever miss him?
I would cry the day my dog stood. He has been paralyzed since an IVDD injury in February. It was joy just to see his tail wag. AND YOUR dog is already standing! Your dog IS ALREADY starting to recover.
PLEASE, do NOT return to the vet who wants to destroy your dog. THERE is HOPE that your pup will recover.
Want to try it our way?
I know how stressful this injury has been to you. Get your rest, and try to think clearly.
Dianne
You are UNfortunately another one among us who has discovered an IMPATIENT vet. It happens fairly often. They are the kind that think that YOU are suffering and want to help you get started with a NEW pet that is just PERFECT. Got the picture?
You seem like an independent thinker, right? Well, then, listen to the voices of experience from CarolC and others who will tell you that this is an injury that will take a BIT of TIME to heal. Do you have time? Is there any rush to end his life in THREE WEEKS, or would you feel like you would forever miss him?
I would cry the day my dog stood. He has been paralyzed since an IVDD injury in February. It was joy just to see his tail wag. AND YOUR dog is already standing! Your dog IS ALREADY starting to recover.
PLEASE, do NOT return to the vet who wants to destroy your dog. THERE is HOPE that your pup will recover.
Want to try it our way?
I know how stressful this injury has been to you. Get your rest, and try to think clearly.
Dianne
-
GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily
- Posts: 5011
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: St. Helena Island, SC
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
Kate, I agree with all of the foregoing, prior to finding this board, had I been in your position, I would have believed my vet when he said Allix would have to be put to sleep (she was shot in the spine and paralized from that point back) He would not operate to take the 22cal. out. So I found another vet who agreed to operate and treat more aggressively. Unfortunatelly, he told me to leave her at the first hospital overnight and he would operate in the a.m. A fatal flaw. She asphyxiated on her feces on her way to the other hospital, in another town, the next day. A horrible way to die, and the vet who had her cathed her but never emptied her bowels.
So always look for another. For your pup and your own sakes.
Don't accept what a small town doc recommends. Like humans, new med procedures come up all the time in veterinary medicine and human treatments are now being extended into the animal kingdom.
So always look for another. For your pup and your own sakes.
Don't accept what a small town doc recommends. Like humans, new med procedures come up all the time in veterinary medicine and human treatments are now being extended into the animal kingdom.
How much does she weigh?
Hi Priscilla,
My dog had a similar injury, her spine was fractured and the back part tried to leapfrog up over the front part pinching the spinal cord in between. The spinal cord itself was not transected but she was like that for hours so there was a lot of swelling and the blood supply was cut off. She had surgery to set the fracture but I was told she would most likely never walk again and I should get a wheelchair. To this day she is incontinent and I express her bladder and bowel, but she learned to walk again. She has great fun chasing after smells with her nose to the ground when we go for walks. She also likes to run after bigger dogs so I have to catch her! She can go fast enough to make me have to trot to keep up with her (she weighs 7 lbs). She jumps off curbs like they aren't there. She cannot go up steps yet, though.
Her accident was 2 years ago. We did home PT with her for 5 months, then she started going to PT at a rehab place where they have an underwater treadmill. She began to walk a few feet outdoors after about 9 months and progressed from there. If your dog is standing, that's great! Mine could not stand at 4 months. I put a list of exercises we did in a reply to Kate right below this. Are you doing any exercises with her? If your dog is small enough I have another one for you. How much does she weigh? I would also like to give you info on hydrotherapy if she isn't too big. If she has bladder control that would indicate that her injury is not as serious as it could have been--she's lucky and you have every reason to hope for further recovery.
My dog had a similar injury, her spine was fractured and the back part tried to leapfrog up over the front part pinching the spinal cord in between. The spinal cord itself was not transected but she was like that for hours so there was a lot of swelling and the blood supply was cut off. She had surgery to set the fracture but I was told she would most likely never walk again and I should get a wheelchair. To this day she is incontinent and I express her bladder and bowel, but she learned to walk again. She has great fun chasing after smells with her nose to the ground when we go for walks. She also likes to run after bigger dogs so I have to catch her! She can go fast enough to make me have to trot to keep up with her (she weighs 7 lbs). She jumps off curbs like they aren't there. She cannot go up steps yet, though.
Her accident was 2 years ago. We did home PT with her for 5 months, then she started going to PT at a rehab place where they have an underwater treadmill. She began to walk a few feet outdoors after about 9 months and progressed from there. If your dog is standing, that's great! Mine could not stand at 4 months. I put a list of exercises we did in a reply to Kate right below this. Are you doing any exercises with her? If your dog is small enough I have another one for you. How much does she weigh? I would also like to give you info on hydrotherapy if she isn't too big. If she has bladder control that would indicate that her injury is not as serious as it could have been--she's lucky and you have every reason to hope for further recovery.
-
laura
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
our dog still has no feeling in his lower leg and foot but he is walking he just drags his foot, dont listen to ur vet ours said preety much the same thing , he even told us we probably now more about his condition then he does(because as soon as we found out we reseached it) we never gave up hope on zai even when so many people told us to take his leg off or put him down. we found that lazer therapy helped him alot befor we took him to treatments he could not even pick his leg up and now after 10 wekks of lazer therapy he is just starting to lift his leg to wee we are so happy considering the vet gave us a one percent chance to ever us that leg again. so never give up
-
cindy
Re: Whoa! No Way!!!!
Another good exercise to add to yours is while the dog is standing, gently push down on the hips so that she springs a little and pushes back. Most dogs will do this if they can stand at all, and it certainly helps with the muscles.
-
Priscilla
back leg paralysis
TO CAROL C.
Carol, I would very much like to speak with you on the phone about my dog. Your info has been so helpful and I'd like to speak with you further.
If you are agreable, please email me your phone number: pgargalis@yahoo.com
THANK YOU!
Priscilla
Carol, I would very much like to speak with you on the phone about my dog. Your info has been so helpful and I'd like to speak with you further.
If you are agreable, please email me your phone number: pgargalis@yahoo.com
THANK YOU!
Priscilla
-
sunny
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
I am fairly new to this support group. I have an 8 year old scottish terrier mix who was diagnosed with IDD which was confirmed on x ray.He was unable to walk because his hind legs are partially paralysed He was on "cage rest" for about three weeks along with medicine. The doctor said he was seeing much improvement and said that we could let him out of the cage gradually. So we did, and he was doing wonderful. He would walk pretty well considering he would only drag his hind legs in the beginning. He would slide around a little bit on the kitchen floor but for the most part he was walking alot better. About two weeks later we noticed he was starting to drag his hind legs again. The doctor told us he had relapsed and we needied to put him on strict cage rest again!It really broke my heart I really thought he was going to get better.The vet says he can still get better it is just going to take alot of time, rest, physical therapy and love!! Good luck to you!!
Re: back leg paralysis
Emailing you now.
Re: OH, Kate...
DEAR kATE,
I HAVE A DACHOUND WHO IS PARALIZED AND ONE VET WANTED ME TO PUT HJIM DOWN,SO i WENT TO ANOTHER VET FOR A SECOND OPION AND HE SAID AS LONG AS HE IS HAPPKY AND EATING AND DRINKING IT ISSN'T TIME YET. hANG IN THERE.
marilyn
I HAVE A DACHOUND WHO IS PARALIZED AND ONE VET WANTED ME TO PUT HJIM DOWN,SO i WENT TO ANOTHER VET FOR A SECOND OPION AND HE SAID AS LONG AS HE IS HAPPKY AND EATING AND DRINKING IT ISSN'T TIME YET. hANG IN THERE.
marilyn
-
Ann
Re: Dogs: back leg paralysis
My dog was hit by a car a year ago and has lost the use of her back legs. The damage was to nerve roots (x-rays & myelogram showed no spinal injury) and she seems to have weak reflexes at all points. But the vet thinks she has no hope of weight-bearing because of damage to her femoral nerve. She has had 2x weekly swim therapy & e-stim but no acupuncture. She also has regained continence but has to work pretty hard at eliminating. And she gets around great in a cart from Eddie's Wheels. Does anyone have ideas for further recovery for her? Or suggestions of vet acupuncturists in the Washington, DC area?