We adopted a little pit girl who was almost beaten to death when she was only 4 months old. She is a year now and has terrible deficits from brain damage. She is impulsive, angers easily and calms down quickly, she has balance and coordination problems and falls a lot, she has trouble controlling her temperature and gets cold very easily making it necessary to wear a shirt all the time.
She is not on any medications and I'm beginning to wonder if she shouldn't be. Most head injury people are on meds to help control their symptoms. Her aggression is a problem and she starts fights which is a problem for her because her jaw is sealed almost shut from the trauma and she is getting hurt because she can't really defend herself. So far it's only scrapes but she's ticking the other dogs off and some day it could be more than that.
So I'm wondering if anyone else has a dog with traumatic brain injury and how you are handling it.
Peace,
Jane and the Hole in the Wall Gang
Help Needed: Does Anyone Else Have a Dog With a Severe Head
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GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily
- Posts: 5011
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: St. Helena Island, SC
JANE! Hi!
I'm going to search... hang on!
Re: JANE! Hi!
Hi Jane!
I'm sure you'll get tons of great advice on this site. I don't have any expertise in this area, but I wanted to say I admire the heck out of you for adopting this poor little girl. Good luck with her. It seems that there certainly should be some sort of meds that would help her.
I'm sure you'll get tons of great advice on this site. I don't have any expertise in this area, but I wanted to say I admire the heck out of you for adopting this poor little girl. Good luck with her. It seems that there certainly should be some sort of meds that would help her.
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Jane Walbridge
Re: JANE! Hi! *LINK*
Hi Karen,
Apparently brain injury and dogs aren't heavily posted subjects on the net. I could find very little. Poor Gloria was supposed to be a rescue but we found her foster mom fibbed about how impaired she is. She drools constantly, gets over excited and slings gobs of it everywhere, throws her head around wildly and can grab your fingers and chomp down, all in the name of loving you utterly. Not exactly a safe dog to send home with someone...
We adore her and can manage her. Thank God she's only 35 pounds. We get nipped on a regular basis and our furniture is getting stiff with drool Ick! But she adores us and is the sweetest dog, she just has no impulse control at all.
We have a brain damaged Lab/shepherd who is on Clomacalm and Xanax for hyperactivity and obsessive compulsive disorder. I can't help thinking some Xanax might do Gloria a world of good. She needs to go to the vet but we've had so many sick dogs that the healthy ones who need a checkup are getting left out. She will get there eventually. Mean while I'm trying to find resources for her.
Here is a picture of her playing gently with Harley the 5 week old pit boy we just took in as a rescue. She is so gentle with him and his sister Lola. I've also included a link to a web page with more pictures of her. You can see how damaged her poor face is. We had thought about fixing her jaw but she starts fights too often and it would be dangerous to allow her to open her mouth normally.
Thanks for the replies!
Gloria's picture page
Apparently brain injury and dogs aren't heavily posted subjects on the net. I could find very little. Poor Gloria was supposed to be a rescue but we found her foster mom fibbed about how impaired she is. She drools constantly, gets over excited and slings gobs of it everywhere, throws her head around wildly and can grab your fingers and chomp down, all in the name of loving you utterly. Not exactly a safe dog to send home with someone...
We adore her and can manage her. Thank God she's only 35 pounds. We get nipped on a regular basis and our furniture is getting stiff with drool Ick! But she adores us and is the sweetest dog, she just has no impulse control at all.
We have a brain damaged Lab/shepherd who is on Clomacalm and Xanax for hyperactivity and obsessive compulsive disorder. I can't help thinking some Xanax might do Gloria a world of good. She needs to go to the vet but we've had so many sick dogs that the healthy ones who need a checkup are getting left out. She will get there eventually. Mean while I'm trying to find resources for her.
Here is a picture of her playing gently with Harley the 5 week old pit boy we just took in as a rescue. She is so gentle with him and his sister Lola. I've also included a link to a web page with more pictures of her. You can see how damaged her poor face is. We had thought about fixing her jaw but she starts fights too often and it would be dangerous to allow her to open her mouth normally.
Thanks for the replies!
Gloria's picture page
Re: JANE! Hi! *LINK*
The pic didn't show up! Want to try again? I don't have much time to search just now, but did find one link that might be helpful.
Meds for behavioral control
Meds for behavioral control
What a cutie!
Hi again, Jane!
I just looked at Gloria's pic! What a sweetie! He little distorted face makes her look like she's doing a sort of half grin! Her markings are intriquing, too! I read that she gets cold easily, and at first I thought you had her covered with an animal print robe! Her front and back halves don't match!! Bless her heart.
I just looked at Gloria's pic! What a sweetie! He little distorted face makes her look like she's doing a sort of half grin! Her markings are intriquing, too! I read that she gets cold easily, and at first I thought you had her covered with an animal print robe! Her front and back halves don't match!! Bless her heart.
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Cody's Mom
- Posts: 268
- Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:00 pm
Re: Help Needed: Does Anyone Else Have a Dog With a Severe H
Hi Jane,
Sorry to hear about your dog's problems. What is the exact injury to the brain? Head trauma can mean a lot of different things.
If you are serious about keeping this dog, you really need to get her to a neurologist SOON. The problems sound serious, especially with her having trouble regulating her temperature. Not only the problems for her, but she sounds severely impaired and with the aggression, she could become dangerous. I don't mean to be blunt, but if you want to keep her, she needs to have an MRI done ASAP. You have got to know what you are dealing with. It honestly may not be fair to her if she has no chance of improvement. This is a very serious situation and not to be taken lightly.
I know this is probably not what you want to hear, but it is true. Trust me - neurologically impaired dogs are a real challenge and I agree they should be given a chance. However, if they are dangerous to everyone else and miserable themselves, you must consider if it is right to go on. I was taking care of two neurologically impaired dogs at one time - my Mom's dog had multiple strokes and I finally had to euthanize it because it couldn't walk anymore and could not eat or swallow either. He was diagnosed by an MRI. Then my dog had brain cancer. He was diagnosed by a CT scan. He was a real challenge. I eventually had to put him to sleep due to status epilepticus.
Many neurological problems will cause progressive deterioration. That is why an exact diagnosis is so important so you know what you are dealing with. I realize that an MRI or cat scan is expensive, but you must be prepared to spend lots of money with a dog so young with such a severe head injury. If you aren't able to, then this is not the dog for you.
If your dog hasn't been diagnosed with an MRI, I think that is in order. You really need a prognosis to determine if this kind of life is really fair to the dog.
I hope I have not been too blunt. I don't mean to be, but I am not certain you realize the severity of this situation.
Much love and my best wishes for you and your pup,
Cody's forever proud Mom
Sorry to hear about your dog's problems. What is the exact injury to the brain? Head trauma can mean a lot of different things.
If you are serious about keeping this dog, you really need to get her to a neurologist SOON. The problems sound serious, especially with her having trouble regulating her temperature. Not only the problems for her, but she sounds severely impaired and with the aggression, she could become dangerous. I don't mean to be blunt, but if you want to keep her, she needs to have an MRI done ASAP. You have got to know what you are dealing with. It honestly may not be fair to her if she has no chance of improvement. This is a very serious situation and not to be taken lightly.
I know this is probably not what you want to hear, but it is true. Trust me - neurologically impaired dogs are a real challenge and I agree they should be given a chance. However, if they are dangerous to everyone else and miserable themselves, you must consider if it is right to go on. I was taking care of two neurologically impaired dogs at one time - my Mom's dog had multiple strokes and I finally had to euthanize it because it couldn't walk anymore and could not eat or swallow either. He was diagnosed by an MRI. Then my dog had brain cancer. He was diagnosed by a CT scan. He was a real challenge. I eventually had to put him to sleep due to status epilepticus.
Many neurological problems will cause progressive deterioration. That is why an exact diagnosis is so important so you know what you are dealing with. I realize that an MRI or cat scan is expensive, but you must be prepared to spend lots of money with a dog so young with such a severe head injury. If you aren't able to, then this is not the dog for you.
If your dog hasn't been diagnosed with an MRI, I think that is in order. You really need a prognosis to determine if this kind of life is really fair to the dog.
I hope I have not been too blunt. I don't mean to be, but I am not certain you realize the severity of this situation.
Much love and my best wishes for you and your pup,
Cody's forever proud Mom
Re: JANE! Hi!
Critters also take Prozac and other "human" meds; I'd definitely consider some drug trials for Gloria. You never know, but it might make a world of difference for her!
Beth (Weeble's Mom) may be by soon
unprovoked aggression can be a sign of partial epileptic seizures in dogs.
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/CanineEpil.htm
Here is a message from Debbie_Spain about her brain damaged dog Betty:
http://www.handicappedpets.com/cgi-bin/msg/webbbs_config.pl?read=11968
I agree about the risk to her, by normal dog picks fights and she has been injured in the past--see the row of stitches on her shoulders from being shaken:
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/CanineEpil.htm
Here is a message from Debbie_Spain about her brain damaged dog Betty:
http://www.handicappedpets.com/cgi-bin/msg/webbbs_config.pl?read=11968
I agree about the risk to her, by normal dog picks fights and she has been injured in the past--see the row of stitches on her shoulders from being shaken:
Re: Help Needed: Does Anyone Else Have a Dog With a Severe H
Hi Cody’s Mom.
Nope you aren’t too blunt and I do know where you are coming from. Let me clarify some things. This injury is almost a year old. Unfortunately we are way past the time when intervention would have helped and I think she got all that she could get last June when she was rescued by a knowledgeable woman with money.
Her injury is global, meaning that it affects all the areas of the brain. When she was beaten her brain slammed around and suffered from the blow itself, contra-coup injury on the other side of the skull as well as shear damage as it twisted around from the blows. I have had several advanced classes in brain function and traumatic brain injury so I’m familiar with the damage. She’s almost textbook in many of her disabilities from it.
She has frontal lobe injury as she is very impulsive at times and acts before thinking. It also causes her to be emotionally labile and to fixate on things at times. But it is not serious enough to have impaired her intelligence or ability to reason things out. Just behind the frontal lobe is the limbic system that controls emotions. The instant on and off anger comes from an injury here. She lucked out with the blows to the left side of her head and her memory is not impaired, in fact it is excellent. She has no problems with language, either ours or canine, but she does not always react correctly to touch and can twist the wrong way. The right side was affected as her spatial perception is off sometimes way off. If you change how something looks as in laying a towel on a chair she has trouble identifying it. The damage to the back of her head affected her vision and she does not not see the same out of both eyes. Lower down in the back the injury to her cerebellum affected her fine motor skills and her balance.
The beating crushed her jaw on the left side and she can only open her mouth about 3/4th of an inch and she has to twist her head to do this, so she has to be pretty lucky to actually bite anyone. She’s also so off balance and her vision so screwed up that she attacked me once when we first got her and she was at least 3’ off. It made me cry instead of scaring me. She is little, only 35 pounds and a tug can tumble her over so she is not in any way dangerous. She also gets mad in a blink and then is fine. Stuff a toy in her mouth and she forgets she’s ticked. The other dogs realize this and don’t let her bother them.
Injuries are different than what you dealt with. Chances are she will be stable for some time. She may experience seizures as she ages, or she may actually improve a bit. The first thing we did was contact Cindy Wenger an excellent animal communicator who picked up on Gloria’s injuries immediately. She told us that the left eye does see, but not well and that sometimes confuses her. She has some pain in her neck and we are looking for a chiropractor to treat that. But she said what bothers Gloria the most is that people and dogs treat her differently and that makes her sad.
She drools all the time, she runs like a windmill and she is sometimes sexually inappropriate, all things that put people and other dogs off. I wish I could change those things but I can’t. She says she is happy and likes living with us. I believe it because she greets each day with such joy. She bolts out of her crate for the door and rips out into the yard, legs churning wildly as she banks a turn to come back. She hurls herself at me and grunts as she forces her tongue out to give me drooly kisses. She plays with the hound pit pups we have who are her size and her best bud is out little Shih tzu/schnauzer pup who is a whole 7 pounds. She also adores the little 6 week old pit pups and is very gentle with them.
She hates Kira, our old rescue husky who hates her back. They usually just bark at each other but they got into a real fight yesterday. Both of them got in a good nip and now they are avoiding each other like the plague. I think both needed to know that the other could bite. In short she’s acting like any other dog we have here except that she’s special.
Her condition is stable, but there is little written on TBI in dogs so I was looking for resources. I wanted to have some time to observe her before considering drug therapy as it can sometimes make head injury victims worse.
Is it fair to the dog to let her live like this? I don’t think she’d want to die. I don’t think that she should have been saved, but she was and here she is. She appears as happy as any of the other dogs. She gets attention, fussed at, treats and does not seem to suffer from depression. At the moment she is laying by the door hoping we will screw up and let Nikki in. Nikki is a Lab/shepherd who is brain damaged from starvation when she was a tiny pup. She and Gloria got into a fight months ago and Gloria has never forgiven her. She wants to get Nikki, but she’s dealing with a dog with the agility of a gazelle who isn’t interested in fighting, so her hopes are in vain.
Thanks for your honest opinion. If she had a disease process I would agree that she needs an MRI. It would only give us a better look at what we already know and not be any real help as they can’t fix what is broken in there.
Peace,
Jane and the Hole in the Wall Gang
Nope you aren’t too blunt and I do know where you are coming from. Let me clarify some things. This injury is almost a year old. Unfortunately we are way past the time when intervention would have helped and I think she got all that she could get last June when she was rescued by a knowledgeable woman with money.
Her injury is global, meaning that it affects all the areas of the brain. When she was beaten her brain slammed around and suffered from the blow itself, contra-coup injury on the other side of the skull as well as shear damage as it twisted around from the blows. I have had several advanced classes in brain function and traumatic brain injury so I’m familiar with the damage. She’s almost textbook in many of her disabilities from it.
She has frontal lobe injury as she is very impulsive at times and acts before thinking. It also causes her to be emotionally labile and to fixate on things at times. But it is not serious enough to have impaired her intelligence or ability to reason things out. Just behind the frontal lobe is the limbic system that controls emotions. The instant on and off anger comes from an injury here. She lucked out with the blows to the left side of her head and her memory is not impaired, in fact it is excellent. She has no problems with language, either ours or canine, but she does not always react correctly to touch and can twist the wrong way. The right side was affected as her spatial perception is off sometimes way off. If you change how something looks as in laying a towel on a chair she has trouble identifying it. The damage to the back of her head affected her vision and she does not not see the same out of both eyes. Lower down in the back the injury to her cerebellum affected her fine motor skills and her balance.
The beating crushed her jaw on the left side and she can only open her mouth about 3/4th of an inch and she has to twist her head to do this, so she has to be pretty lucky to actually bite anyone. She’s also so off balance and her vision so screwed up that she attacked me once when we first got her and she was at least 3’ off. It made me cry instead of scaring me. She is little, only 35 pounds and a tug can tumble her over so she is not in any way dangerous. She also gets mad in a blink and then is fine. Stuff a toy in her mouth and she forgets she’s ticked. The other dogs realize this and don’t let her bother them.
Injuries are different than what you dealt with. Chances are she will be stable for some time. She may experience seizures as she ages, or she may actually improve a bit. The first thing we did was contact Cindy Wenger an excellent animal communicator who picked up on Gloria’s injuries immediately. She told us that the left eye does see, but not well and that sometimes confuses her. She has some pain in her neck and we are looking for a chiropractor to treat that. But she said what bothers Gloria the most is that people and dogs treat her differently and that makes her sad.
She drools all the time, she runs like a windmill and she is sometimes sexually inappropriate, all things that put people and other dogs off. I wish I could change those things but I can’t. She says she is happy and likes living with us. I believe it because she greets each day with such joy. She bolts out of her crate for the door and rips out into the yard, legs churning wildly as she banks a turn to come back. She hurls herself at me and grunts as she forces her tongue out to give me drooly kisses. She plays with the hound pit pups we have who are her size and her best bud is out little Shih tzu/schnauzer pup who is a whole 7 pounds. She also adores the little 6 week old pit pups and is very gentle with them.
She hates Kira, our old rescue husky who hates her back. They usually just bark at each other but they got into a real fight yesterday. Both of them got in a good nip and now they are avoiding each other like the plague. I think both needed to know that the other could bite. In short she’s acting like any other dog we have here except that she’s special.
Her condition is stable, but there is little written on TBI in dogs so I was looking for resources. I wanted to have some time to observe her before considering drug therapy as it can sometimes make head injury victims worse.
Is it fair to the dog to let her live like this? I don’t think she’d want to die. I don’t think that she should have been saved, but she was and here she is. She appears as happy as any of the other dogs. She gets attention, fussed at, treats and does not seem to suffer from depression. At the moment she is laying by the door hoping we will screw up and let Nikki in. Nikki is a Lab/shepherd who is brain damaged from starvation when she was a tiny pup. She and Gloria got into a fight months ago and Gloria has never forgiven her. She wants to get Nikki, but she’s dealing with a dog with the agility of a gazelle who isn’t interested in fighting, so her hopes are in vain.
Thanks for your honest opinion. If she had a disease process I would agree that she needs an MRI. It would only give us a better look at what we already know and not be any real help as they can’t fix what is broken in there.
Peace,
Jane and the Hole in the Wall Gang
Re: Help Needed: Does Anyone Else Have a Dog With a Severe H
All I can say to that is she's a very lucky little girl to have a home with you! Bless her heart, and bless you for having such a big and generous heart!!!
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Weeble's :o~ mom Beth
- Posts: 336
- Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 1:48 am
- Location: Los Lunas, New Mexico
Re: Beth (Weeble's Mom) may be by soon
Jane, my boy Weeble has ceberal palsy from either being fed or getting into crack cocaine. And yes he does have a temper too. For the most part I think it's frustration, when he can't do things normally, but sometimes(like mom's day)he just explodes for no apparent reason. Yes I have been bitten too, but if I on purpose offer my hand when he is going into "Exorcist" mode he will turn his head away. I think people thought I was nuts adopting a pup with very severe neurological problems. He will never walk on his own,& is incontinent.I'm sure if I bothered to listen to people(which I don't)they would ask HOW could I do this to this poor pup, wouldn't he have been better off dead? To which I woud reply a BIG NOOOO!This special boy fought his way back at the vets after being in a coma for 3 days.My question to them is How could anybody turn their back on a baby with sooooo much spirit & will to live?
The joy on his face when I sing/talk to him & he sings/talks back to me is all the prove I need that I made the right desision! Your baby didn't ask to be hit with a baseball bat & you did make the right desision to give her a chance!
The joy on his face when I sing/talk to him & he sings/talks back to me is all the prove I need that I made the right desision! Your baby didn't ask to be hit with a baseball bat & you did make the right desision to give her a chance!
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GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily
- Posts: 5011
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: St. Helena Island, SC
Remember when AmbrrNanaDog mauled AllicksBlindPup?
There was no more hysteria than mine own. What a relief to find someone was trying to break into the house and Allicks was between Ambrr & St.Jude at the door - WRONG PLACE wrong time, and I could TRUST my beloved Nana again.
She was on amitryptelene (SP critters??) for 2 months. Shoot, I shudda been!
But the Rx worked. Ambrr was a docile as a lamb. Still is 2 years later!
She was on amitryptelene (SP critters??) for 2 months. Shoot, I shudda been!
But the Rx worked. Ambrr was a docile as a lamb. Still is 2 years later!
Our priorities!!!
I don't mean to make fun...but I had to chuckle when I read "What a relief it was to find that someone was trying to break into the house!" 
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GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily
- Posts: 5011
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: St. Helena Island, SC
Oh, absolutely! No one comes before my poopers! :)
And the fool at the door was scared off by insane dogs. Unfortunately, AllicksBlindPup had so many holes in her head that she had to be shaved by doc so I could clean 2x a day. Which she hated, and I weren't none too fond either. I tell you, I was so I don't know, betrayed by AmbrrNanaDog! And SOOO RELIEVED to find out she was acting appropriately! Doc is also a dog psychologist (well, not a licensed one, but it is her passoin) and we thoroughly took this behavioiur problem seriously.