Deciding on Dog Wheel Chair

Neurological Disorders Resources. Treatment and care for pets having pain or trouble walking or standing due to spinal injuries or neurological disorders like IVDD, FCE and DM.
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Mkcachey2231
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Deciding on Dog Wheel Chair

Post by Mkcachey2231 »

We adopted our dog about 3 years he is an American Eskimo about 9 years old. We got the devastating news on Monday that our dog has a neurological disc disorder and will eventually become paralyzed in his back legs within weeks/months. We are left with 2 choices to either put him to sleep or to get a wheel chair for him. I want to explore the wheel chair option but I have a lot of questions. Do dogs get depressed when they have to move around with a wheel chair? What's a normal day like when you have a dog in a wheel chair? When a dog is paralyzed in the back legs will you need to extract their bladder? If you do are there places to board dogs that do this for you when you go out of town? I want to make sure we're making the best decision for our family so any advice or personal stories would be very helpful.
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CarolC
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Re: Deciding on Dog Wheel Chair

Post by CarolC »

Mkcachey2231 wrote:We adopted our dog about 3 years he is an American Eskimo about 9 years old. We got the devastating news on Monday that our dog has a neurological disc disorder and will eventually become paralyzed in his back legs within weeks/months. We are left with 2 choices to either put him to sleep or to get a wheel chair for him. I want to explore the wheel chair option but I have a lot of questions. Do dogs get depressed when they have to move around with a wheel chair?
Really they usually enjoy it. Younger dogs may even run and do donuts. Older dogs will be happy to go for a walk around the block with you. If you are good at reading facial expressions in dogs, go to some of the dog wheelchair websites and look at the expressions on the faces of the dogs. Here is a link to some of the calendar photos from this year, showing how happy the dogs are.

http://www.handicappedpets.com/2016-dog ... st-winners
Mkcachey2231 wrote:What's a normal day like when you have a dog in a wheel chair? When a dog is paralyzed in the back legs will you need to extract their bladder?
A general routine (which may vary in different homes) is to feed your dog and express his bladder before going to work. Expressing or putting on a male doggy diaper takes about 5 minutes. If your dog wears a male doggy diaper (malewrap), put him in his wrap with a fresh pad in it to keep him dry during the day, before you leave. Then he should be good till you get home.
:malewrap:
Some people will crate their dog while they are at work, but not everyone does that.

If you come home for lunch you can express his bladder again or change his pad if needed.

When you come home from work, you can express him and put him in his cart for some exercise, and either take him for a walk or let him out in the back yard to play. Dogs do not spend all day in the wheelchair. A senior dog might only be in his cart for a half hour at a time, while a younger dog might enjoy being in it for an hour or two. This is because most dogs are unable to lie down and rest when in a wheelchair. Some of the long-bodied lowrider breeds manage to lie down while in a cart, especially if they have a pillow to rest their front half on, but I don't think an eskie is going to be able to lie down very well in a cart.

When your dog is not in his wheelchair, he will still be able to get around using his front feet. This is why I like crating during the day, because too much dragging around can sometimes cause carpet burns on their toes, so if the dog is only out when you are home, you will be able to keep an eye on him. When the dog is in his wheelchair, his feet will be up and not get scraped.

Anyway, you'll probably feed him again in the evening and express him once more at bedtime. They recommend expressing every 8 hours, but if you are able to do it at lunch time you can do it more like every 6 hours, either way is good. He will still be the same dog you love. Things won't be that much different. Expressing and diapering takes longer at first, but after you get good at it, it takes about 5 minutes each time, so total time spent on incontinence would be maybe 15-20 minutes a day.

I end up doing a load of doggy laundry about every other day, because I have a diaper dog who I like to let sleep without her diaper on, so she gets clean blankets every night and and I do a load of wash about every 2 days. If you don't want to do that, he can wear his wrap 24/7, I just like to give the skin a chance to breathe. So doing laundry takes a few more minutes every couple of days, but I do not fold her laundry, I just put the clean blankets into a laundry basket, so there is zero work in that. Just pull it out of the dryer and put it in the "clean blankies basket" and you're done.
:wash: :laundry:
Really, that's it as far as the work involved. Putting your dog in the wheelchair is another thing that takes longer at first, but when you and he get good at it, that only takes a minute and you can do it in your sleep. Your dog is not a large breed, so that will make everything easier. Really, once you get your routine down, it's all easy. It's just at first while you are learning and it is all new, that it seems like a challenge, and there can be stress involved during those first few weeks, but hang in there and soon you will be a pro, and you will probably become closer to your dog than ever, and you'll really enjoy it.
Mkcachey2231 wrote:If you do are there places to board dogs that do this for you when you go out of town? I want to make sure we're making the best decision for our family so any advice or personal stories would be very helpful.
Yes, but it depends on where you live and what's available. I have boarded my dog at a place where they know how to express the bladder, and I have a friend who has cared for my other dog (the diaper dog) while I was out of town. You might want to call around a little and do a little investigating to see what you have available there, so you'll know. It's about the only way to really find out. Some people have hired a vet tech to dogsit for them when needed. The vet tech will be glad to earn a little extra money, and you'll be able to relax knowing your dog is in good hands. Why not ask at your vet to see what is available. :)

Not sure I answered this very well. What I wrote seems kind of general. If you are interested in anything more specific, please be sure to ask.
Bobbie
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Re: Deciding on Dog Wheel Chair

Post by Bobbie »

I have a paraplegic corgi who is very happy (well, not right now as I'm not outside throwing his ball for him.) He's also very healthy. And he is very active. I adopted one who was paralyzed at age 4, I got him at 8, and he lived to 13 1/2 with no problems until his final illness. This one has been down for five years and is doing just fine at almost 11.
Bobbie Mayer
"Corgis on Wheels: Understanding and Caring for the Special Needs of Corgis with Degenerative Myelopathy or DIsk Disease available now!
http://www.corgiaid.org/cart/corgisonwheels
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