Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

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CarolC
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by CarolC »

I thought of you when I saw this new post. Kind of expensive, but very well executed.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18666#p99420
illusha
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by illusha »

That's cool. Expensive is a relative term. We often end up spending money on things far less important.

Update on our dog. Still trying to keep on keeping on. He is about the same, can stand a couple minutes unsupported, but does not move legs while bearing weight, can move them occasionally when he is laying down, but unclear if it's a reflex or a conscious move, still hoping for the best, but it's looking a little murky.

Starting to get a little bit of caregiver fatigue after all these months of not being able to get away for more than 12 hours.
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

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illusha wrote:Starting to get a little bit of caregiver fatigue after all these months of not being able to get away for more than 12 hours.
Long answer...

Yes, I'll bet you really are. If he went down around March 15, it has been 5 months, and with a large dog. Nobody should ever underestimate the effect on the caregiver of caring for any paralyzed pet, and especially a large one. There are a few things that help a little. At least they do show that others have been there, too. I certainly have. There is a rather famous post on this board written by Anita that is affectionately called "The Six Month Wonder".
http://handicappedpet.net/helppets/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3507&p=16745#p16745 wrote: I can't say more than has been said about the 6 Month Wonder.

I wonder if I am doing the right thing?
I wonder if she/he is happy?
I wonder what people think?
I wonder if it is all worth it?
I wonder is he/she will ever walk again?
I wonder where I will get more money for treatment?
I wonder how long I can do this?

Wonder, wonder, wonder. We have all done it and know exactly where you are. I think what is missing is acceptance. Once you accept that this is they way it is going to be, then it becomes so much easier. I know that it is hard and you are tired but you have gone this far, why give up now? The hard part is over!!! It will all become a way of life and you won't think anything about. I promise you.

It will be 2 years Labor Day weekend that my Sydney went down. Looking back, it was tough. But now, it is no big deal. Yeah we have been through alot because of the UTI but it all worked out and through my bad experience I have been able to teach others. We can't do everything right all the time. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in this world. I have met some of the nicest and kindest people-many on this board-that have helped me out and in turn I have helped out others. I look back now and wonder what I use to do with all my free time?? Now it is spent expressing, pooping, exercising, giving butt baths, Chiro treatments, accu treatments, and the list goes on. I must have had a lot of free time on my hands!!!!
This is a sample of my own experience (copied from previous posts):
There is a kind of "burnout" or fatigue that we say (in general, based on experience of people on this board) usually happens around 6 months, maybe a little sooner or later ***. With me, my dog was paralyzed in September and it hit me in April. Here is something I wrote about that time. I don't know if the complete exhaustion of it comes through in my description.
CarolC wrote:I was pretty worn down, putting a lot of effort into helping my dog's quality of life but seeing no sign of walking or standing or bladder control. My dog was injured on 9/23/03. I saved a message from 4/5/04 that was written to me by a friend in Sweden who was going to have replacement of the descending and abdominal aortic artery, after already having had replacement of the ascending and arch. This is huge major surgery, a percentage of patients die from it. He wrote saying he was going to have surgery, and I knew I should write back to him, and I just absolutely couldn't. He needed support, and all I had to do was write to him, but I was so drained dry that I couldn't make myself do it. I was totally exhausted. Fortunately he survived the surgery and is still alive, and later I wrote explaining the situation. Unfortunately, being tired from dog care is not the kind of excuse people can readily relate to. If I'd been tired from caring for a sick child or a parent with Alzheimer's they would understand better.
Here was another description I posted. The description "beyond dead" only half covers it, I was a sinkhole of exhaustion. Then, as other people have experienced, without anything I did, when I wasn't aware anything was changing, it turned itself around. A transition takes place, and I think it is darkest before the dawn when that happens.
CarolC wrote:My dog's injury was September 23, and I cared for her all winter. The biggest adjustment was expressing because of the time it took and because I had to get up to do it no matter how tired I was, so I never got 8 hours of sleep. By April I was beyond dead, I didn't have anything left to give to anyone. Others here have observed the same thing. Somehow you go to the limit of physical and emotional exhaustion, and then somehow right when it is at its worst, for reasons that are hard to understand you begin coming out of it and it is never that bad again. Don't know why, but it's true. You may be about there, now. You've been doing this for 5 months. It's scheduling, and money, and appointments, and hopes and disappointments and delays, and the physical lifting, endless figuring out how to do things better, just all of it. And even if people around you are nice (there have been some amazing stories here of how sometimes they can be just the opposite) they can't really understand what you're going through. All I can say is, hang in there.
I guess you can see, there is a phenomenon that nobody has really explained, where you get fatigued until you eventually kind of hit bottom, and it may be around 6 months but it could be sooner or it might happen later. But then, for reasons nobody has ever really explained, it gets better. And is never as hard again.

I will say, by the time my big dog went down, I had already had 2 previous down dogs and a paralyzed rabbit, so I was kind of used to what all was required. But having a large dog down brings its own aspect of lifting and physical effort that is there even if you are mentally used to the scheduling and workload, etc. With my big dog, I realized later I should have started taking pain medicine much, much sooner than I did. I think I was kind of screening out the effect on my body, being so other-centered.

There is a wonderful old website I'd like to share with you, written by a member here named Tom. It was made in the days before Dreamweaver and fancy webpage templates, but the words are priceless, and just as true today. I always love the section about "My house is a mess because of my needy pet".

http://geocities.com/petinspiration/

Somehow, even though it is unbelievable, you do come out on the other side of this. The caregiver fatigue is more grim than probably anybody around you realizes. I have said so many times, if we were caring for a disabled spouse or an invalid child or a parent with dementia, everyone around would offer understanding and support and sympathy. But you can do just as much lifting and cleaning and nursing and sacrifice just as much time etc, etc, when caring for a disabled dog, and nobody around you will begin to imagine what it is like, and you may get little support, or at best well-meaning support from those who haven't really been there, so you sort of feel off by yourself in your own world to some extent.

When my first dog went down, I found it helped to board him overnight once in a while, and I used to recommend that. But it didn't work out using my regular vet, because after one such "Mother's Day Out" they returned my dog to me with a urine burn which we fought for the rest of his life. I think you do need to find someone who could overnight your dog for you once in a while so you can get "off duty", but I would only recommend someone who will really care for him. I would think it would be someone who does the petsitting in their home. At my vet and I suppose most vets, they put the dog in the kennel with a blanket and a bowl of water and go home for the night and come back the next day. That is fine for a healthy dog but not a disabled one. I would either want a real sitter, or else a place that checks the dogs during the night, and does not lock the door and go home at 6 PM. It is worth the cost once in a while, if it helps you keep going. Really, I don't know if your mom could provide any respite, but that would be the most trustworthy person, if she will do it, but I don't know, I'm sure you've thought of that. But yes, the fatigue is real and at a certain point it is just rugged....

And there is a reason there are so many sleepy smilies on this board...
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CarolC
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by CarolC »

Please excuse the double post, but if he is standing independently, that is really good news. Sheri had a dog named Pete and she literally tied a string to her dog's bowl and pulled it slowly as he followed it eating. It worked. I also recommend trying your dog on a downhill slope. Walk down a little ways and hold out a treat and see if he'll come.

Also wanted to say that when you are "waiting on" someone all the time, it is a huge boost to have someone wait on you, even if only for an hour. Go sit down for lunch or a piece of pie somewhere, let the waitress/waiter bring you your food and refill your coffee, just let *them* do something for *you*. You deserve it. It seems like such a small thing but it really helps. If you can stop for dinner every day on your way home from work, or a few times a week, and have 30 or 45 min of time just for yourself, it makes a difference.
illusha
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by illusha »

I don't really have an option to sit with my legs up right now. Good lunch out has always been a part of my daily routine and I've been living on Jimmy John's sandwiches for the last 5 months because I am spending the majority of my lunch with the dog. But thank you for your second post. The post before that wasn't very encouraging. I will stress again that the idea is that the dog will recover enough function to take care of himself independently, it's taking a lot longer than expected, but I will keep doing it as long as he shows some progress. He just needs to keep showing progress. And it's been marginal lately. I feel like I should be spending more time exercising with him. But there's only one of me and I have my limitations. So it is what is for now. We've done a lot already. Both time and money wise. Not about to give up yet. We'll keep trying while it's at least decent outside. But I am not able to dedicate my life to caring for my mother's dog, she is not able to do it alone and other people helping is not an option, so the future looks pretty grim if he doesn't get his sh!t together by winter time...
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

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I am so sorry if the other post was not encouraging, it was the last thing I intended. The take home message buried in way too many words was just that it gets easier. The other thing I did not say is that when the dog gets to a certain point, recovery seems to speed up. Recovery is happening in the background a tiny bit every day, even though he looks much the same.

My dog continued to improve noticeably for 2 years or more. At first the pace of recovery was glacial, I could maybe think possibly she had improved a tiny little bit about every 6 weeks if I stretched my imagination. We kept doing the exercises faithfully even though there seemed to be little or no results. Once she got to the point where she could begin to walk a little (sounds like you are about there now), it seemed the pace of recovery picked up and she was making improvements more rapidly. We just had to get to that point. I have heard other people talk about this phenomenon, too.

My dog did hydrotherapy twice a week starting at the 5-month point. We also did exercises and PT at home twice a day every day without fail for a total of 50+ minutes a day. There is something in dogs where using the front legs stimulates the hind legs to move, and that is why swimming or the underwater treadmill is so helpful, the dog can exercise and stimulate those nerve pathways.

We discovered in the early days of walking she did best on a downhill slope. We made use of every sloping sidewalk and driveway we could find. I'd start her at the top and she'd walk down. At first it makes a big difference what surface they are on. My dog did poorly in grass and best on cement or indoor-outdoor carpet, but she is small. I have seen many people on this board say their dog did best in grass at first.

Everything you have done has helped, whether you can see it right now or not. It has all contributed. I can only say, power to you, you have done a lot! I really think your dog will walk if he's standing. :D :trophy:
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by Bizzysmum »

illusha wrote:That's cool. Expensive is a relative term. We often end up spending money on things far less important.

Update on our dog. Still trying to keep on keeping on. He is about the same, can stand a couple minutes unsupported, but does not move legs while bearing weight, can move them occasionally when he is laying down, but unclear if it's a reflex or a conscious move, still hoping for the best, but it's looking a little murky.

Starting to get a little bit of caregiver fatigue after all these months of not being able to get away for more than 12 hours.

Totally relate to this, bless you for all your efforts, Have/am going through same thing although we are now six months down the line. I got in the car tonight to drop my grand-daughters birthday cake over for tomorrow, as we have yet another vet visit. I couldn't remember how to turn on the headlights :O it's been that long since I went out in the evening!

I've managed to get my girl walking again, although her legs no longer bend, and I've got various contraptions to help her along. Going anywhere we are a bit of a circus. So glad I live rural, and can scuttle off down quiet roads with little chance of having to interact with other people. I've become a dog tending recluse ;)

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CarolC
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by CarolC »

Hi illusha,

I was thinking of you today. I hope things are going well on your end. I will be offline tomorrow but will check back Tuesday to see if there is an update. :)

C.
illusha
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by illusha »

It’s been over 8 months now. Still continuing drifting in and out of reality. Still haven’t given up yet though. Ever since the paralysis happened, we’ve been living in this “another-little-while” world, just waiting to see what’s next. The difficult part is that we keep noticing minor improvements occasionally, none of them are game changers, but they keep feeding us this strange thing called Hope. Overall, the dog is in good spirits, not depressed by no means, his tail wags when he has company, so it’s not yet time for the sausage factory. At this point, we’ll keep on doing what we’ve been doing until either he or I kick the bucket, or he starts walking again.

If anyone happens to stumble across this post while researching what to do with their pet, I would advise to carefully think through all the possible scenarios before deciding to try and treat a paralyzed dog at home, there may be cases where dogs slip one disc and recover within a month, but it seems that most of major paralysis cases go on for a very (very) long time before regaining functionality and often fail for a number of reasons. I refuse for that reason to be me giving up. Although, a few times, I did give up and fell asleep on the floor instead of taking him out for that last walk of the day around midnight.

I didn’t even used to be all that close with this dog my mother had for over a decade, but we’ve now bonded closer than most pets do with their owners, as he depends on me for the most basic bodily functions and I believe he understands it and is grateful for it. You can often tell by that distinct wag of tail after holding his water dish for him. We are also developing a sign language of sorts where he is able to let me know what he needs.

We are continuing a general routine of exercises indoors and outdoors. We are extremely lucky to own a good chunk of flat land right in the city and so there’s room to walk around in the back yard. I continue spending my lunch hour with the dog. He usually gets to spend close to an hour outside then and again in the evenings. The weather in Oregon has been as unpredictable as always, but we ain’t skeered of some rain, although muddy paws in the house became something that we had to grow to just accept.

He can stand about a minute on his own before getting excited or distracted and losing balance. Hard to say if he just stays frozen in a position as long as possible without moving a muscle. It’s a little better compared to the summer time. But it’s not like he can stand around for several minutes. Not yet.

We’ve been practicing sitting down, which he can do with some guidance and assistance, then he can sit for about a minute or two before losing balance, longer if there is a treat above his nose that keeps him concentrated. He can’t really stand up on his own yet, but I can feel him “helping” when I pull up his harness, he definitely knows when it’s time and seems to be trying to get up.

Now for the hard part. Walking. We do it this way. His front legs are as good as ever and he can run faster than me if I lift up his rear by the harness. Sometimes he gets excited when first going out on the grass and actually pulls me with just his front legs working. His rear right leg is much better than left. He actually withdraws it on his own even when lying down and can clearly lift it up while standing. The left leg is not as good, it does move when a significant pressure is applied, but not much just walking around. He is very clearly getting some muscle tone back in his rear legs. Although he’s been preferring to lay on his right side and I wonder if it has something to do with his left side being more affected.

So what we do for walks is that I grab him by the harness with my right hand, bend down to the ground and grab his left paw, then we walk across the yard like that, probably looks strange for random people, but no one said nothing yet. After a few 50-foot passes like that we both need a break. Random exercises in between, walking on inclines like a small ramp, jumping up and down 1-foot-tall deck, balancing on top of an inflatable ball, bouncing with bungee cords tied from a tree branch, etc.

It seems like we’ll just let the nature take its course and see if he happens to improve. He will be 13 years old in a couple of months. His life has changed, and so did mine, but everything happens for a reason. We are just not always sure what that reason is right away. But here’s a picture from when we caught some sun on my lunch hour today.
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

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I can relate to so much of what you say in the post. I love the way you are using the everyday environment around you for exercises, that is what we did here, too. Ramps, driveways, sloping sidewalks, curbs, steps, grass. It is cool that he is helping to stand up when you go to lift him. It is really cool that he is getting some muscle tone back in the rear legs. People often worry about that, but it is muscle, it does come back when the nerves start to improve. He certainly looks happy in every picture. If he is wagging his tail, that is excellent. The business about him taking off running when you lift him, yes! Here is something I posted:
CarolC in http://handicappedpet.net/helppets/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16346&p=86384&#p86384 wrote:My dog is an active breed and getting her energy level down was one key to helping her learn to walk again. I had to give Katie at least 30 minutes (or more) of really active playtime to get her energy level down, so afterwards we could practice our standing and walking. And I could tell when she would start to settle down. I used to say, the first 30 minutes were hers, the next 30 were mine. If we hadn't done this, honestly she never would have learned to walk, she just would have dragged wherever she wanted to go and never slowed down enough to learn to walk, because slow is not her nature.
It is not unusual for one leg to be better than the other. Someone here was told by a therapist to put hair elastics on her dog's legs to help make the dog aware of them. I never tried it, but it would be easy to do and interesting to try.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15882&p=88897&hilit ... tic#p88897

Do you notice him crossing his legs or knuckling his paws on his hind legs?
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by illusha »

It might not snow much around here in Oregon, but we are well prepared for when it does, exercising in all weather conditions! I’ve thought about using these snow boots instead of elastics or rubber bands to make him be more aware of his legs, not sure this is the right solution, but will play around with it to evaluate. And to answer the question from the last post, he does cross his legs walking when he gets tired, as well as when he’s laying down and then rolls over. His right rear leg is moving like it normally would, but he is not quite putting all of his weight on it most of the time, sometimes he does. The left rear leg is more of a problem, he straightens it well, but does not seem to have much of a withdrawal function back yet, only with a significant pressure will he lift his rear left leg up, that’s also the same leg that has the paw “knuckling over” about 80% of the time when that leg is allowed to land on the ground without human assistance.
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

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This video shows a super simple exercise I have never seen before. Not sure how many reps they are doing. Every time the dog "rights" his foot by repositioning it, that is helping. Also later in the video it shows a homemade (I guess) Biko brace being used on one leg.

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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

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Thank you, CarolC, that video is awesome. Definitely got a few new ideas from it. So that thing that I was thinking of making out of bungee cords is called a Biko brace? Neat! I may try that.

Watching the video gave me some new hope. But also it reminded me that it’s been over 9 months already and still no walking. Still not standing for much longer than a minute without losing balance. Still not moving or adjusting either of the rear feet even an inch while standing in one place (that video above may help!). Still not moving the left leg at all while “walking” with my assistance. But still making little tiny improvements weekly.

His left foot withdrawal (while lying down) has improved notably. Still takes quite a bit of pressure to make him withdraw the left foot. But he withdraws it more completely and I can “feel” the muscles working much stronger than before. When we walk, I used to have to support his rear end quite a bit with the harness, he was barely holding any weight and I was just glad at the time that he simply moved his right foot. Nowadays, most of times, I don’t have to support his rear harness in the “up” direction almost at all, just pulling it forward to make him walk forward, until he gets tired. That is a notable improvement and much easier on my right arm. But still far from walking unsupported.

We’ll keep working on it and giving it our collective best.

Thanks for all the support from this forum and happy holidays to everyone!
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by illusha »

In 3 days, it will be a year since the dog became paralyzed, posting another update.

Not much has improved in the last few months. Still able to stand about a minute or less before losing balance. Still able to move just one leg and I keep trying to get him to move the other one to no avail. One scary setback happened 3-4 weeks ago when the dog overnight got a large lump where the bad-leg’s hip attaches to the body. Took him to the vet with concerns about an abscess and were told that it’s most likely a Seroma. It’s not really gotten much smaller since then. Not clear if or how it affects the dog’s functioning, he doesn’t seem to be in pain, but it can’t be comfortable. Ever since the Seroma happened, his walking has been slightly declining, although he’s still keeping up. Sadly, no notable improvement to report this time, still about the same. Very clear muscle degeneration in both rear legs compared to a year ago. Daily exercises don’t seem to provide as much of a muscle gain as we had hoped. The initial improvement that the dog showed in the first months had been slowing down. He has recovered some function as described in my posts above, but not even close to walking on his own yet, although some of my research points to major neurological damage taking years to heal in certain cases. With the amount of effort and resources spent on this dog in the last year I simply refuse to give up until he does. Or at least until he quits trying. He gets quite excited when I take him outside and shows disappointment when I can’t do it. I might even take him to the beach for the first time this weekend. He is still somewhat happy, wags his tail on occasion, but I’m sure he’s getting tired of not living a normal doggy life. Laying in the same bed for a year would be hard on any person, can’t imagine what it’s like for a dog, whose only entertainment is looking out of the sliding door into the back yard and occasional interactions (usually involving exercises) with humans. It’s so #### hard to make a decision on what is best once you’ve gone that far down the rabbit hole.

This reminds me of a couple quotes from Alice in Wonderland that perfectly apply to my situation - “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then” and “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others” – oh, and one more, “We are all mad here”…
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Re: Paralyzed dog with bladder issues

Post by critters »

Why not get (or make) him a cart? With legs down, they're like walkers, but his legs could also be hitched up for a wheelchair. He'd be able to run around and be social.
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