Fortunately, Nature gave dogs a cast iron stomach to survive many things. I watched my first rescue dog pick up a dried out dead bird many days old in the middle of the road and eat it. I called the vet and he was unconcerned, said he'd probably had to scavenge before he was rescued. The vet was right, he was fine. Let me see if I can find this one classic picture of my dermoid sinus dog (like spina bifida) when she was a puppy. Click to enlarge and look what's in her mouth. Eeewwww! Dogs like these things.
If Stella is 10 years old,
hopefully she knows what she's doing. And if she is trying to eat some Spring greens to soothe her tummy, maybe that kind of backs up your idea of probiotics.
It is absolutely normal to worry about your dog, that's our job, and nobody should ever underestimate the amount of stress that goes with this situation. The first weeks are by far the hardest. But at some point you turn a corner and it does get better. It sounded to me like Stella was having fun in her wheelchair before the gymnastics. It sounds like she's pretty chipper. They say that is important.
My dog's physical therapist said 85% of dogs with FCE will recover, and of those that do not, either the dog gave up or the family gave up. Families may give up due to inability to do the nursing care, lack of time, or hearing negative comments from others. The dog may give up if he is stressed from a worried atmosphere at home, too many vet visits, etc. That's why they say it is especially important with FCE to keep your spirirts up around the dog and be positive. If you must cry, do it someplace where he will not know, but come back to him and be upbeat.
It is so hard when you don't know how things are going to turn out, and the daily care is substantial, trying to do so many new things and get them exactly right. And even though she is "just" 25 lbs, 25 lbs is plenty to have to deal with. But maybe most of all is the amount of thought involved. It doesn't matter what else you are doing in these first couple of months, your mind is never far from thoughts of your dog. How do I fix her bed better? How can I fit her PT into my schedule today? Can I get time off work for a vet appt? I need to do laundry because we are on our last dog blanket. How can I get her diaper to stay on? How can I get other family members on board to help? I'm scared to look at my bank account. Is there anything I should be doing that I'm not already doing?
Really, you just have this constant soundtrack in your mind turning over all these thoughts, like you're trying to find the best answers for everything. The thoughts come when you eat, when you drive, when you're at work, when you go to bed at night. Even just all that thinking is a lot of work. It might be a good idea if you could get out of the house for a while, go walk around the mall (or your favorite craft store, bookstore, whatever), and force yourself to spend one hour of "me time". If you *make yourself* do this every little while, you come back *a little* refreshed and better able to keep going.
Also, I hope you aren't shorting yourself on sleep. I have seen where some people start out getting up in the middle of the night every few hours to express, but it isn't necessary. If you express her at bedtime, she should be able to go 8 hrs till morning and be just fine.
One of the topics I posted my second month here had a title I'll never forget: "What I worry about......besides "everything"!" Maybe you can relate. But the work you are doing is helping, and the prognosis is good for FCE. I'm glad you've got one vet who is positive and helpful. It is a huge help to have someone who has seen all this before and can tell you in person that there is reason to be optimistic. My dog had a spinal fracture, not FCE, and she had a
very slow recovery. But my motto is: a slow recovery is still a recovery.
Glad you were able to get a vet appt tomorrow. Your dog is lucky she has someone in her corner willing to do all of this. Would love to see a picture of her if you ever want to post one.