8 months post operation and still confused

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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Baileyandmika
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Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2020 8:37 pm

8 months post operation and still confused

Post by Baileyandmika »

Hi everyone, i am so happy to find this forum! The stories i read here and knowing i am not the only one who cares for a handicapped pet helps me a lot.

I have a question about my dog Bailey. English is not my first language so im sorry if i dont use the right words.

About 8 months ago my dog bailey got paralyzed. She had a herniated disk. Had surgery two days later. Since the vet told us it was either surgery or putting her down.

In the mean time we learned to express her bladder. ( she does not leak ) and express her bowels. She has a wheelchair but she refuses to walk in it.

We did physical therapy for a while but it got too expensive to keep up. And we trained her. Now she has sensation in her paws, is able to make movements with her hind legs. She is just not strong enough to walk and able to stand herself.

The only big problem we ran into is the pooping. Since she had struvite bladder stones we had to put her on Royal canin dog food, but she poops around 5-8 times a day uncontrollably. I have no idea besides expressing her bowels to handle this problem. And keeping her bed area sanitary when there is poop in it every night.

Also because the possibility she’l never recover is quite high i wonder if the way i care for her now was the right choice. She seems happy, playful. But the judgement of other dog owners and friends and family really puts me down sometimes and makes me feel as if ‘keeping her alive’ was a selfish choice.

I really hope someone can give me some advice or a view from another perspective,

Greetings from Mika and Bailey
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CarolC
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Re: 8 months post operation and still confused

Post by CarolC »

Hi Baileyandmika!
:hotpink:

If she is happy, that is what matters, not what other people say. I think often people are just repeating something they heard from their father or grandfather years ago, and they didn't really think about it. Fortunately, times have changed.

It took my dog longer than 8 months to walk, but she did. Every dog has their own schedule of recovery.

Yes, professional PT is expensive. If your dog have feeling in her feet I would keep doing therapy at home. If she does not like the wheelchair, there are other ways for assisted walking. You could walk her with a rear harness. If she is small enough, you could walk her with a long scarf passed under her belly. Another way to practice walking is called tail walking. When we are children we are told not to pull the dog's tail, so at first this method of exercise sounds strange to us. But this is different from pulling the tail. For tail walking, you hold the very base (root) of the tail where it meets the body and help the dog to stand. When you do this she will likely take off trying to walk somewhere and you will have to follow her bent over holding her up. This method is used by professional canine rehabilitation therapists.

Also, I am not sure how big your dog is, but if she is small enough, water therapy in the bathtub is one thing the recommend. The water helps the dog stand and she can walk around in the tub (or a small swimming pool for children) if you lead her with treats.

If she needs to continue on the urinary diet to prevent crystals, I wonder if she would have fewer bowel movements with Science Diet urinary formula. Is it available where you live? Perhaps you could try it?

Also, my dog was on a kidney diet and he was having soft bowel movements. I discovered when I gave him the kidney diet as dry kibble instead of canned, his bowel movements became normal. (Yay!)

If you had not said English was not your first language, I would not have known. :pardon:
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critters
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Re: 8 months post operation and still confused

Post by critters »

:whale:

People still like to run their mouths, especially about disabilities, but if you're happy and she's happy, it's nobody else's business.

Your English is fine. :D
Baileyandmika
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Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2020 8:37 pm

Re: 8 months post operation and still confused

Post by Baileyandmika »

@carolC thank you for your response and the great advice. Its true what your saying about people’s opinions it helps me to care a little less now.

My dog is small so im definitely going to try the advice you described! I never heard of tail walking and we did water therapy with the PT So the bathtub idea is great.

I am happy to hear your dog started walking again. That gives me some hope. I feel like what really ruined my hope a bit was when our vet said at the 6month post op check up that i should think about if this was ‘the life i wanted to life’ cleaning up her poop and pee and that i should think about putting her to sleep or not. At first I thought that was ridiculous because she was clearly other than the paralysis happy and healthy. But ever since then i did feel less and less hopeful. ( although i would never put her to sleep!) And around 2 weeks ago i stopped doing training at home because i felt like it was time for me to just give up and realize she was never going to walk. But i will start again and not give up on her.

About the food i am from the Netherlands so i will look up if the science urinary formula is sold here. We use dry kibble from royal canine urinary because like you said when we tried the wet food her bowel movement was soft. Now it doesn’t have a smell, and is easy to clean up, it just comes out around 6 times a day

Thank you for making me feel welcome here :)
Baileyandmika
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Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2020 8:37 pm

Re: 8 months post operation and still confused

Post by Baileyandmika »

@critters that’s true! I noticed that a lot of pet owners who own pets with disabilities deal with this. And also ( at least the people in my country) how quickly people decide that putting their pet to sleep is the best option because they feel as if living a handicapped life is unfair to pet. While we would never ever say that to handicapped person.

Also i’m happy to hear my english is fine, thank you
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