ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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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CarolC
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

Post by CarolC »

I wonder if she could do walks that are short enough so she does not get worn out, but do them twice a day, like one in the morning and one later in the day, depending on your schedule. I would be interested to see what the rehab therapist says.
Meladjusted99
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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This post is so good to read. Our girl went to emergency Friday with left side paralysis, today (Wed) we brought her home with a diagnosis of ANNPE. We are grateful she is home, we will do whatever she needs of us to get her up and going again.
kh12265
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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Meladjusted99 wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 11:43 pm This post is so good to read. Our girl went to emergency Friday with left side paralysis, today (Wed) we brought her home with a diagnosis of ANNPE. We are grateful she is home, we will do whatever she needs of us to get her up and going again.
I’m so sorry to hear you and your girl are going through this. I know how hard it is! I’m glad my post could bring you some hope and comfort, that’s what I had hoped! It’s been a little over a month since my dogs accident/diagnosis and she’s doing so well. She’s a little slower than before and her walking is definitely different, but other than that you wouldn’t even know she was paralyzed a month ago. I hope the same for your pup! My boyfriend and I were both very committed to her recovery and never let her see how worried and sad we were, and I honestly think that made a ton of difference. All dogs are different and recovery will vary of course, but if you had any questions please feel free to reach out!
TiPi
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

Post by TiPi »

Hi. We are just on our way home from the hospital. Our dog Sam (black lab) 6y/o was diagnosed with ANNPE. It happened 4 days ago. She had an MRI done. Her hind left leg is affected. She’s not able to use it and she’s dragging it. She already developed mild abrasion on her paw.
We are going it give her all the treatments she needs but don’t know where to start.
- What to start with?
- When to start the therapy’s?
- what can we do at home and when to start.

Any help is greatly appreciate it 🙏🙏🙏
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CarolC
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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:group:

Hi,
Will answer in line in blue.

TiPi wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:19 pm Hi. We are just on our way home from the hospital. Our dog Sam (black lab) 6y/o was diagnosed with ANNPE. It happened 4 days ago. She had an MRI done. Her hind left leg is affected. She’s not able to use it and she’s dragging it. She already developed mild abrasion on her paw.

There are several choices for this. A light splint would help keep the paw in a proper position and avoid dragging the toes. Here are examples

https://www.handicappedpets.com/walkin-bootie-splint/
https://www.orthovet.com/product-catego ... int-brace/

You could also try a little dog boot. Some are made with extra thickness across the tops of the toes. You can make the boot last longer by taping duct tape across the toe, so when she drags or scrapes her foot, it will wear through the tape and not ruin the boot itself. Just apply fresh duct tape as needed.

The other choice would be vet wrap. It is that stretchy colorful bandaging material, kind of like an ace bandage, that sticks to itself. Be careful if you use vet wrap. You don't want to stretch it tight when applying it. I have found that you can simply loop the vet wrap around the foot with next to no tension, then take the whole paw in your hand and give it a few squeezes. That is enough to make the vet wrap gum onto itself and form a little custom fit bootie without affecting the circulation. However a splint or dog boot would be longer lasting. Vet wrap gets wet and will wear through when she goes outdoors.


We are going it give her all the treatments she needs but don’t know where to start.
- What to start with?
- When to start the therapy’s?
- what can we do at home and when to start.

You probably need to ask the vet, but as far as I know (I am not a vet) you can start PT for ANNPE now. A good option, if it is available and if you can afford it, is to get an appointment with a professional canine rehab facility. They can evaluate her and give you a list of what exercises are appropriate for her case. If you can afford it, and it is not too far to drive, and you can work it into your schedule, she could also go for regular appointments. Some PT places give you a choice of paying for each appt, or getting a package of (for example, 10 or 12) appointments for a lower price. You might be taking her weekly, twice a week, whatever works best.

If professional PT is not available or too expensive, then I'm guessing you would be doing assisted walking at home. It will be easier with a rear harness. I expect you're going to need one anyway. Here are examples.

https://www.handicappedpets.com/walkin- ... es-slings/
https://helpemup.com/

You can help support her with her rear harness, and help her place her feet. If you have a partner, one could hold the harness and the other could help her place her foot, and help her take steps. Even if she isn't moving it herself, you are patterning it for her by helping her move it. It doesn't seem like an exercise, but it is.

Another exercise you could do is, with her lying down, press on the pads of her foot and see if she'll push back. It's a resistance exercise.

They are probably also going to recommend doing range of motion exercise. Bicycle her leg gently through the whole range of motion to keep her flexible. Do a number of reps a couple of times a day.

I would also stimulate her paw. Her body needs to re-map the pathway from her brain to her toes. When you stimulate her toes, you are giving it something to work with. I would do this many times a day if possible. Massage her leg, rub her paw, dig your fingers between her toes and see if she'll kick.

Hydrotherapy (water therapy) is great. Even if you don't go to professional PT (where they have a pool or underwater treadmill) you can let her swim in a lake or backyard pool (assuming you have a way to get her in and out of the pool). Swimming is one of the best things you can do.

The statistics on recovery from ANNPE are very good. Recovery from nerve injury tends to be a little bit at a time, by baby steps. Hope you will post how she is doing. :)


Any help is greatly appreciate it 🙏🙏🙏
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critters
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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:welcome:
ljpatton
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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Here is a success story for you all. My 5 year old very active welsh terrier (agility, fastcat, barn hunt, nosework) girl went down one evening just hanging around the house- her back legs suddenly paralyzed. This was at 8 pm so emergency vet, then to emergency neurologist- got an MRI the next day. ANNPE was diagnosed and physical therapy and time recommended. The neuro gave her a good prognosis but said it would takes weeks to months for her to walk. She stood up by herself the next day, walked in 11 days on her own, not perfect but walking. Here is the video my husband did of our progress from the beginning. We kept notes, video and pictures of her progress. It is now 4 months later, she still goes to physical therapy, underwater treadmill and laser and I bought a Assisi Loop to use at home to help her spinal cord repair. We do physical therapy at home daily. She can walk a total of 3.5 miles a day, broken up. Now we are working on the last part, getting her proprioception totally back so she can terrier trot again- my physical therapist says this is the last thing to come back- first thing to go and last to come back is how the cord heals. Time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI36HuptSb0
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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:thankyou:
That is a neat video. She was really affected at first. It looks like the main reason she could stand up to eat at her bowl was that she had really good front leg strength before it happened. By the time she is playing after 2 months, you wouldn't know anything had been wrong with her.
Those low steps you found for practicing on are perfect for her. (Looks like you both got a workout!) And she is a pro on the Cavaletti rails!
Glad she is doing so well! :trophy:
ljpatton
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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Thanks, we have all really done the work. But she was in such good condition before the accident- I was doing most of those exercises before so she would not get hurt in her performance events. The neuro said it was just a "freak accident" like a broken leg. Still have a bit to go, healing takes time, her gait speed is still off so we are still working. :thankyou:
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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It must be a special kind of dismay to have this happen to a competition dog who wins ribbons. It reminds me a little of when the same thing happened to a dog named Gideon two weeks after his flyball championship. The good news is, besides the fact that your dog has improved so much and so quickly, healing continues not for weeks or months, but literally for years.
https://handicappedpet.net/helppets/viewtopic.php?p=60666#p60666 wrote: New accomplishment for my dog

Post by CarolC » Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:12 am
My dog was paralyzed September 23, 2003. Earlier this week out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw her go bounding across the family room kind of hopping, very fast, but it happened so fast I didn't really see it. Today in physical therapy, the therapist said that when she was on the treadmill, there was another dog in the room and my dog kept barking at him, and the whole time she barked she was bounding along on the treadmill with her back legs together hopping, and she was bending her knees to put a spring in her hops. This is something she has never been able to do since she was paralyzed, but she learned to do it this week. This week she has been paralyzed 4 years and 10 months.
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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Wow! That is amazing! When they are motivated they do amazing things. Yes it was discouraging to have a performance dog in such great shape have this freak thing happen but maybe because of that she was able to recover so quickly initially. The neuro thought she would recover to 90-100%. He likened it to a broken leg, it happens, but then it heals and you go back to what you were doing before the break. Will see. But she does nose work too and she is going to class now and got two titles two months after her injury. Nerves take a long time to fully heal but now in medicine they know that they do regenerate.
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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:welcome: ljpatton! Congrats on your baby's recovery!!!
kh12265
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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It makes me so happy to see other people posting success stores in this thread :) When Olive was diagnosed these were the kind of stories I wanted to read about, even though I knew every journey through ANNPE would be different. For those people reading now, I thought I’d also post an update. It’s been around 7-8 months since olives diagnosis. I mentioned before that if you just met her today, you would have no idea she what we went through. Only my boyfriend and I as well as close family that know her well notice the things that are different because of it. Her back legs will start to bow a bit if she stands for too long, she runs with both of her back legs in the same stride at once rather than separate, and she sometimes loses her balance a bit when she’s really into sniffing something. Other than that she can run, play, jump, and do everything she did before. I’ve attached a video of her progress because I loved the one posted above. I don’t have a ton of videos of during the incident because it was so stressful in and of itself. I think it’s so important for people that go through this to see :dancing: we unfortunately found out a few months ago Olive has an aggressive form of cancer (unrelated to ANNPE of course) and doesn’t have much time left, but we saw with her ANNPE that she’s a fighter and we’re hoping she sticks around for longer than the doctors think. I’ll be honest that because of the cancer we haven’t stuck to physical therapy because we’re just enjoying our time with her, but I’m sure if we had she would have made even better progress with balance and such.

[Youtube] https://youtube.com/shorts/mM5E0CZ9enY?feature=share [/Youtube]

ljpatton wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:47 pm Thanks, we have all really done the work. But she was in such good condition before the accident- I was doing most of those exercises before so she would not get hurt in her performance events. The neuro said it was just a "freak accident" like a broken leg. Still have a bit to go, healing takes time, her gait speed is still off so we are still working. :thankyou:
:D :D :D :D :D
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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Aww, I'm sorry about the cancer, but I'm glad she had such a good recovery and that y'all have had such quality time together. :wub:
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Re: ANNPE Diagnosis-Success Stories?

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She really gets around in that video! She's got such good muscle in her hind legs, too. I am really sorry about the other news. It is so sad when you do everything it takes to get a dog through paralysis and then something else happens. I hope she does as well with her new challenge as you guys did with her ANNPE.
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