3-Year Old Malshi Diagnosed with Stage V IVDD

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.
Ry4n2109
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Re: 3-Year Old Malshi Diagnosed with Stage V IVDD

Post by Ry4n2109 »

Here is a video of Mickey in his scooter:
https://youtu.be/-gJofW-2dVw

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CarolC
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Re: 3-Year Old Malshi Diagnosed with Stage V IVDD

Post by CarolC »

Ohmygosh! The look on his face says it all. He looks SO happy and ready to go. And he looks like he's got this cart thing all figured out! :trophy:
Ry4n2109 wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:13 pm Thank you for the suggestions Carol. We'll definitely take a look at your food recommendation.

My wife and I decided to pause the acupuncture sessions as he's been to 6 sessions already. Our neurologist suggested we do "routine" acupuncture sessions, but I'm not sure how helpful a once-a-month session would be. It's about $100 per session, so it's not super negligible as far as costs go.

Don't blame you. I took my dog for 5 acupuncture sessions ($150 for first visit and $81 for each following session) and could not really tell if it helped or not. I was thinking maybe (?) it did, wasn't quite sure. But they were nice to him and it was worth a try. Then the acupuncturist cancelled because her whole family came down with "something" (they didn't say what) and I just didn't reschedule because I wasn't sure it was really doing anything. I'm not saying I'll never go back, I don't know if I will or won't.

We took Mickey for his routine check-up with our neurologist this past weekend, and she expressed concerns about where Mickey is at with his reflexes. She was hoping to see some back leg movement even without any deep pain. However, it's still only been about 9-weeks so we're not giving up hope that he'll be able to walk even without feeling. Of course, our biggest hope is for him to get more control over his bladder.

I don't know if this would help or not. I don't often give people a link to my site, but I have a website about my dog. It talks about how we did physical therapy (hydrotherapy) and daily at home therapy. It took quite a while for us. I like to joke I paid for their underwater treadmill. :wink: I've seen other cases that did not take as long, including dogs who picked up spinal walking with only at home PT. It does not necessarily take a long time, but our story shows that healing is continuous, and goes not weeks or months but literally years.
http://www.fourfurfeet.com wrote: This is the story of a small dog who was paralyzed and learned to walk again. She became a reflex walker, and later learned some regular walking, so that now she does both.
The dog I am working with right now reached the 9-month point 3 days ago. He has leg movement and can use his legs to take steps and walk when leaning against a wall for balance, but does not have balance yet. We are still working on it. I still think he is going to walk. If I didn't have experience with the concept of slow recovery, I'd probably have given up by now, but we're still doing PT and making little improvements. :)

Our last update is that we purchased Mickey a cart from handicappedpet.net. We're impressed with the construction of the cart and Mickey is slowly becoming accustomed to it. When motivated (i.e. seeing another person or dog) he's fast on his cart! It's beautiful to see him running and being a dog again. We'll try and load the video we've taken onto YouTube and share them here!
Your photo looks like it belongs on the cover of a calendar! :D Congratulations!!!
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critters
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Re: 3-Year Old Malshi Diagnosed with Stage V IVDD

Post by critters »

:wub:
coxmaria3
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Re: 3-Year Old Malshi Diagnosed with Stage V IVDD

Post by coxmaria3 »

That is the sweetest video! :party:
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