Re: Newbie! Needing advice re knuckling and stiff feet
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2023 12:27 pm
Replies in blue...
JimmyMac12 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 6:32 pm Hi Carol
Thanks for the encouragement, yes it's great he's attempting to walk but I'm aware it probably won't happen again now for a while as that's how it seems to go.. one minute there's a breakthrough then nothing for ages. I'm sure he'd rather pull me around on the sling given the choice!
Boy does that sound familiar!
https://handicappedpet.net/helppets/viewtopic.php?p=17654#p17654 wrote:She went twice a week for over a month before she started moving her feet on the treadmill. A month later she stood up for a few seconds, but then never did it again for ages. All during her recovery, she would do something new, then not repeat it again until much later. Even though she stood up on that one occasion, it didn't mean she could stand up, she still couldn't.
For what it's worth, some members on this board have noticed that once you get to a certain point where the dog is walking a little, the pace of recovery seems to pick up. It might have seemed glacial before, but you start noticing those little improvements more often. Don't know if that will be the case with your dog or not. I am not a vet, but it kind of makes sense (to me) when you read this excerpt. It can take a long time for nerves to grow back, during which it appears on the outside that little is happening. But when it gets to the point where things start to reconnect, that's when you start to actually see the improvement that has been going on in the background the whole time. The PT you've been doing is helping maximize the recovery.
The biko brace and the new one you mentioned look really cool, I'm not sure like you if it's a good idea to use a cord between his toes where they are stiff. I think I prefer the boots because whenever he just uses his feet he manages to scrape the knuckles, even on the carpet. But it's a great idea and something to think about, if it helped with the wobbling on one side it would be usefulhttps://handicappedpet.net/helppets/viewtopic.php?p=21795#p21795 wrote:NERVE GAPS
On occasion, a short irreducible gap may be encountered without immediate provision for graft repair as described above. In these cases, an alternative approach may be to bring the nerve stumps as close as possible in a dry tissue bed and tack the stumps to the tissue bed with two epineurial sutures in each stump. This will create a nerve gap without continuity. This technique may be used for defects not exceeding 1 cm to 2 cm in length. Successful regeneration across nerve gaps has been reported in the dog and in children.
Something that really worked with my dog was walking down slopes. I don't know how this would work with the knuckling issue, but when you get the boot to keep him from flipping his paw, it might be worth a try. You'd have to sling him back up the slope, but going down he might be able to go solo.
I was reading some of the stuff on Dodgers list and it's made me think maybe I'm being a bit too impatient with his feet, it says they need to re learn how to place them once they can walk, so I don't know. I suppose I should just be so grateful he has got to this stage already, like you said it can take years.
All I know is, scraping up the toes is par for the course. Lots of boo-boos, and it's not surprising if it's driving you crazy, but you're in good company!
I will try and post some stuff on You Tube, but I'm not very good at it so bear with me! I'll let you know when I get the custom boots and hope they'll make a difference.
Would love to see it, if you can. That would be so cool.