ANNPE and behaviour
Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 2:02 am
Hi, first of all sorry for the long post. My dog experienced a spinal cord injury on Friday. He's been diagnosed with ANNPE. The contusion is quite bad, c. 65%. When it happened he was completely paralysed at the back, but his right leg seems to have recovered. His left leg is very wobbly and weak and he's knuckling his paw. He can stand, but can't get to a standing position by himself. And he can walk, but needs support with a sling.
I found this forum when looking for information and saw the thread about success stories, which was reassuring. But. . .
My dog was diagnosed with hip laxity/dysplasia when he was about 8 months old (also the left side). For various reasons it took a while to get a diagnosis and get pain relief sorted and in the meantime we kept forcing him out for walks (because dogs need walks right) and so he developed behavioural issues and would nip us when he wasn't happy about being handled. We pretty much got the hip thing under control. A period of medication, hydrotherapy and respecting his boundaries all worked out great. But this also left him with a low tolerance for being handled around uncomfortable things. He's an affectionate dog and will let me touch any part of him, but I also know when to back off.
But now I do need to handle him alot. He can't go to his 'place' to opt out. He's muzzle trained, but I am having to put the muzzle on him alot, so I'm worried it'll lose it's association with positive things and he won't want to let me (he nipped me when I tried to put it on him in the night when he was whining as he needed the toilet).
We never properly cracked co-operative care or the bucket game and I am gutted I didn't make that training a priority, but everything was working and here we are now.
I don't know how long it'll take before he can get up by himself. The reassurances in other posts give me hope my dog will recover, but if it takes months or years to walk I am worried about how he'll cope behaviourally and we'll cope emotionally. I have two kids (10 and 13) and they're both upset about our dog's condition and worried that his care will take over. As a result they're being stroppy, which isn't great. I also work full time and can work from home a bit. We have a brilliant dog walker who will do home visits, but what if he bites her!
I'm looking for advice and reassurance on how to cope with a dog's behaviour during recovery and how we can cope emotionally. Thanks x
I found this forum when looking for information and saw the thread about success stories, which was reassuring. But. . .
My dog was diagnosed with hip laxity/dysplasia when he was about 8 months old (also the left side). For various reasons it took a while to get a diagnosis and get pain relief sorted and in the meantime we kept forcing him out for walks (because dogs need walks right) and so he developed behavioural issues and would nip us when he wasn't happy about being handled. We pretty much got the hip thing under control. A period of medication, hydrotherapy and respecting his boundaries all worked out great. But this also left him with a low tolerance for being handled around uncomfortable things. He's an affectionate dog and will let me touch any part of him, but I also know when to back off.
But now I do need to handle him alot. He can't go to his 'place' to opt out. He's muzzle trained, but I am having to put the muzzle on him alot, so I'm worried it'll lose it's association with positive things and he won't want to let me (he nipped me when I tried to put it on him in the night when he was whining as he needed the toilet).
We never properly cracked co-operative care or the bucket game and I am gutted I didn't make that training a priority, but everything was working and here we are now.
I don't know how long it'll take before he can get up by himself. The reassurances in other posts give me hope my dog will recover, but if it takes months or years to walk I am worried about how he'll cope behaviourally and we'll cope emotionally. I have two kids (10 and 13) and they're both upset about our dog's condition and worried that his care will take over. As a result they're being stroppy, which isn't great. I also work full time and can work from home a bit. We have a brilliant dog walker who will do home visits, but what if he bites her!
I'm looking for advice and reassurance on how to cope with a dog's behaviour during recovery and how we can cope emotionally. Thanks x