Questioning the need of a cart for my dog?

[kheartsBuzz]

Hi my name is Kathy, I have a mixed dachshund that was diagnosed with IVDD at the beginning of December. He was completely paralyzed from his hind legs and had lost all bladder control. He is now on his 5th week of crate rest and is completely off medication and we've started to notice improvement! He has his bladder control back and when we take him outside for potty time he actually stands up and tries to walk. Now his walk is not a 100% but we THINK that hes getting there. I don't know if to continue on with therapy and look more into acupuncture or to buy him a cart to help his walk? I know I'm getting antsy but I don't want to waste any time in finding the right cart for him if needed. Advice would be much appreciated!

[Bobbie]

Get a cart now. A cart will help him walk the way a walker or crutches help a human. If you don't need it forever, so much the better!

[Dogdaze]

I would actually say don't bother with a cart--if he is already standing and trying to walk, then he is well on his way and he probably won't need one. Plus, if he's showing that much improvement, it is possible that the cart will cause him to lose motivation in walking, and he might lose strength as well because the cart won't encourage him to use his back legs as much. Your best bet, in my opinion, is to forget the cart and try acupuncture instead. Normally, massage is done in conjunction with the acupuncture, and if he has the feeling and is gaining the strength, I think this is all he will need. We never bothered with a cart for our Basset, who had between 1-3 discs blow, was completely paralysed and without any feeling or reflexes at all, and we were advised to just put her to sleep. It took a good 8 months to get her walking again, but she did it cart-less, and with a combination of acupuncture, massage, water therapy, sand walking, and later, just supporting her tail. It sounds like he is doing phenomenally well without it..

[Bobbie]

I would actually say don't bother with a cart--if he is already standing and trying to walk, then he is well on his way and he probably won't need one. Plus, if he's showing that much improvement, it is possible that the cart will cause him to lose motivation in walking, and he might lose strength as well because the cart won't encourage him to use his back legs as much.

This is EXACTLY what Oliver's former owner was told. A year later, Oliver was still standing and trying to walk, and still couldn't... and still can't. A cart at that stage might have had him walking as he does use his legs in the cart.

[Dogdaze]

I really think it depends on the individual dog, Bobbie..and also on how much time the owner has to devote to their animal's recovery. In Eminence's case, the more "help" we gave her, the less she tried to recover. And also, you stated that the cart would do the same as crutches would for a human, but I disagree with this--crutches in a human is meant to allow the injury to rest until weight can be put on it..however, in this case, the animal has already "rested". He has done his 5 weeks of rest, and it is time to encourage strength. I stand by my advice--acupuncture is better served than a cart at this point--it will revitalize the nerves, which will strengthen the body and encourage walking.

[Bobbie]

Here is another opinion.

http://www.k9carts.com/rehabilitation

My dog is in no way less motivated to walk due to having a cart. He still stands up and tries to walk when he is out of it, and he is stronger for having it. Letting him use a cart isn't doing things FOR him, it is letting him do for himself. I don't carry him places. He isn't dependent on his cart, he moves in the house without it, but without it he got terrible, terrible sores on his feet from dragging.

I am not suggesting anyone skip rehab or acupuncture or other therapies that might help. But the cart will help, too. Can you imagine if you broke your back and the doctor suggested making you crawl because if you had a wheelchair or walker you wouldn't be motivated to walk again?

[Dogdaze]

This was in NO WAY meant as a criticism for what you are doing. I'm sure you're doing what you think is right for your animal, and I am not disputing what you're doing..all I'm saying is, a cart is not NECESSARILY the answer to this person's issues. Yes, carts can be beneficial for some animals but it is not the right thing for everyone. I was only trying to bring in a different perspective with different positive outcomes. There are actually many reasons why an animal doesn't improve. One can be age, another is that different animals respond to different treatments in different ways, and still another could be that the injury is just too severe and it will take a very long time to get better--still others, sad to say, just never get better. I believe the best course of treatment, regardless of recovery theory used, is always a combination of several things because I think you should arm yourself with whatever tools you possibly can in order to promote recovery. Carts are not a recovery tool, they are a PREFERENCE and hopefully a temporary PROP until recovery is reached. The decision to use or not use a cart is absolutely a personal decision.

[CarolC]

I would say a cart can be a tool for recovery, based on my own experience with my dog. It took my dog 9 months to begin to walk a little. (She had a spinal fracture, a complete break where the two parts of the spine were knocked out of line as if they were trying to leapfrog over each other.) When my dog had recovered to the point where she could take a few steps, we ran into a problem that she was just so eager to be active, she would constantly be trying to "drag off to the four corners" of the earth. She would not want to practice her steps, or take the time to place her feet correctly, she wanted to head out, so she would immediately begin dragging, and no amount of telling her to slow down did any good. This included if I tried to tail walk her, away she'd go on her front feet. She was much more interested in darting off to smell things. So literally, when I would come home in the evening, I would put a long scarf around her waist and we would go out the front door with me carrying her hindquarters with the scarf, and she would ***run*** the first half block to the corner, with me running to keep up, carrying her with the scarf. That was how much energy she had. We must have been quite a sight. I used to say, and this is probably a low estimate, we put 500 miles on that scarf before she learned to walk. Maybe you have to have an active breed like a chihuahua to understand.

But anyway, I learned the most valuable lesson...I had to give Katie at least 30 minutes (or more) of really active playtime to get her energy level down, so afterwards we could practice our standing and walking. And I could tell when she would start to settle down. I used to say, the first 30 minutes were hers, the next 30 were mine. If we hadn't done this, honestly she never would have learned to walk, she just would have dragged wherever she wanted to go and never slowed down enough to learn to walk, because slow is not her nature. So do you need a cart? If you can get your dog to hold still and practice walking, placing the feet correctly, maybe you can rehabilitate without a cart. If not, you may need to find some way to get the energy level down so she can focus, which may mean a swim every day, a long sling walk, or letting her burn off her energy in her wheelchair before you practice walking, whatever works. And if you think she will be walking fairly soon, then she isn't suffering so much from lack of freedom and lack of mental stimulation. But with my dog, she went 9 months without being able to walk. 9 months without smelling the mailbox posts would have been too long, 9 months without feeling the wind in her face, and 9 months without the mental stimulation of getting out and seeing the world. I always thought sniffing the mailboxes to her was kind of like window shopping to me, and 9 months without going to the mall would have been a long time. Or maybe it was more like checking Facebook to her. She needed PT twice a day every day, and she needed to be a dog and enjoy doggy things, however we could do that. I was really lucky she was 6 lbs, we could do it really well with a scarf for a sling, but most people have bigger dogs.

[Bobbie]

Carts are not a recovery tool, they are a PREFERENCE and hopefully a temporary PROP until recovery is reached

We will just have to disagree. I believe carts are a very valuable recovery tool.

[LisainCAN]

Carts are not a recovery tool, they are a PREFERENCE and hopefully a temporary PROP until recovery is reached.

I find it ironic that there would be such a complete dismissal of a cart as a necessary recovery aid and yet "acupuncture and massage" be mentioned as absolutely essential. Perhaps in the zealousness to show what worked for your Basset, you forget the testimony of many, many others who would equally advocate a cart as being the only thing that worked for them.

[Dogdaze]

Lisa,

I am not DISMISSING the use of a cart. My point is, and has ALWAYS been that a cart is not a NECESSITY for recovery--meaning, with other methods and techniques, animals CAN and DO recover without them, it just depends on the individual animal. Just to give you a little bit of understanding with regard to the acupuncture, yes, it CAN be a very effective method of treatment that is both less invasive and CHEAPER than surgery, but equally effective. The problem is, you have to choose one or the other--you can NOT do both, because with surgery they pump them with steroids, and steroids actually BLOCK the effects of the acupuncture treatments, causing the acupuncture to either not work at all until the steroids are out of their system, or drastically reduce the effects of acupuncture, again, until the steroids are gone. Therefore, if the owner either can't, or chooses not to do surgery for whatever reason, then steroids are NOT the best way to go, especially if they are considering acupuncture. I say all of this because you need to understand that I also know what I am talking about, but my experiences have been in alternative therapies. Also understand that my experience is not ONLY my dog. I too, have helped countless dogs with alternative therapies, and these animals have recovered from their injuries (or nearly so) using these techniques.

One final point here is, given the situation for this particular animal, I believe my advice was sound, and yes, I STILL stand by my advice whether you agree with me or not--now, had her dog not already done 5 weeks of crate rest, or if he hadn't been showing signs of "taking off running anyday now", then yes, I would have recommended a cart to use IN CONJUCTION WITH additional therapies and techniques. Carts can and do help, but not every paralysed dog needs them, so a cart recommendation should not be automatic..that is all I am saying, and that is all I was EVER saying. And with that said--I will go now. Although I would love to stay and offer my experiences on this board, I think that I can be better utilized on a more holistic board, since that is where my experiences lie..

MODERATOR NOTE: One of our moderators consulted a veterinary acupuncturist, who said steroids can attenuate the effects of acupuncture, but a dog being on them would not stop you from performing acupuncture.