It has been 11 days since our eight-year-old shepherd, Chesney, suddenly lost the use of her back legs. It has been eight days since she was supposed to be walking again. I would like nothing more than to share good news of her progress.
I would like to tell you that her supplements, acupuncture, massage, laser treatments and healing music were doing the trick. But alas, I have nothing new to report. Nothing has changed over the course of the last 11 days – aside from us learning to live with what is apparently our new normal.
There was one day last week that gave me a glimmer of hope – her tail moved a bit, and her back feet curled on my hand when I was working her legs. But then it went away the next day and hasn’t returned. She can still pull her tail close to her body (but can’t wag) and she still will pull her legs away if I tickle her toes. This isn’t new – it’s been what she can do since the day that whatever happened…happened.
This is tough – when our 13 year old shepherd (Lily) went down several years ago, we knew what to do. She went to the vet and was kindly released from her failed body. We knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that our old girl was ready to go – she told us with her eyes. This is different – Chesney is only eight and aside from zero use of her hind end, she is in good health. There was no slowly declining health…there was nothing to give us an inclining that something was amiss – nothing.
We will continue to do this as long as Chesney tells us that she wants us to – the day that she tells us no more, then we stop. In the meantime, I am hoping that my own back holds up – it has never been great, and this is taxing my abilities to the extreme. Every night I fall into bed in pain – each morning I wake up the same way. Caring for a paralyzed dog is no joke – my hat is off to each and every one of you who has been through (or is currently going through) the same situation. It. Is.Hard.
Thank you for continuing to send Chesney your positive, healing thoughts – I have lost hope that she will get better, but we will continue doing what we are doing for as long as we can.
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The miracle I pray for…
I hear a lot of people saying CBD oil does wonders. Never tried it but am going to. Can’t hurt to try and find out. Any hope at this point is worth a try.
Keeping you in our prayers. How I hate to see you have to go through this with your beautiful Chesney and having two 8 year olds myself I understand where you are coming from, I would be doing the same. I wish you strength as you deal with this.
So many thoughts and prayers are with you! Please don’t ever give up on Chesney!
I went through the same thing with a rescued German Sheperd whose parents left her outside with her sister 24/7 and when I found out her sister had been stolen from the yard, I had to do something to let the owner know you don’t leave dogs out 24/7 all year round. I noticed Cookie was walking lop-sided and limping, I talked to the owner about adopting her and he was relieved but I was ready to hit him for the crappy life she had with him as her owner.. She was able to walk for three years, but slowly was losing the ability to stand and then one day, the same thing that happened to Chesney happened to Cookie, she sat down on the sidewalk by my house where we used to walk. I had to pick her up off the sidewalk, and put her on the neighbor’s grass while I went home to get help to bring her in the house. It is degenerative myelopathy and it doesn’t go away unfortunately, but all the treatments you’re doing will help a little…went through the same thing…as long as her mind is kept active and she doesn’t fall into depression which happens because she can’t walk.
I ordered these from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ENL0JJO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I went through a few boxes per month, bathed her daily so she wouldn’t full of pee and poop..she fortunately didn’t have soft poops so it was easy to clean her up, and I cooked all her meals, really good stuff and tried to keep her as happy as possible..I totally empathize with what you’re going through .
You could get a walker wheelchair…https://www.amazon.com/Walkin-Wheels-Dog-Wheelchair-Veterinarian/dp/B01BT84IN6/ref=sr_1_8_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1546290354&sr=8-8&keywords=dog%2Bwheelchairs%2Bfor%2Bparalyzed%2Bback%2Blegs&th=1#
actually we don’t believe that this is DM because it was sudden onset with nothing leading up to it – one day she was fine, the next she wasn’t. She didn’t have the hallmark traits of dragging feet or swaying legs – just paralyzed.
Prayers for Chesney.
Prayers for beautiful Chesney.
Elite K-9 Special Operations harness works wonders to help you lift your dog. We use it on our paralyzed dogs. It costs $150 but it’s worth it. Elite K-9.com
Hi, wondering if the vet is doing electro-acupuncture w/ her treatments? or is that the same as laser? This did seem to help my dog w/ stenosis. Did the antibiotics for bladder infection help infection? Those definitely impacted my dog’s ability to walk. I suppose they’ve ruled out trauma? Did they consider doing an MRI? Sorry to fire off questions just trying to think how I would proceed in same case. I can’t remember if you saw a neurologist? CBD might be useful for her comfort and reducing inflammation. I used it when I broke my arm.Nuleaf Naturals (online) is a reputable brand and they have one for pets too. (Hope is ok to say name, just that the quality of many products is dubious). I hope they are able to find an answer for your girl. I think I would want an MRI as things don’t seem to be changing (I might have missed a comment, maybe you did this). Sending healing energy to Chesney & all of you.