A Looong Update on Sadie's Progress
I was told that with spinal strokes, there was a sort of 3 day, 3 week, 3 month rule. That we should see big improvement in the first 3 days, then it would slow down greatly but after 3 weeks I should see some improvement. Then we'll see even slower improvement until the 3 month mark, where all progress would stop and she'd stay at that point for the rest of her life.
Sadie seems to be breaking all of the rules, to my immense relief.
Sadie's progress is still tremendous. In a little over a week she went from being approximately 75% paralyzed in her back legs, to regaining approximately 80% of her original movement. Its now been a little over two weeks since her collapse and I'd say she's now up to roughly 90% of where she was before her collapse. I can't express how relieved I am that I didn't have time to read up on spinal stroke before I left for my vacation, except for that useful link that Justicemom sent me. I didn't read anywhere of dogs making this kind of progress and all the sites were very bleak. I would have been worried sick (more than I already was) for my whole vacation.
While she's still carrying her back end lower than her front end, she has absolutely no wobble in her back legs anymore and regularly trots around.
She still won't play with Ginny, but seem on the verge of doing so. We try to occupy Ginny to keep her from harassing Sadie (poor Ginny doesn't understand why her best buddy wants nothing to do with her) in hopes that Sadie will start playing again when she's ready. I'm really encouraged because she at least looks interest now, but I think she's afraid of being knocked down.
We've had some trouble with weaning Sadie off of the prednisone. Each time we reduce the dose her progress declines, but shoots back up as soon as the higher dose is resumed again. We've decreased the dose a little more slowly and she's doing awesome so I'm hoping that this works better for her.
Our neighbor has been letting us use their pool and Sadie seems to be loving it. She was a bit unsure at first and just floated around in her life jacket, but once she realized how much fun a pool could be she started swimming around and fetching her ball. After each swim she has an extra spring in her step.
I don't know if its the prednisone, which can make you feel not like your self (from my own personal experience) or if she's just acting out because of all she's been through, but Sadie has been a brat. Getting into things she knows is bad, barking at everything she sees/hears, stealing food from Ginny and simply not listening. HIGHLY unlike Sadie, who is usually my angel. The constant barking has been wearing my patience thin and I resorted to crating her last night for some peace. Crating her seems to calm her down so I think I'm going to start doing it more often when she's barking.
At the same time she hardly ever leaves my side and down right refuses to leave me when she's called by my DH to go potty outside. I'm guessing this is because I've done most of the rehab with her, give her her medicine and spent the most time with her. I hope as she heals she also regains some of her independence. It breaks my heart to see her so unsure, when she used to be very confident. She even makes strange at people and dogs she's known for years.
I'll upload some photos and video of her from our vacation some time today to share. Sorry its taken so long but things are just starting to calm down. TGIF!
