Sadie is suddenly paralyzed

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I'm so glad to see your baby doing better! I didn't notice a single instance where she seemed poorly.

Jazz looks very much like a young Border Collie on my Flyball team. I think there are some lines that are stouter and fuzzier.
 
I thought it would be helpful to cross post this, so its also under a thread called Cod Liver Oil That I started a while back.

I'm looking at fish oil to help with the rehabilitation of Sadie's paralysis. I've decided to revisit giving her an oil supplement since her previous digestive issues have completely gone away.

This is the product that I'll be giving her, I've taken it in the past myself and its great. I highly doubt there is anything in this that her digestive system won't like, its a REALLY great product. I was just wondering if anyone can advise how much I should give her?

http://www.ascentahealth.com/product...riginal-200-ml

Someone previously said they give their sheltie 1000 mg of fish oil, but this has 1500mg of Omega-3's. Should I give her what's considered to be an adult dose then, or half the dose? I looked online about fish oil doses for dogs but different web sites contradict each other.

Sadie is not quite 3 years old, is 17.5-18" tall and weighs 23lbs.
 
danisgoat said:
Can you call the company? They may be able to help you out over the phone.
Click to expand...

Na, I'm not going to bother since its a human product that I'm giving to my dog. I doubt that they'll help me.

I'm going to start with a teaspoon per day. Its probably a bit much but it won't hurt her and she needs all she can get to help her heal.
 
Rehab Time For Sadie

Sadie continues to do well. Her physical progress isn't as noticeable now, but its been a little over 3 weeks, so that was expected.

I got in touch with someone who was rehabilitating a sheltie with a similar spinal injury and she was able to at least encourage some of the things I've been doing as well as make suggestions about supplements.

I've started giving Sadie 1500mg of high quality, human grade fish oil daily, as well as an extra 500mg of glucosamine above what's already in the vibrant pets joint and muscle supplement. I add a little bit of water to Sadie's food to make a sort of gravy and Sadie is in heaven. I'm so glad she's so easy going about everything and not a picky eater.

I've finally had success with weaning her off the prednisone. Tomorrow we go down to one pill a day finally. Although its helped tremendously, I'm REALLY looking forward to getting her off of it.

Sadie is enjoying the swimming so much more than I thought possible. Last night she swam for 45 minutes straight and I finally took her out when I started to look like a prune. She swam around like crazy, chasing her ball. She was happy to bring it to me anywhere in the pool and swam as fast as she could to catch it every time. The pool is an above ground but has stairs that go down instead of a ladder. Sadie just loves jumping off the 3rd highest step thats still in the water so that she can get more forward momentum, its so cute to see. She also loves taking turns bringing the ball to different people and having them throw it for her. Afterward she was just so happy and forever giving me that sheltie smile and rubbing up against me as if to say thanks. Its so nice seeing her act more like her old self and trotting home in contentment.

I brought her with me to see my chiropracter and good friend yesterday. He had a quick look at her and was able to shed some light on the situation. He was shocked that it even happened; he said its rare in humans and pets but it definitely sounded more stroke related than anything else. I told him that I wanted to see someone about rehab suggestions to help her gain strength and he reminded me that its not so much that she needs to gain strength, but that she needs to relearn how to walk properly again with her back legs. Right now when she walks her back feet just slap on the ground when she steps, there's no transition.

Through suggestions of his and some photos I saw on the internet, I was able to come up with a couple of exercises that should help her quite a bit. He said with these and swimming he didn't feel it was necessary to spend money to talk to someone and I'm happy enough with what we came up with that I have to agree. I'm so grateful for his help.

The first exercise is to hold up Sadie's front end and make her walk on her back feet. That would not only help with strength, but also teach her how to take steps again. If I buy an exercise ball for her to lean on it will also help with her balance. I worked with her a bit last night and although she wasn't impressed to have her front feet held up, she happily tried what I wanted and was very proud when I praised her. Such a sweet girl and so eager to learn.

The other exercise involves very low jumps, I think I'll use 2x4's on the sidewalk in front of my house. First I'll set up a bunch lying on their sides and have Sadie walk over them. This will teach her to pick up her feet when she walks as right now her left foot drags a bit. Eventually I'm hoping to stand up the 2x4's to make them a few inches higher.

We have a vet appointment on Saturday so it will be interesting to see what the vet says.
 
Sadie is very lucky to have you as a mom. It sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can to rehabilitate her. I'm so happy with her progress she has made all ready. With all that you are doing for her, she is bound to be back to her normal self soon.
 
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