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Alan's Spinal Cord Injury


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Why does it seem like life is always 2 steps forward and 10 steps back?

 

Alan went down while running last night and we had to rush him to the Vet (they have 24 hr emergency care) he was in lot of pain and could not move his back legs. It was the most frightening thing I have seen. He was dragging his hind legs in circles trying to stand up. The Dr. took x-rays and nothing was broken but they kept him over night and gave him a high dose of steroids and some pain meds. I met with the Ortho. Specialist that evaluated Alan today and he said it is more than likely a spinal cord injury...he is not sure exactly how it happened (slipped disk, clot etc.) he just knows that he has obvious neurological damage. As of this afternoon he remains hospitalized and may be for several days. He can not walk :weep they stand him up and he can bear some weight on his right side but his left side is not well. The ortho Doc said he may improve on his own but these types of injuries can get better then all of a sudden get worse than what the original injury was! he may even need surgery! I am devastated!

 

I feel so helpless and it just breaks my heart to see him that way...

 

Has anyone else been thru a spinal cord injury with their Greyhound? What was recovery like? Did your hound need surgery? Will he ever be able to walk again???

 

I don't ever ask for much from anyone, but I know my fuzzy grumpy old man could sure use some prayers right about now.

 

When Brian gets home from work we are going to the Vet Hospital to see him.

 

*Update 5/30*

We went to see Alan tonight and he got his first acupuncture treatment while we were there. He still will not stand on his own and he can not walk. His left side is much worse than his right side. The staff at the hospital have all fallen in love with him already! He gets LOTS of attention, so, altho I miss him dearly, I know he is in good hands! Brian and I both agree that it would be best to do everything we can for him to help him recover without needing surgery! It sounds as tho this is going to be a long recovery for Alan and he may not even fully recover so I have to try to come to terms with that :( It will absolutely devastate Alan if he can never run again.

I told Alan that everyone was praying for him and he told me to tell you all that he appreciates that ;)

 

*Update 5/31*

I went to see Alan this afternoon and met with the physical therapist and Dr. and they helped me with what we will need to do as far as care and therapy. His diagnosis is FCE - Fibrocartilaginous Embolism (I think I spelled it correctly?) Good news is they are letting him go home tonight, so when Brian gets home from work we will go pick him up. Bad news is that he still can not stand up on his own and he still can not walk. His left leg is very bad...he does not use it at all...when they stand him up it just knuckles under, they straighten it out and it knuckles under again. :( We are going to have a very hard road to recovery but I am going to try and be strong for him and not give up. We did it for Miss Nellie, why should it be any different for him...

I am already working on getting acupuncture treatments lined up for him and I am going to talk to my friend that does Reiki and massage therapy and in a couple of weeks we will get him started on hydro-therapy. I am praying for a full recovery, but at this point I am not totally convinced of that till I see him start to use that back left leg!

Once again, I must thank you all for your support and prayers and well wishes etc... I don't have lots of time to spend on GT and I know lots of you have problems with your hounds too and I wish I had time to respond to everyone with prayers and well wishes, but please know I think about each and everyone of your hounds when they are hurting and I always pray for them even tho I don't have the time to post..you guys are the best :heart

 

*Update 6/2*

We got Alan home Thursday evening and he had a bad night and Friday he seemed to be doing worse so I emailed Dr. Couto and he was out of the country but he told me to talk to Dr. Liliana Marin and they could get us in right away at OSU. So, we loaded up Alan and Maggie and headed for Columbus, OH. They are still saying FCE just because of the nature of the injury and the symptoms presented. They let us take him home Friday night but he may have to go back on Monday and stay thru till Tuesday to have an MRI done. He is feeling deep pain in both rear legs but he can not use his left leg at all and there has been no improvement...he still can not walk at all because his right leg is not 100% either :( I just don't know what to say or think, it deeply saddens me to see him this way but I know we also have to give him time to heal. What's discouraging is not seeing any progress :cry1 His prognosis is neither good nor bad right now because they just don't know when it's an injury of this type. Thanks you for your prayers and well wishes because they are very much needed right now :( I will try to keep everyone updated but he's requiring lots of attention right now and unfortunately, Katie-bug is not doing well either...this week has been awful...

 

*Update 6/3*

I am posting links to some video I took of Alan while we had him outside today. He seems really tired :(

I thought the video would better explain what we are dealing with here. I have a feeling it's going to be a long road to recovery. While he can get up on his own and does take steps you will notice that he does not move that left rear leg and you will also see how it knuckles under. He does still feel deep pain tho and that is the only good news! Thanks for you continued prayers and well wishes for Alan!

Alan's progress 1

Alan's progress 2

Alan's progress 3

 

*Update 6/8*

Yesterday was just awful and I am so exhausted but I owe it to my GT family to update you on Alan. You have all been so wonderful with your prayers, well wishes, helpful hints and just plain caring...most of you caring about a hound that you have never met!

 

First of all I had to leave at 5:30am to be at OSU at 7:30am (Brian couldn't go with me so my Mom came with me to help me out, Miss Maggie went with us too!) So, when I got there I took Al out of the truck carried him over to the grass and as soon as a set him down to do his business he took off like a bullet across the sidewalk and into the street dragging his left leg...I got scared and yelled and ran after him and he lost his balance and fell onto his left hip ripping it open :( I still can't believe he did that because he had not been very mobile and I never even thought twice about putting a leash on him! I was just sick and in tears about it :cry1 I picked him up and carried him into the lobby and they came and took him in immediately to clean up his wound and access his condition.

 

So, after waiting all day for Al to get his blood work and MRI the Dr's finally met with us at 5pm and gave us the bad news...Alan has suffered an FCE and it was very clear on the MRI. If there is any good news, it's that it is NOT a blood clot which is actually worse than an FCE even tho symptoms are very, very similar the blood clot has more complications. The very sad news is that there is a good chance that Alan will never regain use of his left hind limb :weep Amputating the leg is usually not considered because of complications that can happen from that. I am very worried about my boy his weight is down to 58 from the 67 that he weighed over a week ago!! I ordered a real nice walk-about hind end sling and I can't even use it because he lost so much weight that he needs a smaller size sling! He seems very depressed. This is all so stressful for me and I can't imagine having to go thru this everyday with him...the carrying him up and down the stairs, the walking behind him to catch him if he loses his balance, the holding him up so he can poop and not poop on his left foot, the worrying every second about him, the not wanting to take my eyes off of him for one second, the feeling of guilt that we could have prevented this somehow, the knowing that he can never run again, the knowing that his and our lives have changed forever, the not knowing if he will ever be happy again, the being angry at doG etc....I could go on and on about what is running thru my head right now but I will spare you from that...

 

All that being said...we are by no means giving up on him...I am just trying to work thru the many emotions I am having! We are going to get him started on a hydro-therapy program and acupuncture treatments...but most of all he needs lots of prayers!

 

Thru all of this I got the phone call that Katie-bug's ashes are ready :(

 

*Update 6/11*

There is not much to update you on...Alan is still not using his left hind leg :( He is only managing to get around with his "anchor"...He is still losing weight and is acting very depressed. We tried to take him out for a very short walk to try and get his spirits up but it only seemed to discourage him, he kept looking back at the house :( so, we took him for a car ride to get ice cream and he seemed happier about that. He starts his Hydro-therapy on Wednesday so I am hoping that will help, otherwise, the only thing to do is keep praying!

Thank you, once again, for your continued thoughts and prayers for Alan....it means a lot to Brian and I...

Here is Alan enjoying his cabana bed yesterday...

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We have to put a bed at the outside on the ground just below his cabana bed because he almost fell out of it trying to lay down...good thing Brian was there to catch him!

Edited by greytdecals

Suzie Collins

Owner/Artist Skinny Hound Designs

Greyhound decals, magnets and signs.

Fur kids: Isabelle and Petey

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Guest boondog

Oh, no! I don't have any experience with spinal cord injuries, but I wanted to send you hugs and prayers. Please keep us posted.

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Many prayers for Alan! I would consult with a neurologist as soon as you can. If it's a disc, they can operate and help him. There's a lot of good info on line about spinal cord injuries -- I did a lot of reading about spinal cord disease for Cricket. Hopefully it's just temporary inflammation or something reversible. :hope:hope

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Guest ohgreyt

Went through this with my doxie. She dragged her back legs around for many days. Oh I can still see it and it was soooo scary and upsetting. I'm sorry! My doxie recovered though! The vet gave her some muscle relaxers and after 4 days or so she started putting a little weight on one of the back legs. She still walks funny on the one that she had the hardest time with when it happened. But she gets around. Praying that Alan will recover!

Edited by ohgreyt
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I'd find an acupuncture vet asap.

i agree 100000000000%.

Both you and Alan are in my thoughts.

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Sending hugs and prayers for Alan!

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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I am so sorry to read this. I hope Alan improves and will be back up and running. Good thoughts and white light from New Jersey.

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Sending prayers and more prayers and hugs.

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

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Guest greyladydown

Oh, Suzie, I'm so sorry to hear about Alan. My heart dog Cinnamon suffered an FCE and she lost the use of her legs, much like Alan did. She was on high doses of steroids for a couple of days and then she went to see our acupuncture/chiropractic vet in Akron. She made an amazing recovery, and was back to normal in about a month. Unfortunately, she had another episode a few months later and did not recover.

 

PM me if you want more information about our vet.

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Guest Kitty_cat

I'm so sorry to hear this. I had a Doberman with a spinal cord injury: herniated disc. Same as your Grey: he fell while running. His whole back end was paralized, no bowel/bladder control and no moving of hind legs but he could feel "deep pain". 1.5 days later he got operated on by a specialist and within weeks regained most of his functions. What was sad though, was that he had neurological deficits that affected his quality of life and they never went away. Such as the inability to control his bladder, at times he was unable to urinate and at times he was incontinent. And his back legs would bump into door frames or buckle under him etc because he always remained wobbly. The bumping into things created sores that were near impossible to heal since putting an E collar etc on him just made him even more unstable as he walked around. The buckling of legs would re-injure his back and at one point we were thinking we'd have to get another surgery done, but we didn't have another $5000 for that!

The vet thought his recovery was a success because the dog could get around again, but looking back I'm not sure we would have gone ahead with the surgery (the only other option presented to us was euthanasia) had we known what the true outcome would have been. Just my opinion based on my very limited experience with this sort of injury.

You and Alan are in my thoughts, here's to a speedy and full recovery :)

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Oh no...I am so sorry. Sending many prayers and white light. Yes...Angel Sophia had a real bad herniated disc in her neck...we did the accupuncture and chiro...steroids...she would improve but each flare up was worse until she was paralyzed. If it is a disc...often times there is a time window that has to be met for a good outcome with surgery...we did not meet that window because they had to stop her surgery due to bleeding...they had gone in on the anterior approach...the next morning she went back to surgery with a posterior approach...they were able to get the ruptured disc removed but she remained paralyzed and died of respiratory failure. The 2 surgeries...MRI's and CT's were a little over $10,000 and we lost our sweet baby girl the day after her 12th Birthday. We were devastated and in retrospect...we now wish we hadn't messed around with all the treatments but instead went straight to the neurosurgeon...but hindsight is always 20/20 and we wanted to spare her from surgery. Know that my prayers are with you all. :grouphug

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:grouphug

 

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