Need Advice: Possible Stroke/fce/gme/tick Disease

[Guest vahoundlover]

Wonderful news!

[Guest whatahound]

That is wonderful news, thanks for the update.

[Guest paulamariez]

I am so happy that you found out what Jasmine's problem was. That must have really been a scary thing for her to suffer through. I would have been going nuts and researching and questioning everything, just like you did. I will keep your precious little Jasmine in my prayers for a quick and complete recovery! Tiger, Bueller and Domino are sending Jasmine some healing doggie kisses too!

[Guest nikkikaye]

ONE YEAR LATER..... Jasmine is as happy and full of attitude as ever. I would say she regained about 90% of her old agility back. She eats, pees, poops- all the important stuff... perfectly. She does have some left over stuff from the stroke- but only I and a handful of really close to us friends - who knew her pre-stroke- can tell the slightest difference. There are small unimportant things, like she bends her head funny when i scratch herneck. And then more noticeable things like when she occassionally freaks me out with a back leg that wont work for a moment (ie- she holds it up and cant seem to control it , or remember to just put it down..., for a second or 2 and she almost loses her balance just standing....) or a sideways trot that is clearly unintentional... but they are infrequent and insignificant. She doesnt take off at breakneck speeds anymore. She will ocassionally chase after her brother Ben if she is in a playful mood- like when I swim and tease her to come in the ocean.... this game makes her nuts and she gets so animated it's hilarious. A couple of important things I want to say.... First- sorry i write too long posts! Seriously, First- this GT site and medical board DOES make a difference. I cant count how many people have written to me privately in the last year sharing their experience and asking questions.... people who are not even on GT but just read it one time and saw my situation and needed support/ wanted to pick my brain. So, I am glad I took the time to write it all down and I thank all of you who have done the same... i have read countless medical posts/stories and am eternally grateful this site exists. Second, I wanted to mention a little silver lining in this cloud Jasmine and I went through. We have become much closer. Jasmine was a very abused dog who came to me from an abusive track in Miami back in 2002. She was 2 then and horrified of everything- including me. She was my first greyhound- only dog at the time- though I have had dogs my whole life. Although she had tender moments and was always a kisser... from the beginning- she was never an affectionate pet. Little bonding went on the first 2 years. 2 years! She did not leave my bedroom for more than a minute for the 1st 2 years with me. She was never particularily thrilled to see me... or for me to pet/touch her. I had severe rejection issues with her from the beginning. None of my friends even understood why I would bother (until of course they met my 2nd greyhound, the class clown... helped our household with greyhound image issues... thank god! Jas was making the breed look bad!) I was determined to win her over-eventually. Although we had bonded much more in the last few years, i hate to say it- i think this stroke pushed her over the edge. She finally loves me... this tough rock! I cried with her and held her and sang to her and massaged her for weeks while she recovered and i just know it made a difference. Even through her paralysis, when I was doubtful she would make it, I laid down with her, holding her, and sang and sang to her and whispered in her ears like a dork/loser and i am sure the people at the evets think i need to get a life (which is true... ha ha). It's like she finally gets it- this love and trust thing. And ps- just in case you think i dress my dog up a lot-hence she has reason to rebuff me... i dont! It just so happens these 2 pics I sent that got posted had her wearing stupid stuff. I only do that like once a year- i swear!

[Guest tammara]

Wow! What an amazing experience. I am so glad Jasmine has made such a remarkable recovery, and that it has brought you closer! She is beautiful. Thank you so much for taking the time to update, now we need more pictures!

[Guest fastdogs]

Glad to hear that Jas is doing pretty good. I'm very happy for you both.

 

I can tell you now that my first grey, James, had an FCE (spinal stroke) and lost the ability to use his hind quarter. He fought a valiant fight, but didn't recover. He went to the bridge 2 months shy of his 6th birthday.

 

Make the most of your second chance with your girl. Enjoy everyday.

[NeylasMom]

Nikki, I'm so glad to hear she's doing so well. Hoping Ben is as well. You know, his foster mom wouldn't mind updates here and there.

[duncan41]

What a wonderfully happy ending! I know it's not the end and in many ways it's just the beginning of a whole new relationship you have with Jasmine. Oh, isn't it wonderful? Not experiencing nearly the trauma that you went through, but nearly losing Suze to acute renal failure last month has brought many changes to our relationship. She was never a cuddler (the alpha dog not wanting to show her soft side to the alpha Mom), but now will snuggle with me while I rub her belly. She actually will come and get me in the evening, "telling" me that it's time for a belly rub! Oh, I love it! No matter that I crawled into her enclosure twice a day when she was in ICU, rubbed her belly and whispered in her ear the entire time. No matter that when she was able to walk around that I brought her mat from home so that she could lay on something soft and get more belly rubs. But you know all about stuff like that! And like you, I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE THINKS! Get a life? I have exactly the life that I want, except I may need a few more greyt dogs in the future.

Congratulations! And know that you can celebrate Mother's Day in May with the best of them because you are the best!

[MP_the4pack]

Whe I started reading the posts I didn't realize it was a year old. And the first thing I was going to ask was what was her BP.

 

My Pearl, another white/black girl had a TIA 2 months ago. We knew she had hypertension but we thought it was controlled and hadn't done a BP check in 5 months. It wasn't. It was up at 280. Lucky for us, it was extremely mild and it is once again under control and we will monitor it every 6 weeks.

 

I'm glad she's almost completely back to normal.