Border Collie

[E. maculata]

our 11 year old Border Collie had a similar thing today

took him to the vet turns out he has had heart failure & has no circulation with little hope of recovery

as he has been fighting another illness for the past 5 weeks or so we had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him to sleep

Watch his mate, they know, ours got morose and almost lost the plot when we lost our old collie, got him another mate and he has a new lease on life.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Update.

Ally still cant walk but has shown improvement is her back right leg and can take her weight on it when supported in upright position.

She uses this leg to help push herself around. The left back leg is pretty much useless, but has a small amount of deep pain responce.

So we are keeping Ally going as she seems quite relaxed about it all, in the hope she will continue to improve.

Cheers and thank you all for your comments.

Rod

[rod@plasterbrok]

By the way I am sorry for not letting you know earlier haven't been around so much in the last 2 weeks.

Thanks again.

[Gumby]

Thanks Rod. Sounds a bit more promising.

[Zed]

I've had GSD's - they also can lose thier back legs. Its kinder to let em go.... nothing more undiginfied than crapping in your own bed. animals hate the smell of thier own feaces and will hold it in as long as possible causing them great pain and distress...

get a puppy the day after - it will ease the loss.

Cheers

[rod@plasterbrok]

A report.

About 4 weeks ago Ally started standing up with her weight on one back leg.

Over the 4 weeks she has progressed to getting around walking on 3 legs. We take her out onto the golf couse every night using a towel to help take her weight a bit. Now she can walk about 200m on her own.

The vet suggests we have the other leg removed as it causes her to lose ballance. She should be able to get around normally but on three legs very soon. Unbelievable eh!!

Patience pays off.

Cheers

[Clinton1]

good to hear Rod.... a hard decision to for you to make, but dogs are worth the hard decisions the buggers make you think about.

[Bluegum]

Hope it all goes well Rod, we own a BC and I think some how they just get under your skin and really get into your heart. Clinton is right as dogs really do know how to make you think about things. I remember last year when we lost our red cattle dog to a brown snake just how hard it was. Please keep us updated mate and we really do hope that she picks up.

[McFly]

Good to hear Rod. I am a vet so I know what a hard decision it can be to decide if you should wait for a paralysis problem to come right or not. It can certainly take time to see improvements.
I suspect your girl may have had a condition called fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE). This tends to be a sudden onset problem in larger breed dogs, it can sometimes look like they have been shot when running around. It is caused by a small piece of cartilage from the disc which blocks off the blood supply to part of the spinal cord. The lack of blood causes damage to the cord and loss of sensation and nervous supply to parts of the body behind the lesion. It doesn't show up on xrays but the signs are similar to a prolapsed disc so xrays help to evaluate this possibility. Frequently one side is affected worse than the other side of the body.
There is no addtional treatment for this problem so it wouldn't have affected how to treat Ally if this was known for sure to be the cause of the paralysis.
Good on you for your patience. It certainly pays to wait sometimes.
BTW - if the other leg is not functional then amputation will certainly make life easier for Ally.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Thank you very much for that information. That is exactly how things went. We have been stalling having the other leg amputated in hope it may come good as well. It has shown some small signs of improvement. When we walk her she will take about 12 steps with this leg functioning but without taking any weight.

We had heard stories of dogs that suddenly became paralysed recovering after 12 months so we decided to look after her and see what happened.

The amazement when she first stood up was incredible. Now to see her hopping around and standing up to eat, etc. is exciting.

I will post some more updates here. I am amazed that so many people here are caring enough to post their support.

Cheers Rod