Coonhound Paralysis

[DukeDixie]

Hi everyone,

We are new here and looking for advice, ideas, anyone who has been through this...... anything really.

One of our Foxies has Coonhound Paralysis.

It's been nearly 2 weeks since the first signs. He was at the vet, we picked him up last night. He now just needs nursing and his specialist says he has an 80% chance of making a full recovery :D

Has anyone been through this?

It's so sad to see our boy like this, he can only move his head ATM and today has started to try wag his tail.

[fifi]

Sorry, not heard of coonhound paralysis, do you mean FCE - FibrocartilaginousEmbolism ?

Treatment for FCE is usually steroidal and the sooner upon discovery of the paralysis the better the chances.

fifi

[sas]

Never heard of it so looked it up.... 2007 thread from this forum about it: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=115181

Edited November 13, 2010 by sas

[fifi]

Thank you SAS, makes more sense now, just hadn't heard that term used for those illnesses before.

fifi

[lucylotto]

Hi everyone,

We are new here and looking for advice, ideas, anyone who has been through this...... anything really.

One of our Foxies has Coonhound Paralysis.

It's been nearly 2 weeks since the first signs. He was at the vet, we picked him up last night. He now just needs nursing and his specialist says he has an 80% chance of making a full recovery

Has anyone been through this?

It's so sad to see our boy like this, he can only move his head ATM and today has started to try wag his tail.

Hi DukeDixie,our little chi had idiopathicpolyradiculoneuritis this time last year. we live in the ilawarra region NSW. He was also paralysed to the neck but didn't effect his breathing. Was 2 weeks in specialist hospital and then we nursed him at home back to a full recovery over 3-4 months. We had some calls about him as there was a 'spate' of this in the illawarra last year and 'they' were trying to figure out a pattern. didn't know what the 'trigger' was. Now this year after advantix, interceptor and vaccination he has developed it again but in a much milder form with only the back legs. He lost his apetite and strength in his back legs 3 weeks ago but is now eating and walking but slowly and carefully - if he goes too fast on slippery surfaces hehis back legs splay and he can't get himself up.

last year we fed him a special high protein food by hand, turned him regularly and manually gently exercised his legs. We would take him outside and hold him up on the grass and he would wee. he pooed every 2nd or 3rd day but occasionally he went too long and the vet had to help clean out his bowel. I found that if we held him up right on the grass and let him take his weight gradually he built muscle tone as he gradually regained movement. first in back legs, then in front legs. He started walking short distances, 1metre, 5 metres, 20 m, 50, 100 200 etc and we waked him regularly to build him up.

This happened in Sept and he was fully recovered by january.

We are hoping tha it will only take a few weeks this time.

The vet and us have decided that this little doggie gets no heartworm, vaccinations, any chemical that is absorbed from now on as we don't know what it is but something is triggering this immune type response.

Good luck with your little one.