After treatment#1

Here's a quick update and something I was NOT expecting to see at all!  Maybe it's a fluke... but maybe it's not.. time will tell.

Rex has not been able to move at all.  Neither of his back legs have been holding up any weight or moving (unless he's sleeping and running in his sleep ).  His front legs have not moved much at all on their own. He knuckles and can't hold himself up, and when he's been in his wheel chair he's been dragging all 4 of his legs. He has only been able to lift his heads for short periods to eat and drink and even then rests his head on his bowl.  Needless to say he hasn't been able to flip himself or even reposition himself or even roll over, on purpose anyway...  

I took this video about an hour after his first treatment, after watching him push a water bowl out of the way, while still sitting up and then moving his arm to try and turn around. (Back half still not functioning.)  Right after I turned the camera off - figuring this was going to be like watching paint dry for some - he moved his left arm.  After repositioning him to his starting point again, he did it again and again before deciding to take a nap!

It's too early to say anything for sure.. but that just made my day!! and I think it may have made Rex's!

As for Buster... he's moving around a little better I think - hard to say so soon. He can get up on his own and isn't struggling like he normally does but he's still panting quite a bit when he's laying down .. once that stops and the falling down stops and his legs losing strength while he stands to eat or drink and he ends up on the floor, we'll have a better idea if that works..  but seriously - it's only been 1 treatment and we're getting geared up for treatment #2 of the day shortly...

Day 1

We were excited to see the mail truck pull up to the house!!!  The Assisi Loops arrived today!  We immediately read all of the information that came with them... popped open the packaging and slipped them on the pups!

Buster Day 1 Treatment 1

Rex Day 1 Treatment 1

Since Rex has strength in his neck and a little in his front arms and a slight ability to walk with his front arms, we started with the loop around his neck.    After this treatment was over I did his back hips... completely forgetting that I was supposed to let the loop charge for 2 hours after the first treatment.. I got too excited!  I'll remember next time..


Buster was still asleep at the crack of 1pm... so I put the loop on his back hip... you can see the 2 green lights that flash when it's on in his photo.  He slept through his treatment, and woke up and got up on his own and came into the kitchen to look for food and get a drink after. He was walking stiffly but seemed a little better than he normally does but maybe we're just imagining things.. He also has arthritis in his shoulders and he could probably use a treatment there too..  He went for a walk outside.. still seemed a little loopy from his gabapentin last night or maybe sun in his eyes?  But he did manage to step OVER a food bowl on the ground vs. IN it.. which in itself is a huge feat!!

We are assuming that it's going to take 2-6 weeks for us to see a noticeable improvement in Rex since he can't even sit up on his own at this point. He needs help to stand and can't support himself on his back legs. He can eat on his own and is really good at it, but we need to bring his food to him. We have discovered he can run in his sleep (so there are still neural connections that work, and if he's in his wheel chair and we hose him down after he has had an accident.. and the water is cold, he'll jump and try and get out of his cart... he will also lunge at you and try and move his cart if you happen to walk by with a really good smelling chicken quesadilla... and he's try and bite it out of your hand..  In my book.. where there's a will, there's a way..

We think we'll see something positive in Buster much sooner.. but not sure exactly how long.. Miracles are welcome but we also have a lot of patience...   These guys are not our first seniors by any stretch...  Max, or Mighty Max as he's known had his own blog.. http://maxck.blogspot.com  which chronicled his diagnosis with Brain tumors,through Cyberknife, Full Recovery, Rex taking him out on the side of the road, and he hit his head and ended up with a brain bleed/ stroke and in a coma.... with a feeding tube..and when he started to recover he couldn't walk... and didn't have much motor skills, until he started physical therapy and HBOT treatments (We discovered HBOT by accident after a case of Gangrene.. but it was an AMAZING discovery... )  Rex did walk again... and even took steps all by himself unassisted. He crossed at the ripe old age of 20, from a bad case of food poisoning..  we all had it.. but his poor tummy just couldn't take it.. and honestly I think it was his time.  Exactly a year and a half to the day before, Our 20 year old Beagle Buster (we had 2 Busters at the same time) Crossed, and our 19 year old cat Tulsa had crossed a few days before (Dec 17 and 22).. It was a rough Christmas Season and I had tole the rest of the animals, that nobody was allowed to die for at least a year and a half... and Rex took that to heart and it was exactly a year and a half to the minute from when Buster Crossed..

... So anyway... Here we are... The beginning of a new blog.. and a new journey.. with fingers crossed hoping that we'll be able to help these guys feel better and help a lot of other people with our story!

Welcome to Our Blog

We have 2 senior dogs, Rex and Buster.

Rex

Rex is a 16 year old Duck Tolling Retriever who was diagnosed with Degenerative Disk Disease, and also has a great case of arthritis, spondylosis and bad hips... he was also diagnosed with cognitive dysfunction disorder  (doggie dementia- which is kind of funny since he used to be able to turn the handles of doors, let himself out, climb the fence, run around to the front door and ring the door bell... )  We've treated Rex with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and it made a significant impact on him cognitively - at least from our perspective - We haven't done a follow up MRI to see what it looks like inside now.  Rex's current condition is that he can not stand on his own. He can not walk, he can't flip himself over, and he can't sit up on his own without help being propped up.  He CAN eat like a champ, but he has been leaning his head on his water and food bowls unable to lift his head high enough to be fed.. and unless you have a Quesadilla, Cheeseburger, or something else delicious, he requests that you hand feed him!!!

He's been doing physical therapy, getting acupuncture and taking Chinese herbs and when needed he's been given some gabapentin. Since he has liver cirrhosis (which HBOT helped out with !) we're hesitant to put him on a lot of medications so we thought we'd give the Assisi Loop a try.

Buster

Buster is a 14 year old Shepherd Akita Mix, he put on quite a bit of weight after one of our other pups crossed over last year and developed some really bad arthritis and bone spurs in his read hips and he also has spondylosis in his back.  He does well on Gabapentin BUT he walks around drunk and steps on Rex, falls off the dog ramp, falls over and can't always get up.. and when he's taken Gabapentin, no matter what time he took it, he becomes a night walker and sleeps all day.  He seems to have some consistent pain through out the day when he's awake.  He's ok walking around, but as soon as he lays down it seems to hurt and he pants again until he falls asleep.  So we thought we'd try the Assisi Loop on Buster too...

.... and today ... they arrived in the mail!