Dog with nerve degeneration

[Guest guest]

Greetings, all!

 

I am new to this group and am really enjoying the high level of

conversation and info-sharing here. Thanks for being here!

 

I have a small dog with a disease for which Western medicine has

less than nothing to offer. (When I took her in 3 years ago, the

vet's solution was to put this 9 year old dog through major

exploratory spinal surgery to see if the problem was evident, and

then if it looked operable to put her through another major spinal

surgery, which might or might not solve the problem, all to the tune

of about $4000. No way was I going to spend a year's grocery money

to pay someone to traumatize and kill my dog.) I found a

naturopathic vet who believed the dog had something known

as " degenerative myelopathy, " basically a canine version of MS,

where the immune system was for some reason attacking the nerve

myelin in her spine. (She wasn't presenting like a ruptured disc or

tumor, other problems which can cause the same lack of control over

hind legs.)

 

At the time I had not even begun to explore the whole area of

naturopathic medicine for myself, and this vet was really not much

better than my allopathic one for explaining the what and why of her

treatments, so I'm not really sure of exactly what was done...except

that she gave her sulfur for a while which seemed to work, and a

number of different herbal treatments to boost the immune system.

When these stopped having any effect, she tried raindrop therapy

(which is SO not recommended in general aromatherapy circles, which

I wish I'd known 2 years ago!), with the result of immediately

seeming to cure the problem for about 2 days, and then within a week

the dog went from being able to walk only slightly to not being able

to walk at all. (Thus began my own journey into wanting to learn

MYSELF how to work for whole-body health, rather than putting blind

faith in my doctors, allopathic or naturopathic! I wish I'd known

then what I know now, about so many things...)

 

Anyway, this poor dog has been through a heck of a lot, and although

she's not in pain and her quality of life is on the whole quite good

she has very little sensation or muscle tone remaining in her hind

legs and can barely prop herself up on them. I'm still giving her

fish oil and feeding her natural food, but I'm not sure where to go

from here.

 

She's 13 lbs. of cranky old lady, basically, who's not interested in

a lot of serious physical therapy (she's 12 years old, after all),

but I'd put her through if anyone had any serious ideas for

improving her quality of life and/or mobility for what time she has

left.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas, or know of any time-tested

naturopathic responses to MS or any nerve myelin disorders?

 

Many thanks,

Jennifer

musician and mom of 3 year old and 8 month old humans, 12 year old

terrier, and 7 year old wiener dog