Nothing is impossible!

Naki'o is the world's first dog to be fitted with a complete set of bionic paws. They work naturally to allow him to run, jump and play like any other dog. Naki'o lost his paws to frostbite as a puppy after he was abandoned in the Nebraska winter by his owners. He was adopted by vet technician Christie Tomlinson. As he grew, Naki'o had difficulty getting around on his stubs, resorting to crawling on his stomach. So last year Tomlinson decided to get him prosthetics. Denver's Orthopets created two for the dog, and after seeing how well he did with them, made another two for free. It's really amazing to see how he jumps and moves around with his new feet!  visit http://www.dogheirs.com/elleng/posts/892-dog-gets-around-with-four-bionic-paws for more info

Max hanging out at Work

Max hanging out at work...

Max's Progress Report

It's Monday night and Max has been home since Thurs night (4 days).  Home care is not for the faint of heart, but we are managing on getting a better schedule together. Max is being very patient with me, and has put up with me squirting food all over him, me, the walls, the ceiling, through the screens on the windows.. (definitely not something I recommend!).  We've mastered expressing his bladder, which I wish I had known about with previous animals!  And he's making some progress!

FEEDINGS:
So.. when Max first came home he was getting fed every 4 hours. His diet is supposed to be Purina EN (gastro-inestinal) which is ok.. not my preferred brand my any stretch of the imagination... but given the situation, I was following doctors orders. HOWEVER.... EN contains rice... rice does not fit through a feeding tube syringe.. even after going through the blender AND the food processor and having water and pumpkin added to it!  This has made the whole feeding tube experience INCREDIBLY frustrating.  Since Max has never eaten Purina in his life (we have only done home cooked raw and organic, or The Honest Kitchen or other organic, grain free, whole food brands) I talked with our holistic vets today and switched him over to WURUVA, grain free Steak Frites. It also has a higher water content and it's been tough to keep him as hydrated as he needs.. so I popped it in the blender with some water and additional pumpkin today and voila!  It slid right through the feeding tube! No issues! No safety pin required to fish out rice particles!  I also can more easily add his chinese herbs.  He's back on his Stasis of the Mansion of the Mind, and the Wei Chi Booster.  He's still taking 1 yunnan baiyao capsule / day to help clear up the bleed in his brain and keep any other bleeds from happening.  I've also added milk thistle and astragalus back to his diet too and just mix the powders from the capsules into his food. In addition I also have added colostrum to help boost his immune system and maybe help rebuild some damaged stuff. ... and I've also added a little polyMVA to see if that helps, but not too much. Don't need his fur to fall out again!  The Vit B complex in it should help though!

THE PROGRESS:
Progress has been very slow. We've had some good days and some flat days but I was told to expect that. Each day he seems to do something new though.  He's still in a coma technically, but he is definitely aware of what's going on around him.  I mentioned that when he was in the hospital he'd do a lot of sighing when the techs when to coupage him or do range of motion exercises or give him meds.. he's still doing that, but he's also doing it when the other dogs get all excited and bark around him (nobody touching him or near him). We know he can hear. Here's what he's done so far:

1. Still stretching all 4 legs and occassionally his neck
2. Slid his head about an inch to the side to readjust (hasn't lifted head yet)
3. Gets really agitated when he has to urinate (once he urinates he's ok and calms down)
4. He has moved his left front paw twice when he's been agitated and needed to urinate - just the paw up and down
5. He also moved his left front paw up and down twice in a row when Buttercup and I sat down with him
6. He is showing resistance when he's doing range of motion exercises and will push back
7. He has slid his left front leg twice to reposition it - just a couple of inches
8. He just stretched and flexed his right front paw (which he is laying on)
9. While his position was being adjusted the other day, he kicked out his left leg to try and push and stop being rotated, definitely purposeful
10. He has flicked the tip of his tail a number of times
11. He licks his nose if you put something on it and can put his tongue right back in his mouth where it belongs.. his tongue is getting much stronger and movements are much more purposeful
12. He can open and close his lower jaw without any issues now. He yawns, stretches his jaw, opens and closes his mouth sometimes just to do it, will open his mouth to try and lift up his head when he's in a sternal position
13. He's grunted a few times but not sure why (could be a reflex or just testing his body)
14. Tonight he barked or growled at me - or some kind of combination
15. Today he pooped for the first time and was pushing hard to poop

EXPRESSING BLADDERS:
Who ever came up with this is GENIUS!! Not only is it a good thing for a dog who won't urinate on their own - which Max WILL do if left to his own devices - I just love the fact that I can help him express his bladder and not worry about accidents!  I received a hand out on how to do it, but there's a video I found of a paralyzed dog having his bladder expressed which was REALLY HELPFUL!

If only Max was a little smaller, and I could hold him over the toilet!  I actually just slide him to the edge of his bed, put a pee pad under him so that his urine goes down hill on the pad and it's an easy clean up!


RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT:
Our house is a single story which makes life a lot easier to move Max around the house. (I've lived in a 4 story house with a golden retriever who couldn't walk and we all ended up moving to the main floor so she wasn't alone!)

1. Diaper Genie
2. Box of pee Pads - the cheapest place to get them I've found is http://www.valuepetsupplies.com/puppy-pads.html
3. A boogie board (to put under the dog bed to help keep his body in line, also helpful to carry him without having him slide off his bed, you can pick him up and put him on your bed, or put him on the floor, and can put the head end of the board on a pillow to raise his head while feeding (head needs to be higher than stomach with the feeding tube)
4. Gauze - to help keep feeding tube ring from digging into his tummy after it's first put in
5. Neosporin - for feeding tube port until it's totally healed
6. Small kids 100% cotton T-shirts or tank tops (wash before you put them on) They should be tight - and are good to cover the body and the port to help keep it clean. You may need to cut the arm pits and neck to make sure it doesn't cut off circulation to your dog's arms or legs
7. A waggon (gardener's wagon, or red wagon) You can lift the whole boogie board with the dog bed on it and put it in/on the wagon and wheel your dog easily from one side of the house to another
8. towels - always have a few extra handy just in case. They are good for proping up the body when you put them sternal, or propping up the head
9. Extra big feeding tube syringes.. It didn't take me long to completely KILL one of the ones I was given!
10. Roll of papertowls
11. Sanitary wipes (women's or baby's will work to clean up accidents - we haven't used these much at all!)

One thing that is HIGHLY .. did I say HIGHLY?!!!  HIGHLY recommended!
If you have a veterinary tech who you can pay as a dog sitter for a day.. take some time off.  It helps to re-energize you, put a new perspective on things, and let's you step back a bit.  Today I had to go to personal appointments I had made a couple of months ago and if I canceled the appointments it would take a couple more months to make them again. Our amazing friend Amanda who is a surgical vet tech came over to feed, rotate, coupage, give Max his meds and check on him did an amazing job! and gave me the piece of mind I needed to be able to run up to my appointments!  (YES I was a total mess.. but the good news is that my blood pressure was actually normal! I still find that hard to believe!)

I'm sure there's more that I can write but sleep deprivation is setting in... I'm about to give Max his 11pm feeding and then we're off to bed for the next 6-7 hours and then we'll wake up and feed again!!! 

Max's Case Study from Bush Veterinary Neurology Services

Below please find Max's original Case Study from Bush Veterinary Neurology Services You can also click on
http://www.bvns.net/up/editor/BVNS_CS_Max.pdf to view as well.   (Working on getting before and after MRI shots of Max's brain to show the brain stem tumor that is completely undetectable now, and the shrinkage of the other brain tumor.)

Home Coming Day!

Just got a call to come pick up Max from the hospital this morning!!!

We have been very fortunate, well mostly through looking for the RIGHT veterinary team and being very careful about who we choose to work with, that we have an AMAZING team of veterinary specialists who never give up! Dr. Lord, Dr. Raichura, Dr. Maniet, Dr. Pema, Dr Bush, Dr. Dumont, Dr. Young, Dr Joseph, Dr Paull, Dr.  Meyer  Dr. Choat, and everyone else in the ER and all of the amazing techs and reception staff who just never give up! Robin, Jenny, Stephanie, Ori, Cheryl, Katie, Regina, Amber, Amanda, Helen, Danielle, Terry, Tina, Julie, Diane, Jenny, Jen, Dan, Eric, Erin, Diana, Shannon, Amy, and anyone else I've forgotten!

Always give the chance, you never know what life will bring you!

It's Monday. Some Improvement!

It's Monday. June 11, 2012.  Max had a weekend full of ups and downs. Fri he showed some improvement with his reflexes and was able to swallow for the first time since his big seizure and going into a coma (induced to stop the seizure).  Saturday was not such a good day.  Max was flat and dull, and didn't reflex respond to much at all. He wasn't swallowing either.  When we went back to visit at night I noticed he had a blood shot eye.

Sunday though was a good day! I spent about 5 hours with him massaging his ears just like a few people had told me to do, from the base of the ear to the tip. Apparently this is like reflexology or similar to hitting all the important points in acupuncture / acupressure to help stimulate the body.  I don't know, but by the time I left last night, his pupil (we could only see one because of the scarring on Max's other eye from when I accidentally dropped him the night before his cyber knife) had gone back to normal size and was responsive to light.  I thought I could see him following people in the Emergency Room but wasn't sure.  He kicked the tech before the tech touched him, he bit me and the tech when we were messing with his mouth. He yawned a few times and pulled his tongue back in and repositioned it where it was supposed to be. He sneezed, he coughed. He looked like he might be able to hold his head up a little when they were coupaging him but it did fall down.  His muscles can shake him head as a reflex but he doesn't quite have the control to hold it up on command like he used to.  He also was swallowing quite a bit.  While I was massaging his ears he also started to pant and opened his mouth and panted that way. When I stopped rubbing he closed his mouth and stopped panting. Still a reflex to regulate his body temp, but something new.   Maybe there is something to that ear rubbing???

They also had reduced his keppra to 100mg 1x day, and reduced a number of his other drugs on Saturday so maybe his body was just adjusting.

This morning's call with his neurologist was encouraging and he said his reflexes were crisp and more consistent. Mentioned his eyes and that when he touched Max he seemed to respond appropriately. He said he thought we had a little improvement! Improvement is good! Of course we still don't know where we will be with regards to brain function until he totally recovers..  He also mentioned we're going to have up and down days, recovery ebbs and flows, so we have to look at it as a big picture vs day by day.  He also mentioned that there isn't a lot of information out there about how dogs recover from coma's, so hopefully what we're doing will help others in similar situations, just like all of my blogging about what Max went through with the brain tumors and the cyber knife.

Today Max is getting a feeding tube put in.  The goal behind doing this is two fold. 1) To give Max more time to recover and 2) Let Max go home to recover at home.  They should be putting it in early afternoon. Then they're not going to use it for 24 hours and then tomorrow they will start with water and see how he absorbs that, and then start on some gruel and see how that goes.

The positive:  He will no longer need his urine bag (which could be a negative from a clean up perspective!) His tummy will hopefully start working, he'll get more nutrients and hopefully be able to get stronger

The negative:  He's going to be pooping now and he can't get up to go out yet!  Good thing we have a big box of pee pee pads from Daisy still!

I was told that I'm going to need to build Max a ramp to sleep on about 6 inches high on one end. Put a yoga mat over it for traction and then his bedding... However, while walking the dogs this morning we saw a bean bag toss toy out in someone's front yard that looks exactly like what we need to build.  Luckly the Local ACE hardware store carries them... might be a very easy solution!  Max also will need small t-shirts to cover his feeding tube and keep it clean, so I've got to go get him a little wardrobe!  (100% cotton - he broke out when he was modeling for Christian Dior at Sax 5th avenue that one time!  Yes Max has been a runway model in his earlier years.. not much he hasn't done!)

Please keep those good positive thoughts coming Max's way for a good strong recovery!  He's making baby steps but he's definitely improving!  I'd love to see him running again!  I keep remembers that he was in a similar position last Sept and he came out of it running and jumping and chasing puppies!  He is a super dog!!!  He deserves a shot at showing the world what he can do!

Max Update 7-8-2012 - He is swallowing!

When I finally got to the hospital today the gang from the neurology dept had left for the day but the ER tech who came to greet me was excited and told me that when she flipped Max a few minutes before she started to see more of a spark in there. She took me back to see him and his eyes were open, he was blinking. His right pupil was responding to light, but the left one isn't yet.  He could move his legs a little, and was able to swallow which I thought was great!  If he can keep it up and keep improving HOPEFULLY we can avoid a feeding tube. 

I put my finger in his ear and he shook his head, however, when I tried to film it, it didn't work that way - he coughed instead.  Not sure he can see yet, but sometimes when I had my hand over his eye (not touching but a few inches away he'd close his eyes.  Still a reflex.. but a lot more than he was doing the day before.  Also when the tech went to inject his keppra into his leg catheter he kicked his leg.  Again, technically a reflex, but more than he was doing the day before and that was a reflex to something that was irritating him so he can feel it.

Please keep the good positive energy coming!  He's doing great!  The ER vet let me know that sometimes it can take 5-10 or more days to come out of a coma, we're on day 5... 

I wanted to post this video for anyone who is dealing with this sort of a thing... don't give up hope too quickly. It may look dire, but sometimes you just need time.