Hello,
I adopted Sammy from the Humane Society in 2006, we’ve had a great journey together! Two years ago, he had a very rare accident that they called FCE (fibrocartilaginous embolism), he recovered and was able to walk again…thank god!!!!!! Recently, he has shown significant signs of his back legs being very weak, my vet has him on Adequan….he just took his fourth shot, but I’m not seeing any improvement. I’m wondering if water therapy would help him…he still has so much life, but watching him try to get up is very heart breaking. Also, I’m assuming its very expensive, so I’m not even sure I can afford it.
Please let me know your thoughts, I would greatly appreciate your wisdom!
LH
Hi, L!
I apologize for the delay in my response 🙂 If you got onto my website, you likely saw my info about traveling, etc, and my not always being able to answer quickly!
Glad you & Sammy found each other!
I realized after a couple of years into my independent business that many veterinarians had not ever seen what they knew to be a FCE case, yet due to my particular focus in veterinary rehab, I’ve dealt with dozens of them. Just so you know that I do have a lot of experience with FCEs 🙂 I have created functional improvement programs that work on increasing neuro-muscular strength, based on neuroscience, principles of exercise physiology, and individual needs.
Also good news…
I recommend you go to my website and follow all the instructions on this page:
If you read everything on that page, you will see why that’s the place to start with Sammy now, for FCE or for many other injuries or setbacks. I explain on that page that I intend in the future to make a more specific FCE rehab instruction booklet, but tempis fugit…
If you do follow all the instructions I have on that page, you’ll save over $500 in rehab costs, on average (or more if going to a rehab clinic), and you’ll be using an advanced, dynamic program. Also, if you do follow everything I recommend, you and Sammy should be in the proper condition to move to advanced strength-building and proprioception-improving work. You may contact me again at that point if you’d like to have an evaluation for the next steps!
I also have some supplements and helpful tools listed on my website. Adequan is sometimes helpful for some few pets with arthritis in my experience with 100’s of cases that have tried Adequan for joint pain, however it isn’t something that will automatically help with muscle and nerve strength, which is what it really sounds like Sammy needs. Nothing will help improve function to the best possible in the situation “automatically”, whether you’re wanting to improve neuro-muscular strength, or recover better from surgery or injury in general; we all need to add a functional activity program that suits our particular needs, both humans and other animals, in order to recover beyond “average biological existence”!
Regardless, prior to doing dynamic drills, a foundation always needs to be laid, so my site will help you toward that goal 🙂
Blessings-
Deborah
