Joey’s Journey

Right after Labor Day, 2009, we headed up to New England to visit some clients; to teach at and then attend the AHVMA annual meeting in Massachusetts; and, maybe catch a day or two of relaxation. The morning after we arrived in Maine, the cell phone rang and it was our sitter telling us he could not find one of the dogs. Needless to say, we definitely imagined all kinds of scenarios but never in our wildest dreams imagined had what finally came to pass.

When they finally found Joey, he had been trapped in the wires behind the TV in the living room, was in pain when moved, and later found to have a severely injured spine. They rushed him to a local conventional veterinarian we use for referrals (Dr. Springer at Skylake Animal Hospital) and she tended to him immediately. Somehow, he had broken his back and it was dislocated at the T13-L1 (behind the rib cage where the thoracic vertebrae meet the lumbar vertebrae). See the x-ray below.

Since the Universe works in wonderful ways, we found that Louise had purchaed a similar (but smaller dog size) treadmill a few years prior for one of her dogs. Puffy had since passed on, so Herb and I picked it up the next day (Karen’s birthday by the way) and set it up here so he could have a home therapy session every day if we wanted. Since he did so well with a loaner cart, we also ordered a custom cart from Eddie’s Wheels (we had met them at the AHVMA conference and were impressed with their product).

He went for more therapy sessions at Dr. Sanchez’s and they were amazed at his progress. We had to go away in early November to Savannah for the AVH (Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy) annual meeting. Joey was still downstairs with Herb though he had spent time in the yard with the other dogs.

This time we were taking no chances and Shoshanna moved in from the start. Things went fine and we came home to even more spoiled dogs (if you can believe that is possible with our crew). They looked at us like “Oh you were gone – didn’t notice since we had Shoshana”. Â When we returned, we knew Herb had to go out of town and it was the perfect time to transition Joey upstairs with all the others. He has been doing well. We continue his therapy with Dr. Sanchez.

Then his new cart arrived! I was a little disappointed because he didn’t seem to take to it right away but with proper adjustment he started to use it more and more. Then, the other night, he took off with the others to bark at a baby possum sitting on the fence at the other end of the yard. He seemed to forget he was on wheels and had a blast.

So this is where we stand in the middle of December, three months after the initial injury.

He seems to have control of his bowels and his bladder although we do expresses his bladder  when we take him out just to be on the safe side.

He does well in this cart and seems to be regaining motion, strength and muscle tone in his back legs though we know this will take more time.

Here he is playing tug with Rhedd in his cart

The other day he actually chased his stuffy while in the cart and seems like a very happy boy.

He has taught us more about the challenges that people face in this situation than we could ever have learned by only treating other people’s animals!

Our good friend Jeanne proofed this for us and added “by sharing Joey and his progress, not only animals but humans can see with treatment, there IS hope.  Miracles is just another name for never giving up”

Jeanne – you are so wise!

Check back for updates on Joey’s progress.

We know we have been away for a few months but things have been busy and productive. Lots of good cases and Joey is still getting weekly therapy at Dr. Sanchez’s wonderful facility. We were dealing with a bladder infection for the past month since he has had trouble emptying his bladder on his own so we needed to put him on some antibiotics (yes we use them if we have too and it is appropriate to the case but do not usually use any homeoapthic remedies at that time). I did start some additional chiropractic since I felt his surgery site was well healed and the other day we thought we saw him take a few weak steps. We managed to get it on the iPhone video and yesterday (14th of March) he took a number of steps. We know this is autonomic (like a reflex) but it shows he can move his back legs more and even did it without his toy in his mouth (see video).

Joey started to decline in the summer of 2017. He started to weaken and get senile – we worked together all through Hurricane Irma and on Sunday, October 8, 2017, he closed his eyes and gently passed on. He had a great quality of life for over 8 years since his injury and we are grateful for the time we had and the many lessons he taught us.