Update on Sadie

I'm not sure where to begin. Maybe that I just spent 30 minutes submitting all of her medical bills to my pet insurance company. Or the fact that she has so many medicine and supplements that I had to buy her a weekly pill pack so I could keep it all straight. Or that she was doing so great recently and then suffered another major setback. 

Receiving Acupuncture

Let me start at the beginning. At my last update in mid August, we were seeing a neurologist and taking things slow to help her recovery. She had a follow up appointment and they basically recommended surgery for her again. After putting her through this when she was 14 months old and not having much success, not to mention the cost of that surgery and rehabilitation - I was not going to put her or us through that again. So they pretty much said well maybe she can do some treadmill walking and that may help. Gee thanks. Since I said no to surgery they pretty much wrote me off. So I spent hours pouring over medical research. What I read had real results was acupuncture. So I found a great DVM (vet doctor) who also did acupuncture in early October.

By this time, she had a host of issues. This doctor came in to my home, got on the floor with my dog and within the first 5 minutes diagnosed a urinary tract infection that I didn't even suspect she had. She put her hands all over Sadie and knew exactly what we were dealing with so from there she formulated a plan. She asked me what I wanted. I said I needed someone to partner with me to help her get better - to find solutions when I didn't want to put her through surgery and not abandon her care when I didn't choose a certain approach. Luckily, she agreed. Together, we weaned her off the dangerous steroids that the neurologist prescribed and put her on more natural supplements along with some pain meds that she needed. She had 30-45 minute sessions of electrical acupuncture every 10 days along with some adjustments and was doing great...feeling better...and making real progress.

However, last Tuesday she suffered a major setback. I had just taken her for a walk around the block (something we hadn't done in months but she was doing so well). I dropped her leash in the driveway to haul my garbage cans from the curb to my garage. That's when Sadie thought to herself, hey, I'm doing so great, I'm going to run the 50 yard dash up the mulch side of the driveway like I used to do when I was a bit more healthy - you know just for fun. Well, she didn't get more than 10 yards before she went down. I ran to help her up and she immediately started limping. Not even wanting to put pressure on her back right leg. To get her back inside, I had to haul her up to our house - thank God she was wearing a help me up harness. Her doctor/acupuncturist was just coming back from vacation and I wanted Sadie to see her and also wait and see if over the next few days she would start walking and not limping again. She didn't. Tom and I had to haul her in and out of the house just to go to the bathroom for a few days. Lots of fun for me considering she's 105 pounds! And she was terrified of going up and down the stairs because she wasn't sure of herself on the stairs.

Finally, my doctor came yesterday and diagnosed her with a partial tear in the ligament in her knee. Apparently when she fell, Sadie also did a number to her front shoulder too. She adjusted her, applied electrical acupuncture, gave her more natural meds for tendon/ligament healing as well as more pain meds and another anti-inflammatory to help her lameness. Now we wait and heal. Not sure how long. But I'm hoping for a better 2020 for my baby. She doesn't deserve this at just 3.5 years old.

Water therapy w/ peanut butter on glass to get her to walk

Side profile electrical acupuncture

Meds!