I have had so many people contact me because their special and precious dog has become paralyzed and they are asking for help. What do they do now? How do you handle this? How do you deal with the emotional stress of this huge life changing event? What is the next step? Where can you get help?

I have answered many of these emails personally and tried to help where I could. I must stress that I am not a veterinarian. We must all rely on the expertise of those trained in the care of our beloved animals.  But the Veterinarian does not come home with you and your newly paralyzed pet, no one is there to hold your hand and give you guidance or answer your questions. I know this because it all happened to me.

Yes, when my Isabel became paralyzed there were no answers. No one to help. I searched the internet and nothing came from my searching. There simply was nothing out there, that was six years ago. Today there are more choices and more people trying to help. Including myself.

Does this mean there are more paralyzed dogs than their used to be? I don’t think so. I think people are just much more comfortable with using the internet and there are more people comfortable with putting the information they are searching for out there. It is a good marriage. When people need information and ask for it, other people who write online have figured out how to give them what they need.

So I am in the unique position of loving and owning a paralyzed dog. And learning the ins and outs of this through trial and error and have figured out things that work very well, and other things that are just dumb. As I said before I have tried to help a lot of people, but it is on a one to one basis. So now I have created help that anyone can use anytime without waiting for me to respond.  It is a site I have created called Care Of A Paralyzed Dog, kind of catchy isn’t it?

Please feel free to bookmark it so you can refer to it often. My Isabel was the Model for the site and she had a great time making videos and posing for photos.I hope you find it helpful and I hope your paralyzed dog is going to benefit and that your lives will improve and become joyful. Just remember, It is not hopeless. It is never hopeless.

Care Of A Paralyzed Dog

A Website with some answers about caring for and loving a paralyzed dog.

Isabel, My paralyzed dog on wheels

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It may surprise you to know that while price can hint at quality, a high price does not always mean a good quality pet food. There are many factors that determine what the final price tag on a bag of pet food will be. To note, we are primarily talking about dry kibble as for cats and dogs in this article.
 
The Ingredients are a big contributing fact to the price of a cat or dog food. Quality ingredients drive a price up, cheap ones, enable the manufacturer to sell the food for less. We will not discuss every ingredient here, just some of the most common.

Be aware that ingredients… From: Pet Food Prices Why Are Some Cheap and Others Expensive

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I shared with you all how our Isabel became very very ill a few weeks ago. And due to her paralysis we made a near fatal mistake in recognizing the symptoms in this dog and we mistakenly blamed her symptoms on a Urinary tract infection. If you missed that post, you can learn here how the tainted chicken jerky affected ourParalyzed Belgian Sheepdog,

It just seemed to take a long time for her to get better. We’d think things were improving and she just never stayed on an even keel for a few weeks. But she finally turned the corner and it was such a relief to see her feeling better, and having some energy and some interest in her life again. I tell you it was frightening.

The new treats we are giving her that are made in America, are great. She loves them and she is doing very well with her health. So I am not at all hesitant to give them to her. I think we have beat it once and for all.

So to lighten the mood to go along with our Isabel’s return to good health, I wanted to share this very cute video. It is hysterical. And makes me laugh every time, something we have really needed after our long spell of worry. Enjoy!

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Everyone Knows how I feel about Puppy Mills. My Abigail came from a puppy mill and worse yet, we didn’t even find that out for weeks after we purchased her. It was one of those situations where she was sold by a puppy mill to a dog broker who supposedly is reputable, then he sells to individuals and to pet stores. Well no matter how you white wash it, it is despicable, and needs to be stopped.

A friend of mine over at Associated Content fro Yahoo, Michele Starkey, has written an article that really needs your attention. Here is an excerpt. Please got to the article because at the end is a link to a form you can fill out to speak to your legislature no matter where you live, to help put a stop to this nightmare.

I’m counting on you, the puppies need us.

According to the ASPCA and several members of the U.S. House of Representatives, there is a giant-sized loophole in U.S. law concerning puppy mills. Breeders who sell to puppy brokers and pet stores have to be USDA
licensed but those who sell directly to the public are NOT monitored by the USDA.

The Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety (PUPS) Act has appeared in past Congressional sessions, but has always timed out. Why has the Congress let this Act time out? Inquiring minds want to know.

read the rest of this article

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A very frightening health crisis with my paralyzed dog, Isabel happened in the past month. I wanted to share with you so maybe you don’t have to go through this with your dog.

Isabel became acutely ill. The usual dog symptoms of a paralyzed dog and urinary tract infection did not seem to be occurring and she has never been sick with any other symptoms so we were at a loss. We watched her closely for about a week and she just didn’t get any better, The main thing we noticed at this time was lack of interest in her walk. She was still eating and drinking in fact she was drinking a lot, but not enough to worry us. Then she began having diarrhea, of course this is a huge concern because she for sure will get an UTI. A dog in diapers can not tolerate having diarrhea without infecting themselves. So I did my best to keep her clean and gave her Immodium to stop the diarrhea.

Next she developed vomiting several times. Nothing was in the vomit like undigested food or anything, but she stopped eating. She would still drink and a lot, more than usual, The thing to worry about with a dog with excessive thirst and urinating a lot is diabetes. So we were worried but still watching.

We decided she was having too many dog treats. Maybe her partially paralyzed bowel and being ten years old, was just causing her not to be able to cope with the harsh jerky treats. She wouldn’t eat her chow but she still wanted her treats. We gave her the Costco Kingdom Pets Chicken Jerky Treats, in fact she has eaten them for years, long before her paralysis, so we thought nothing of it, in fact we were glad she would eat anything. Well then I saw in her vomit a bit of the jerky undigested and that was that. We stopped the jerky, She could only have her lamb and rice cookie treats from then on.

Well lo and behold she started to improve after a couple of days. No further diarrhea or vomiting and she slowed down on her water and she nibbled her regular chow at last.

Well coincidentally, one of her favorite treats was the Costco Kingdom Pets sweet potato and chicken jerky wrap treats. I thought the sweet potato would be much more gentle to her stomach and bowel. Our Costco stopped carrying it and so I went online to see if I could find them since we decided the other jerky treat was too harsh for her ten-year old paralyzed bowel to handle.

Wow, what a surprise I found! Do a search on Google for Kingdom Pets Chicken jerky dog treats. You are going to find post after post of concerned pet owners that have fed their pets these treats and they have sick dogs and some have dead dogs. It was shocking to us. I couldn’t believe it. I was killing my beloved pet by giving her tainted chicken from China. Are you kidding me? Who can you trust?

My Isabel had every dog symptom listed on the websites, many many websites. Diarrhea, vomiting, excessive thirst, increased urination, lack of appetite, and lethargy. The next step for her would have been kidney failure and then death.

I actually believe her dog paralysis is what saved her because I blamed her partially paralyzed bowel on not being able to handle the treats. Not the treats causing the problem.

Here is an excerpt of the ABC’s report on this subject:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about chicken jerky for dogs, saying some products imported from China may be associated with 70 reports of dogs who became ill or died.  That number is up from 54 reports last year, the agency indicated.

 

Finish reading this ABC News Post Chicken Jerky Treats Linked to Illnesses in Dogs

I am happy to say she is healthy and completely back to normal. We caught it in time and for whatever reason paralysis or dumb luck the events of this story are having a happy ending. I do hope any of you reading this will save your dogs too.

Needless to say we went on an all out search for dog treats made in the USA. At first not such an easy task, but we did find a couple that Isabel likes. One is Steak House Treat Company’s Lamb Cuts, treats for dogs, carried by Costco. The other is

Yummy Chummies, Wild Alaska Salman, Soft N Chewy that Costco also sells. Also cookies made with chicken, steak, peanut butter and lamb, lots of choices. She seems to like them all. She will never eat anything from China ever again. Neither will we!

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