Just as we were getting ready to finalise everything, finish the website and launch the brand, something sad happened. Vesper, one of our Guru Pets - a 3 year old Frenchie - suddenly woke up one day and couldn't use her back legs at all. We were understandably distraught as she tried in vain to drag herself around, losing bladder control in the process. She was clearly in pain and oh how we wished she could talk to let us know what had happened and where the pain actually was.
Once at the vet's the diagnosis was unclear (suspected slipped disc) without the vast expense of an MRI scan and then the high likelihood that she'd need surgery. Of course, we're not daft, we had insurance, but it's only in situations like this that you really read the detail and the detail made it quite clear that these were not financially viable options for us.
So we made daily visits to the vet for the next few days to visit her while they monitored her to see if there was any improvement at all or if we would have to face life ahead with a paraplegic, incontinent dog.
There were tiny glimmers of hope - a paw retraction when pressed, regained control of her bladder and no signs of her being in pain anymore, but still no strength or movement in her back legs at all.
After 3 days we bought her home to be in familiar surroundings, keeping her safely in a small room by day and in a crate at night. Repositioning her legs into more natural positions whenever she lay or sat on them weirdly. We used a scarf to support her back legs when taking her outside to the toilet, which was soon replaced with a pelvic harness. Paw booties that resembled miniature dog crocs were a godsend to stop her scraping all the skin off her toes. And much massaging and slow bicycling of her hind legs followed.
Little by little movement started to return and she began to try and walk on them again, but her paws remained upside down and she sat with her legs to the side instead of retracted beneath her. We rejoiced the first time she held her feet correctly when going to the toilet and cheered when she lay flat on her stomach with her legs out behind her again - that glorious Frenchie pose!
The vet was very pleased at her progress and through the help and guidance of a local physiotherapist, Synergy Small Animal Rehabilitation who we visit weekly for laser therapy and a new exercise regime, she is now a lot stronger on her back legs, her paws are positioned correctly almost all of the time and she has more awareness of her back legs. We can now go on little walks, although when she tires she still loses balance at the back and needs assistance.
She is by no means normal yet, and we will probably never be able to throw a ball for her again (which is incredibly sad because she absolutely loved charging hard and leaping high to catch it in her jaws), but we are ever so grateful that she has recovered to such an extent in the 6 weeks since it happened.
She still doesn't have the run of the house or the garden and looks longingly at the stairs whenever we go up them, but she seems happy enough in herself and is as flatulent and destructive as ever!
We'll keep you posted on her progress....