![JJ & Gwyn [GA]](/FDMB/data/avatars/m/0/167.jpg?1419296044){kind=avatar}
JJ & Gwyn [GA]
Active Member
> When I stand her up she wants to fall to the side. I deff. think it's a imbalancement (if that's a word) lol ..
Gwyn suffered vestibular problems after at least four of her strokes (imbalance, dizziness, etc). I know pretty close to nothing about the extended effects of severe hypoglycemia, but my *suspicion* is that, if it were muscle weakness due to severe hypoglycemia, that it would manifest in both sides equally. So that's something you may want to discuss with your vet.
> But when i do that she now sits up on her own, not to long, but this is the first time I have seen that since she has
> been on the steriods. Eventually while she in the sitting position she will fall to the side.
I'm assuming it's always to the same side?
> if I try to make her walk, her front legs stay in the same spot and she does a nose dive to the floor. It's like her brain
> can't tell her legs to move forward. And when she sleeps, she twitches constantly. She has never done that before. We
> sleep with her on the floor in the living room, since our bedroom is upstairs and we don't want to leave her.
When Gwyn had her third stroke, it was a saddle thrombus, though we didn't figure that out until later. She was unable to deliberately use her hind legs, and her front legs weren't very strong. And, like her other strokes, it left her left side weaker than her right. We ran bunches of tests and did everything we could to help her: every 2-3 hours, we turned her so she was less at risk for pressure sores, and we'd offer her food and water, and carry her to the litterbox and hold her in place if she needed to go. She sometimes had problems going if we were holding her, so we eventually compromised: we laid a clean bath towel across half the litterbox, and lay her on her side, with her butt sticking over the edge of the towel and over the litter. We'd leave her there for about five minutes, then come pick her up. That cut down on the clean-up tremendously.
For anything washable that gets urine on it, stick it in the regular laundry cycle, and add a cup of white vinegar to the detergent; that'll remove the smell of the urine. If it's something thick, like a pillow, you might try two cups of white vinegar. Some stores carry white vinegar in gallon jugs; in my area, prices range from 1.89 to 3.29, so it may be worth checking out prices.
When we offered Gwyn food and water, we propped her up on her side a bit, and we'd hold the dishes in place. We used a shallow bowl for the food, and tilted it toward her at about a 45-degree angle. The stroke had affected the strength and dexterity of her tongue, so it was a lot easier for her to eat if she could push the food against the bottom of the bowl and sort of shovel things in that way. We also added more liquid to her food and made sure it was well-pureed, as the dexterity problems meant that she had problems eating chunky foods or foods that were solid-packed that she would normally have broken up with her tongue. We also held the water bowl at an angle, so that she didn't need to arch her neck up and over the side of the bowl and then down to reach the water. We'd offer food, then water, break for a minute or so, then food, then water again, rotating until she indicated that she was no longer hungry or thirsty.
We also stopped by a medical supply store and special-ordered an egg crate mattress with one-inch cones (all the ones they had in stock were 3- or 4-inch cones). We then cut the mattress into four pieces, and put each one inside a contractor-quality garbage bags (these are extremely heavy-duty trash bags that they use on construction sites), then duct-taped the bags shut. We put each of the pads in different locations, and covered them with bath towels. The egg crate mattresses reduce the risk of pressure sores, then trash bags kept them clean and dry, and the towels made it more comfortable for Gwyn to lie on and also soaked up urine when she went. If she did urinate on one, we'd throw the towel in the wash, and wipe the pad down with white vinegar before covering it with a fresh towel.
You can also reduce the risk of pressure sores by (as much as possible) keeping whatever Princess is lying on as wrinkle-free as possible. And also try to keep the whatever side she's lying on as dry as possible. So if she urinates, after you clean up, make sure that the damp side is up in the air and the dry side is down. To rotate Gwyn, we'd reach down and gently take all four of her paws in our hands and roll her onto her back. We'd let her get in a really good stretch there, then gently roll her to her other side, and then move her back to the center of the pallet by moving the towel into place.
If you decide to use bath towels like we did, you may want to get a cheap set at WalMart or something; Gwyn's claws would catch in the terrycloth and the towels eventually got some holes from pulled strings. If that happens to you, you can sew around the edge of the hole (about half an inch inside the hole) with a sewing machine, and then cut the loose strings out from the center; that kept our holes from growing any larger.
> When we wake up, a lot of the wee we pads we have on the floor for her are shreaded from her kicking her feet all
> night, while she is sleeping.
After her saddle thrombus, Gwyn also started having seizures, and all four of her limbs were involved in the seizures. It was one of the things that kept us hopeful. I obviously have no idea exactly what happened to Princess or whether she'll fully recover or not. With Gwyn, she was very much herself: awake, alert, not in pain, and mostly content with her life. We'd sit outside with her, or put her in front of the patio door with the screen in place so she could smell the outdoors and watch the squirrels and birds and everything, and we'd carry her around the house with us -- give us time together and keep her upright and mobile, etc. We also did physical therapy with her, kept moving her limbs so that they wouldn't stiffen up and it might help keep her muscle tone.
About seven weeks after the stroke, I woke up from a nap and rolled over to check on her, but she wasn't there. I immediately semi-panicked and checked all the other dozen or so locations I might normally have left her -- no joy. Of course, my mind immediately went to those stories of pet who crawl off alone to GA, and I *completely* freaked. I raced frantically around the place, checking under and behind furniture, calling her name and trying to find her. I did eventually find her, about 30 feet away from where I originally left her. Something happened and she decided she needed to pee and was tired of wetting herself, so she just got up and took herself to the litterbox on her own. She was on her way back from the litterbox to the living room when she got tired and stopped for a break. I spent most of the day crying in relief. Gwyn was a bit unstable on her feet, but she made a fairly speedy recovery and was walking around like absolutely nothing had ever happened a few weeks after that.
> Also I have a question for you: Princess has been Hyperthyriod for years now and Has been on Methamazole. Is it
> ok to give her the reg. dose she gets of methamozole with predinisolone??
I'm afraid that this isn't something I can help you with; I have absolutely no experience with either hyper-T or Methimazole (tapazole). You might try asking if other folks have any knowledge on the subject. If you do, you might try starting a new topic on it; the title of this thread focusses on the hypo/not-walking thing and there are certainly folks out there who have experience with hyper-T who know nothing about hypo/not-walking and who therefore aren't reading this thread.
HTH --
Jean and her Gwyn
PS: Oh, hey -- are her front legs crossed, one in front of the other? That happened with a couple of Gwyn's strokes; the neurologist said that it was a classic sign of neurological impairment, but she did get better and start walking again after each of those strokes. Even after recovering from her first four strokes, the only real sign that she had ever had them was that her head titled slightly to the left, and her left ear and left eyelid drooped just the tiniest bit; her walking was fine. Again, I have no idea exactly what happened to Princess, nor her chances of recovery; I can only pass on my own experiences and the strategies that we developed to help us cope.
Gwyn suffered vestibular problems after at least four of her strokes (imbalance, dizziness, etc). I know pretty close to nothing about the extended effects of severe hypoglycemia, but my *suspicion* is that, if it were muscle weakness due to severe hypoglycemia, that it would manifest in both sides equally. So that's something you may want to discuss with your vet.
> But when i do that she now sits up on her own, not to long, but this is the first time I have seen that since she has
> been on the steriods. Eventually while she in the sitting position she will fall to the side.
I'm assuming it's always to the same side?
> if I try to make her walk, her front legs stay in the same spot and she does a nose dive to the floor. It's like her brain
> can't tell her legs to move forward. And when she sleeps, she twitches constantly. She has never done that before. We
> sleep with her on the floor in the living room, since our bedroom is upstairs and we don't want to leave her.
When Gwyn had her third stroke, it was a saddle thrombus, though we didn't figure that out until later. She was unable to deliberately use her hind legs, and her front legs weren't very strong. And, like her other strokes, it left her left side weaker than her right. We ran bunches of tests and did everything we could to help her: every 2-3 hours, we turned her so she was less at risk for pressure sores, and we'd offer her food and water, and carry her to the litterbox and hold her in place if she needed to go. She sometimes had problems going if we were holding her, so we eventually compromised: we laid a clean bath towel across half the litterbox, and lay her on her side, with her butt sticking over the edge of the towel and over the litter. We'd leave her there for about five minutes, then come pick her up. That cut down on the clean-up tremendously.
For anything washable that gets urine on it, stick it in the regular laundry cycle, and add a cup of white vinegar to the detergent; that'll remove the smell of the urine. If it's something thick, like a pillow, you might try two cups of white vinegar. Some stores carry white vinegar in gallon jugs; in my area, prices range from 1.89 to 3.29, so it may be worth checking out prices.
When we offered Gwyn food and water, we propped her up on her side a bit, and we'd hold the dishes in place. We used a shallow bowl for the food, and tilted it toward her at about a 45-degree angle. The stroke had affected the strength and dexterity of her tongue, so it was a lot easier for her to eat if she could push the food against the bottom of the bowl and sort of shovel things in that way. We also added more liquid to her food and made sure it was well-pureed, as the dexterity problems meant that she had problems eating chunky foods or foods that were solid-packed that she would normally have broken up with her tongue. We also held the water bowl at an angle, so that she didn't need to arch her neck up and over the side of the bowl and then down to reach the water. We'd offer food, then water, break for a minute or so, then food, then water again, rotating until she indicated that she was no longer hungry or thirsty.
We also stopped by a medical supply store and special-ordered an egg crate mattress with one-inch cones (all the ones they had in stock were 3- or 4-inch cones). We then cut the mattress into four pieces, and put each one inside a contractor-quality garbage bags (these are extremely heavy-duty trash bags that they use on construction sites), then duct-taped the bags shut. We put each of the pads in different locations, and covered them with bath towels. The egg crate mattresses reduce the risk of pressure sores, then trash bags kept them clean and dry, and the towels made it more comfortable for Gwyn to lie on and also soaked up urine when she went. If she did urinate on one, we'd throw the towel in the wash, and wipe the pad down with white vinegar before covering it with a fresh towel.
You can also reduce the risk of pressure sores by (as much as possible) keeping whatever Princess is lying on as wrinkle-free as possible. And also try to keep the whatever side she's lying on as dry as possible. So if she urinates, after you clean up, make sure that the damp side is up in the air and the dry side is down. To rotate Gwyn, we'd reach down and gently take all four of her paws in our hands and roll her onto her back. We'd let her get in a really good stretch there, then gently roll her to her other side, and then move her back to the center of the pallet by moving the towel into place.
If you decide to use bath towels like we did, you may want to get a cheap set at WalMart or something; Gwyn's claws would catch in the terrycloth and the towels eventually got some holes from pulled strings. If that happens to you, you can sew around the edge of the hole (about half an inch inside the hole) with a sewing machine, and then cut the loose strings out from the center; that kept our holes from growing any larger.
> When we wake up, a lot of the wee we pads we have on the floor for her are shreaded from her kicking her feet all
> night, while she is sleeping.
After her saddle thrombus, Gwyn also started having seizures, and all four of her limbs were involved in the seizures. It was one of the things that kept us hopeful. I obviously have no idea exactly what happened to Princess or whether she'll fully recover or not. With Gwyn, she was very much herself: awake, alert, not in pain, and mostly content with her life. We'd sit outside with her, or put her in front of the patio door with the screen in place so she could smell the outdoors and watch the squirrels and birds and everything, and we'd carry her around the house with us -- give us time together and keep her upright and mobile, etc. We also did physical therapy with her, kept moving her limbs so that they wouldn't stiffen up and it might help keep her muscle tone.
About seven weeks after the stroke, I woke up from a nap and rolled over to check on her, but she wasn't there. I immediately semi-panicked and checked all the other dozen or so locations I might normally have left her -- no joy. Of course, my mind immediately went to those stories of pet who crawl off alone to GA, and I *completely* freaked. I raced frantically around the place, checking under and behind furniture, calling her name and trying to find her. I did eventually find her, about 30 feet away from where I originally left her. Something happened and she decided she needed to pee and was tired of wetting herself, so she just got up and took herself to the litterbox on her own. She was on her way back from the litterbox to the living room when she got tired and stopped for a break. I spent most of the day crying in relief. Gwyn was a bit unstable on her feet, but she made a fairly speedy recovery and was walking around like absolutely nothing had ever happened a few weeks after that.
> Also I have a question for you: Princess has been Hyperthyriod for years now and Has been on Methamazole. Is it
> ok to give her the reg. dose she gets of methamozole with predinisolone??
I'm afraid that this isn't something I can help you with; I have absolutely no experience with either hyper-T or Methimazole (tapazole). You might try asking if other folks have any knowledge on the subject. If you do, you might try starting a new topic on it; the title of this thread focusses on the hypo/not-walking thing and there are certainly folks out there who have experience with hyper-T who know nothing about hypo/not-walking and who therefore aren't reading this thread.
HTH --
Jean and her Gwyn
PS: Oh, hey -- are her front legs crossed, one in front of the other? That happened with a couple of Gwyn's strokes; the neurologist said that it was a classic sign of neurological impairment, but she did get better and start walking again after each of those strokes. Even after recovering from her first four strokes, the only real sign that she had ever had them was that her head titled slightly to the left, and her left ear and left eyelid drooped just the tiniest bit; her walking was fine. Again, I have no idea exactly what happened to Princess, nor her chances of recovery; I can only pass on my own experiences and the strategies that we developed to help us cope.
