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Vicki (Oklahoma, US) on 03/16/2015

I have a 6 lb. registered male Chihuahua who is now 17 yrs old. One year ago this month, I came home after 8 hrs. at work & found him horribly distressed, hoarse from yelping, unable to move & splayed out on the floor in the middle of a large puddle of water from the water bowl. He could not stand, at all, or move his legs. I took him immediately to my clinic to find out what had happened & left him overnight for treatment. X-ray showed an old untreated injury that I did not know about & was not informed of when it happened & the vet's diagnosis was a combination of that & DM. He held out no hope, hinted that EU would be kind & recommended treatment with Dexamethasone, but no promises. Since I didn't know what else to do at the time, I acquiesced to the vet's recommendation of the steroid.

It made him HORRIBLY sick & did not help at all. It made him severely nauseous & gave him a bloody diarrhea which gave way to an inability to move his bowels without help & difficulty urinating. This was treated by my vet with antibiotics & anti-nausea meds. I began researching that night & eventually found records of a small study done on DM dogs that showed some success using the amino acid lysine. I had already started giving him acidopholus & I had an old bottle of predigested collegen amino acid complex on hand, so began giving him about a teaspoon twice a day on his food. He was very depressed for a while, but in time cheered up & has done nothing but make very slow steady progress since then. He slowly regained the ability to empty his own bladder & bowels & is now able to briefly get around a little on his own. He's now gone through two 16 oz. bottles & is nearly through a third. I hand made him a tiny quad cart, but he's never been in it. He has been kept on fabric surfaces so that if he made the attempt to stand, he would not lose his footing, & he has taken advantage of that. I've had him since he was 6 yrs. old & had noticed for several months prior to finding him paralyzed that he was starting to walk stilt-step on his front legs. I also noticed for years before that he always crossed his front legs slightly when lying on his stomach. His front legs had gone completely rigid when I came home & found him.

(I have a photo of him when he got back from the vet last year, and a short video I made about a month ago)

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Replied By Valerie (Bronx, Ny) on 05/31/2016

Hi all...I have been on the internet trying to find out where we can get our dog's 2 medicines for DM a little cheaper.. We are currently paying about $300 a month for aminocaproic acid 250 mg/ml and acetylcysteine oral 20%, He was diagnosed almost 2 years ago. He will be 9 in November. The medicine has seemed to stabilize him. As we were told there isn't a cure but we can slow down the progression. Does anyone know where to get this medicine cheaper?
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Replied By Karlene (Fort Worth) on 02/05/2017

How is your dog doing now. I have an 18 lb. Pembroke Corgi who is beginning to have a DM problem & would like to know more about the aminocaproic acid 250 mg/ml and acetylcysteine oral 20%,

What is the amount you are giving him etc.?

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Replied By Walter (Vancouver ) on 03/10/2017

Question for Ted: my dog probably has degenerative myelopathy and severe muscle wasting- what can we do to help her? She's 17.

EC: Hi Walter, so sorry but Ted had a stroke June 2015 and is unable to correspond at this time. Perhaps someone else can offer suggestions or check out the posts on this page.

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Replied By TheresaDonate (Mpls., Mn) on 03/14/2017

Theresa

The wonderful Theresa from Minneapolis, MN has been helping pet owners and their beloved pets around the world on Earth Clinic since 2013.

About Theresa

Theresa from Minneapolis was born and raised in the inner city, always wishing she had been raised on a farm.

Her love for creatures great and small began at an early age, starting with caterpillars - which continues to this day, along with an interest in all insects and 'creepy crawlies'.

Theresa's interest in pet health started with a bird keeping hobby at age 14, where she learned from another hobbyist that the simple addition of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in a bird's drinking water kept fungal infections away; she was able to share this with her avian vet who in turn prescribed it to her own clients; Theresa was surprised to learn that she could teach her vet a thing or two. This important lesson - that each of us can be a teacher - was a turning point for Theresa, and  fueled  her quest for the knowledge held in lore,  and remedies passed by word of mouth. That quest for knowledge continues to this day, as new and old remedies alike are explored. She may not have experience with a particular issue, but she will research it to the best of her ability and share what she finds freely, in the hopes that you can heal or improve your pet's health.

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How To Show Theresa Your Appreciation

If you would like to thank Theresa for her helpful posts, she asks if you would please consider making a donation to one of her favorite local rescue organizations, or by making a donation to help the genius contributor, Ted from Bangkok, recover from his stroke.  

http://www.piperslegacy.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Bobo-home/1409993732632080?sk=timeline&ref=page_internal

http://ted.earthclinic.com

Hello Walter,

DM and muscular atrophy go hand in hand; the muscle wasting stems from the DM. You might find tips reading up on ways to treat spinal cord injuries on EC: https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/spinal_cord_injury.html

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