Dog Discussions. Topic: Degenerative Myelopathy

Lee Ann, as a matter of fact, I for one HAVE had experience with this disease. Enoch back in the 70s and into the 80s was dignosed with it at about 10 years when he began draging his back toes. I thought at first it was caused by a back injury sustained when he went over a 36" high jump at a obedience trail held on a conctete floor with no mats - the jump really hurt him. He was at about Jessie's age when he started dragging his back toes and being unable to get around as well as ususal. And that toe-nail scraping sound was dreadfully blood-chilling to listen to. The vet said "and I have to tell you, your dog will die of this; there is no cure'. . . . Well . . . he died 5 years later at 15 years - I had him PTS because of a painful cancer in his upper jaw bone. . . and he was STILL WALKING.

Enoch's brother also had DM and by the time Enoch was due to be helped out of his painful life, his brother could no longer walk at all so they departed together - both age 15 years. We had taken in his brother in in his later life; I think his early years were kinda lacking in good care.

His daughter got DM a little later in her life and I began to think it was heriditary. She lived to be able to walk though until 15 years when her brain completely mixed up her left back leg mixed up with her right back leg and nothing would work right so PTS.

It was right about that time when I became convenced that 'you are what you eat' and started researching what helps nerves to see what the dogs might be missing. I found that Vitamin E is essental for strong nerves and began giving all the dogs a 200 IU softgels of mixed tocopherols (as d-Alpha Tocopherol, d-Beta, d-Gamma and D-Delta Tocopherols) and did that for many years and have never had another dog dragging toes since. At that time I was feeding pretty much kibble dog food with just a lttle ground beef mixed in. The dog food hype was 'all you ad is love' - ha! That kibble they made back then was very lacking in any of the oils - Vit E being an oil - also not enough fatty acids.

I still get the Vit E caps for myself, however, from Puritan's Pride item No. 450 at www.puritan.com

Since Jimmy came into my life, I have switched to 'Hair of the Dog" which contains Vit E and I'm hoping in enough quantity - Jimmy thinks softgels are NOT food and its dificult to get Vit E caps into him. He finds them in a ball of ground beef until he won't even take a ball of ground beef from me at all. I'm surley trying to get him to eat non-food. I got tired of stuffing them down his throat.

Hair of the Dog is a fatty acid, antioxidant suppliment with Vit E. I also feed steamed eggs every day (very soft-boiled) and eggs are high in Vit E and very digestible for dogs.
I have Shasta still - she is just shy of 14 years and Enoch's great-grand daugher and no toe dragging.

I do believe that you could forstall the progress of the disease by adding Vit E. The omega fatty acids and antioxidents in Hair of the Dog would be helpful also. You might call DocsBlend and ask for advice. This product is made by a vet; when you phone you talk to his wife, Ruth and you could ask to talk to the Doc. Thier web site is www.DocsBlend.com Be sure to say Pat Porter sent you.

Anyway, back to the dogs that had DM, they all lived full lives - I consider 15 a full life. I di make sure they had non-skid rugs walk on. And while they couldn't run around full-tilt and couldn't climb stairs towards the end, they were in no real pain from the condition. I do believe that adding the Vit E helped to stall the progression for the daughter.

With regards to having 'the gene' for the condition, they are now saying that we all have genes for wellness and genes for sickness . . . the idea is to trigger the wellness not the disease.

They 'say' that nerves do not grow back, do not regenerate - BUT it seems that nerve impulses can be improved. A couple of years ago, I was at my holistic vet's office and a boxer was being carried in - the dog's back legs were stiff - they would not even stay under her. I thought -oh,dear - they must be going to put her to sleep. But everyone in the office was so happy, including the owner. The vet put a little clip on each of her back toes and turned on the power on a black box and the legs began to MOVE! Vet said she was turning up the power for a short time. Then the clips were taken off and the dog got up and WALKED out of the office! Something about 'electromagnetic"? . . . if you send a message back to the brain, it will start sending messages back out. My own physician got one of these boxes and calls it a 'magnetic cellular exerciser' - phanonenal! That reminds me, on that same theroy, TTouch can be very effective for DM.

I hope these experiences give you some encouragement. I have found that the dogs adjust to DM just like they can adjust to vision loss or anythng else - they adapt just like we do. We learn to count our blessing and so do dogs. All the best to you and Jessie. With warmth - Pat

Pat Porter, Brandon Bluff Belgians Boring, Oregon