Hi Dr Jodie,

We have an 11 year old german shepherd, husky mix. Last fall she started haveing problems with her rear legs. After several tests and visits to our vet we determined the problem to be neuorological, probably Degenerative Myelopathy. We understand there is no "miracle drug" for this type of condition, but would like to do what we can to keep her as strong as possible for as long as possible.

I did a little research on my own and found a number of possible treatment protocols and we decided to follow Dr. RM Clemmons' protocol. We started her on his medication/supplements about a 1 1/2 months ago. The one thing I question is his diet recommendation. He reccommends a homemade diet with pork, tofu, rice and a variety of vegetables. The only commercial food he suggested was Natures recipe vegetarian. Do you have any suggestions for a diet for dogs with this type of condition?

We recently lost our 14 year old shepherd mix and are heartbroken to think we will lose this one so soon.
Thank you

I'm so sorry for you. It is so devastating to lose a pet. We love and need them so much!
I can tell you, Dr. Clemmons was one of my instructors at the Chi Institute in Florida. He is a brilliant neurologist, acupuncturist and really nice man. I am familiar with his protocol. I don't know where you live, but we also stock the Jing Tang herbals that he uses as part of his treatments. I'm sure you're ordering the rest from Westlab Pharmacy?

As far as diet,I am such a huge proponent of raw because I feel that for the most difficult cases, it is important to give the pet all the nutritional tools they need via fresh food to help them "heal" themselves. Also, starch is inflammatory. I feel meat protein is imperative for carnivores and to maintain healthy muscle. Good fats are important for the myelin sheath of nerve tissue. I am not a proponent of soy in carnivores. Personally, I am a vegetarian and love properly prepared tofu! I took Dr. Clemmons food therapy course at Chi. The Oriental philosophy is not very supportive of raw, but their teachings are based on beliefs for humans. Since we are primates, I have no problem disagreeing. I feel the prey-concept/species appropriate diet approach makes the most sense.

Thank you for your fast response.
Yes, we are ordering the supplements from Westlab pharmacy.
I live in South Milwaukee, which isnt too far from your practice. I plan to stop in on my day off to purchase the herbals and see what you offer for supplements and foods.

I would also consider accupuncture treatments if you think that would be an option.

Thank you,

Thank you for introducing yourself when you stopped in. Sorry I was tied up and couldn't chat!
Will I be seeing Shadow to implement some treatment options? Hope all is well...

Hi Dr. Jodie,
When I stopped in I expected you to be with other patients. I just was in the area and wanted to see your facility. Thank you for introducing yourself.
Yes I have an appointment with you on Tuesday afternoon so you can meet Shadow and we can discuss our obtions.
I will have our current vet send over her records.

Karen

Hi Dr. Jodie.
We just came back from our July camping trip. Shadow seems to be doing better. A number of people said she is walking better since we were up in June. We were concerned that she would have trouble walking from our campsite to the beach, but she made the walk every day just fine. She was happy walking in the water, she also went swimming a few times. Her feet weren't scraping, so we didn't need to use the booties much.

Gerry and I both think she has better co-ordination when walking. Also she is not falling down when she urinates or poops. Her legs are still weak from the loss of muscle mass but we are hopeful that if her problems are caused by Lyme's that she might recover with exercise and therapy. She is a fussy eater so transitioning to the new diet has been challenging. I have to give her the food by hand or mix it with other foods she is familiar with.

I plan to make an appointment soon so we can start acupuncture and fine tune her diet.

Thank you for doing what you do

You are so welcome. Glad Shadow had a good vacation! It is common (and recommended) to need to mix familiar foods with the new diet when transitioning. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

Hi Dr. Jodie,
I just wanted to let you know that Shadow got her "Walkin Wheels" on Friday. When it came we set it up in the kitchen and let her investigate it. She sniffed it a little but didn't seem afraid of it. On Saturday morning we took her out into the yard with the harness on and walked around with the wheels near her. After about 15 minutes we connected the harness to the wheels and enticed her to walk with ham pieces. Within 10 minutes she was walking around the yard very naturally.

So then we really got brave and took her to the park. We harnessed her to the wheels, and started walking with her. She followed. We walked our whole route through the park (almost 3 miles). This is the longest walk we've been on in months. She really seamed to enjoy the long walk, in fact when we got back to the car she started heading down another trail as if she wanted to go longer.

I'm really glad we got the wheels for her.

Karen

This is excellent. So happy for you all!

Hi Dr. Jodie,
This post is mostly to update other readers of this post of Shadow's progression, there seems to be interested in this. Her DM is continuing to progress, in spite of everything we have tried. When she was diagnosed (early in 2012) my best hope was that we would be able to stop the progression, I believe we have slowed it with the supplements, food and exercise.
Shadow can no longer walk without assistance. She mostly drags herself around the house and when we take her out we put her in her "Walkin Wheels".
She is still a happy dog, she loves going for long walks and with the wheels we still take her to the park for up to an hour and a half almost every day. She even likes to play with some of the other dogs we meet on our walks. She will actually run after some of her friends. We plan to keep her going as long as she seems happy. She enjoys swimming at K-9 Splash twice a week. I think the best thing for her has been to keep her moving, exercise is very important for a DM dog both physically and mentally.

I thank you for all you have done for her and your honesty about her prognosis. We believe have done everything we can for her which will be a comfort when we finally have to let her go.

Karen