I have just been going through a smilar thing with my dog. He jumped off the bed one night and started to run down the hall...and started screaming. When I ran to him, his hind legs were completely paralyzed and he was unable to get up. I took him to the ER, and the next day to a neurologist....who after a myleogram and a spinal tap, diagnosed him with spinal meningitis. He was put on prednisone.

I hated it, it made a zombie out of him, but I kept him on the pred for a few weeks..but while he stablized quickly, his legs remained weak.

The neuro said I had to keep him on the steriod until he was symptom free and then wean him off of it and see if the symptoms came back. If they did, he said I would have to keep him on whatever minimum dose he needed for the rest of his life.

This was unacceptable to me. I consider supressing the immune system to be just short of barbaric.

I called a homeopath, a chiropractor, and an Aurvedic herbalist. I have him on antioxidents, Transfer Factor (I have been told it balances the immune system and does not boost it) and three Aurvedic formulas to "balance is vata energy". He has also been getting chiro adjustments. I started reducing the pred after two weeks, and have him completely off it now.

It has been two months. He is doing well. There is still some weakness in his legs, but he seems to be slowly overcoming it. He is also on Turmeel (SP), an over the counter homeopathic anti-inflammatory as well, which has helped him a lot, and I may put him on a classical remedy soon.

He is happy, energetic...and his disgestion and elimination have significantly improved. So has his appetite.

This is how I am handling it. Oh yes, I also used Collodial Silver for awhile...but this was not caused by bacteria or virus. I don't think it did anything.

I would strongly suggest working with homeopathy.

Hi,

I really have appreciated the feedback and wanted to give you an update on Tela, my 9 year old sweet Aussie Cattledog/Sherpherd mix. I could also use some advice regarding supporting and healing tela's nervous system. Skullcap is something I give her before bed but I wonder if I should be giving her more or if I should give her Lobelia or Milky Oat. Further down, I explain her twitching while resting which I hope will clear up with the proper herbs or nerve support.
I would also like to know how your dog is doing Razenkane.

As my initial post stated, my Tela was put on both cyclosporine and prednisone, two very ugly drugs to suppress the immune system in order to prevent inflammation. The more I researched the more I began to trust that I could use MSM, systemic enzymes, chinese herbs etc... to reduce Tela's inflammation. I felt confident to discontinue the cyclosporine and reduce the prednisone as quickly as possible. We are now down to 5mg. Tommorow I will skip giving it to her and instead increase her Reishi mushroom from 4 a day to 6. I will probably have to give her the pred on thursday, but I will feel it out.

With her raw diet I give her lecithin to repair nerves, reishi mushroom for immune balancing, adrenal support and everything else wonderful it does, MSM in therapeutic doses to reduce inflammation, 500 mg taurine with breakfast meal, B-vitamins, Vit C, Green Powder, & Chinese herbs. Seperately I give her systemic enzymes to reduce inflammation, kefir yogurt for probiotics, Moducare to balance the immune system, and Transfer Factor because of the benefits of colostrum.

Before bed she gets 1000mg taurine, 3mg melatonin and 40 drops skullcap with pumpkin. Since I started giving this to Tela, she has not had seizures. (a blessing!!!)

A sweet group of people give her distant reiki, she has had a cranial sacral treatment as well as an accupuncture treatment.

I am convinced that this condition, as most, was created from stress and the compromising of her immune system as a pup. Between 8 & 9 WEEKS old, she was dipped for ticks, vaccinated and spayed by the shelter as well as seperated from her mom. Around 8 months or less she began showing signs of noise sensitivity which was probably due to the rabies vaccine, but I can't be certain. One thing I can say was that the noise sensitivity progressed. After her puppy shots, I was not planning on vaccinating her anymore and even avoided registering her. My exboyfriend took her to the vet who told him she was due and he figured it wouldn't be a problem...( I look at her now while typing this and wonder if it was those vaccines that escalated things.) I quickly took her to a holistic vet who had me give her thuja and traumeel, but my guess is that they really didn't do anything. Tela's noise sensitivity increased as she got older and soon aggression developed. My guess is that the noise sensitivity which reduced her rest, took a toll on her nervous system and something painful had developed. I suspect that there were sub-clinical symptoms of the meningoencephalitis OR the "thing" that preceeded and evolved into meningoencephalitis. I suspect that Tela became aggressive with other dogs because 1) she had been attacked by dogs so she had an internal reaction when a dog that concerned her approached 2) that reaction created a tightness or stress response within her 3) that stress response caused pain. 4) she associated that pain with the dog approaching and that pain caused a fight reaction in her.

I would love toknow

I cannot say for sure that it is Skullcap (i gave her skullcap to stop the seizures in September after stopping the meds and seizure medicine end of August) or whether the condition caused a change or a pressure release or something that had developed and was causing pain to "pop" but she has shown no noise sensitivity or aggressive behavior towards dogs since; she is much more balanced and able to handle situations and noise. In fact, if a dog crosses her boundries, she does not get upset but rather reacts normally. No aggression and No noise sensitivity. Go figure. I have been scared to give her too much skullcap so I only give it to her before bed but wonder if I should give her more. One theory is that she has had low grade inflammation causing pressure in her head which caused headaches. Certain noises bothered her because of the pressure which resulted in pain. When her nerves flared due to fear of what a dog was going to do to her, it too created pressure resulting in pain. The only way she new how to stop it with dogs was to attack them to get away... Again, this is just a theory.

*She has been flinching, kicking, twitching whie she rests and I wonder if skullcap would help if I increased it. She is also taking chinese herbs so I didn't want to go overboards. Also, I was afraid too much skullcap might cause seizures because I read that somewhere... Advice would be greatly appreciated.

sorry this is so long, but i figure some of the info. might help someone else, and the details might help someone help Tela.

peace & light,
Brigitte, Tela & Moon