Living with CDRM.

In January of 1996 I had three GSD's. Prince almost eleven, Sabre, who was Prince's son, then coming up for nine, and Lady a spayed rescued bitch aged three and a half. Both prince and Sabre were strong and incredibly healthy dogs.
During a regular walk on Wimbledon Common I noticed that Prince and Lady were, as usual, jumping over fallen trees, Sabre was walking around them. This was not normal behavior for lunatic Sabre and it caused me to look more closely. He was limping very slightly on his left leg. 'Probably trodden on something' I thought while making a mental note to take him to the vets if he was still limping in a couple of days. He was, so I took him.
The initials CDRM meant nothing to me. "Could be a degenerative condition, untreatable if it is". I rejected this as being impossible. Not my Sabre, not this huge, fit wonderful dog. They had got it wrong, there was a simple explanation. A couple of referrals later, a long telephone call with a friend in GSD Welfare and I realised that it was CDRM and the prognosis was not good. A matter of months most said.
A cart had been suggested for when he could no longer use his back legs. I had immediately rejected this "It wouldn't be fair for him" "How do you know what he would consider fair?" Half accepting this, I filed the idea away. If this was a degenerative condition affecting the nerves how about a spinal injuries unit? I telephoned one. The nurse I spoke to suggested physiotherapy. ACPAT found me one in Hemel Hampstead. Though never having treat a CDRM patient she spoke with the vet and worked out a series of simple exercises.
We arrived for our first session early. As I walked towards a nearby piece of grass with him he staggered every few steps, tripped and fell. The look of puzzlement was agonising. As he attempted to squat he would suddenly fall backwards. It tore me apart watching him. He needed to improve his base of support. There was a tendency to stand with both paws together as though balancing on the tip of a triangle. He had lost the feeling in his left leg and along with it awareness of where that leg was. His muscles needed strengthening. She said I should do the exercises 5 to 6 times a day for him. He staggered off.
On our return the following week he walked all the way to the green and back without falling over once. Over the weeks he got better and better until she said she no longer needed to see us but to continue with the exercises.
A friend's wife telephoned to say that, although she told very few people, she was a faith healer. Though terrified of dogs, GSD's in particular, would I like her to try to help Sabre? I would have accepted help from any quarter and said yes. Sabres first few visits to her were not a success. Though friendly and loving of a fuss her touch clearly disturbed him. (I now realise this to be a good sign) and he would move away from her after just a minute. Try as she did he allowed her a minute or so before moving away. Over the weeks though, the periods grew until he would go over and lie at her feet. As she placed her hands above him he would let out a great sigh of contentment and go into a deep sleep for exactly 20 minutes.
Though he could walk it was an odd gait that twisted the left rear paw and caused it to bleed. He was in fact creating almost his own pad on the side of the foot. All types of doggie boot were tried without success. In the end it was down to begging friends for old socks , neighbours scoured charity shops. My sock pile grew.
Prince had been suffering with arthritis for a couple of years and was on PLT. In September of 1996 the vet examined Prince and said "I am sorry to have to say this but I think Prince also has CDRM. The arthritis symptoms have masked the onset of it". Having arthritis there was no way we could manipulate the joints with physiotherapy as we had Sabre's. Prince began to slowly decline. We still took them out daily but the walks were now shorter. I ordered a cart and when it arrived took the other two out of the room and simply put Prince into it. He stood for a few minutes and then howled. "There, I knew it wouldn't work". I said, taking him out. It was put up in the loft. The company said it would take about a fortnight of perseverance to get him to accept it. I felt he never would.
We found a hydrotherapy pool at Stokechurch and took them all to it. Sabre hated it. Lady ran around the pool barking but Prince loved it. He would swim around with a yellow floating bone in his mouth for the entire 20 minutes. Eventually I used to take him on his own twice a week. One day while watching him swimming I realsied that he was only using his front legs. He had realised that with the flotation device he didn't need to use his rear legs so while his front half was like Arnold Swartenshepherd the rear was not really being helped.
By April of 1998 Prince could only manage half a dozen steps without falling down again. We would drive to the common, let Sabre and Lady out and then I would hold Prince's tail, not holding him up by it but counterbalancing him. As he started to go down on the left I would turn his tail to the right and he could stay up those few extra steps. He was so brave and tried so hard but he was fighting a battle neither of us could hope to win. I decided with a heavy heart that we would try him again in his cart and if he never took to it, which I firmly believed he wouldn't, he would have to be put to sleep for this simply was not fair on him.
On Saturday morning leaving Sabre and Lady at home I took Prince to the local Common. We fitted him into the cart and clipped the lead on incase he paniced and ran off. His eyes were fastened on the ball I held, it was his favorite possession. I did a couple of make believe throws and then threw it down the path. he was gone. Two weeks! More like 2 seconds. He took to it like he had been born in one. Grabbing the ball he went to turn when a 5 month old bitch passed him. This 13 year old Casanova was flying along after her. I could not believe it. After 10 minutes or so I left him with a friend and went back to the car to fetch Sabre and Lady. This would be the next test. How would they take to him in a cart and he to them? On my return they spotted each other and ran to meet. The cart got a quick inspection and a sniff then they were off like in the good old days.
Prince was a highly intelligent member of the GSD community and as such he loved a game. Long before CDRM we had devised a game whereby we would separate on any mown grass surface, steal Sabre's ball and then throw it across the grass between us. Sabre would be feinting right and left to try to guess which side the ball would pass him. Prince had joined in on the first occasion. By the second time he had figured it out and simply stood in the middle. The ball would have to pass under him and he would dribble it away until Sabre got there. It was a game we hadn't played for years. Would he remember it? Could he play it in the cart? You bet. He got it wrong for the first couple of times. He would be facing in the wrong direction watching the game over his shoulder but then the penny dropped. Parking the cart in the middle he would rush after the ball, to assist we tailored our speed to his reduced rate. Sabre rolling along before parking the cart on top of the ball. We never let on that we could just have taken it from beneath him but always let him keep it once it was there. On Sabres arrival he would move backwards and then let Sabre take the now exposed ball.
People would stop and ask us about the cart. We had very few adverse comments because just looking at him one could see how happy he was. Occasionally I would be offered a redundant cart from somebody who's dog had died. I began collecting these and loaning them out to people who could not afford the cost of them. In this way I had placed a few dogs on wheels and all of them had taken to it enthusiastically. I found and joined the e-mail community DegenMyelopathy@onelist.com
which was a group of people who owned or had owned dogs with this illness. DM being the American term for the illness. The group have a web site http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dmroster/index.html
At the point of my joining most members were very much anti cart due to a bad experience by one member. When I started telling them the carting stories and sending out pictures the questions came thick and fast. Eventually one of them decided to try what I was saying and ordered a cart from Eddies Wheels in the USA. On receiving it she mailed me for advice and eventually we spoke on the phone as I led her through the procedure to ensure successful acceptance. Later that day I downloaded my letters and there was Shauna, proudly in her cart with a near hysterical letter from Debbie saying how happy she was and how wonderful it was to see Shauna walking again. Following that the carts snowballed, Florida, Buffalo, texas, all of them sending thank you letters for encouraging them to try a cart.
Prince had become incontinent, or so we were told. We dealt with it by laying plastic sheeting on the floor with cut up washing machine size blankets and bought lots of disinfectant. Sometimes he would do a low howl during the night and we would say "Shut up you silly old fool". I bought men's incontinence underpants, cut them up the side seam so the pad would go sideways and fitted nappy booster pads in before fastening this to him of a night. This went on for 3 months until the vet asked if we could take him out of the cart for a heart check. I apologised as he peed on the floor. "Oh, don't worry. His bladder will be full. I'll empty it for him" With that she gently squeezed him around his stomach and he peed into a bowl. It transpired that he was not incontinent but had lost the ability to work his own bladder I was so upset to think that he ahd laid in agony for months with us thinking he was incontinent. After asking that I be shown what to do I took care of that department for him. We had prince's peeing spots and he was dry after that.
In May of 1999 I took Prince out for his early morning pee and it was blood. At 14 years of age his kidneys were failing. We rushed him to the vets and knew it was time to say good-bye to an incredibly courageous old boy. I drove him to Ongar where he was cremated. The following week a young girl phoned to say she had been given my number by the Blue Cross. Did I have a cart for her 12 year old Misty. I said I had a cart but I didn't know whether or not it would fit. We drove to Highgate. The resemblance to prince was uncanny. She even made his Yoho noise. The cart almost fitted. Misty took off immediately and like a little old lady in a pair of shoes that were really too big she was off across Waterlow Park. A group of tourists visiting Karl Marx tomb stopped to watch her pass. When I said it was her first go at it they all cheered her.
Four weeks after Prince died Sabre had a stroke which paralysed one of his front legs. We tried in vain for a week to save him but it was hopeless. He could not stand on his own. This was worse than loosing Prince. I had time to sit with him and talk to him knowing this would be the last time. I stroked his head and looked into his eyes as he went. "Go find Prince, Sabre, he is waiting for you in the forest by the lake", I took him to Ongar to be with his dad and wrote this: Prince and Sabres Poem
Sabre joined his dad today,
we are sad and miss him so.
His time on earth was over
we just had to let him go.
We held him and we hugged him
as he quickly slipped away,
to leave a useless shell behind him
while Sabre sped off to play.
Perhaps old Prince was lonely,
He always was the cunning one,
maybe he tricked an angel
into coming to fetch his son.
I know they are together now
though much sooner than was fair,
I'll remember them forever,
an irreplaceable, wonderful pair.
With luck they'll find a forest,
with a rive, lake and stream,
take the walks we once took together,
of which we can now only dream
I hope they are both happy
and though I am filled with despair,
I know that one day I'll be smiling
when I think of that wonderful pair.
One day they'll see us coming
and towards us they will race.
No pills, no wheels, no bandages
to slow their breakneck pace.
But now there's only the memories
of the good times we once knew
with our magnificent German Shepherd's.
I'm so glad we knew you two.
Prince 23/04/85 ~ 07/05/99
Sabre 09/04/87 ~ 11/06/99. I still belong to the email community and I still put dogs on wheels for people who can't afford to buy the carts. Its a pity that so many vets see euthanasia as the only answer to CDRM. Devastating thought the illness is I would go through it all again if I ahd to because it brought us so much closer. I cared for my old soldiers for over 3 years. We met the problems together and dealt with them together. Through this illness I have met a whole cyber community sharing and exchanging information, few of us have met in person yet all feel the joy and sadness of opening that days mail. A woman I have never met living in South Sheilds, through me loaned a cart to a dog who's owner she had never met in Coventry. A woman in Texas gave a cart to a woman she had never met in Canada.
Two weeks ago I took a cart to a village just outside of Barnsley. A rescued GSD bitch, they had seen an article about me by sheer chance. Someone had been scrunching up the Weekly News to light a fire when they spotted the picture of Misty in her cart. I arrived at seven at night. We put her in the cart and she was fidgeting as I adjusted it. The woman looked anxiously on as the dog got more agitated. "Lets give her a go in it so she understands and then I will adjust it some more". When they reached for her lead she screamed. "She hasn't been out for a walk for four months" Within minutes we were all running along the road in a desperate effort to keep up with her as she flew along screaming with happiness. They tell me she screams every time they get the lead.

How to make a Doggie Support:

Article by kind permission of the author ~Jim Colla