Welcome to Albert

Hello and welcome to Albert! This was an earlier photo of this lovely lad.

Albert sadly suffered a spinal disk rupture and had spinal surgery. Sadly his case wasn’t one of the successful ones. But he is still loved and cared for and its still a really important story to share. Afterall, if we could save them all, there would be no paralysis in the world.

There are lessons to be learnt. Alberts mum wasn’t told about physio so she didn’t find us until 8 wks after the operation. By then alot of our valuble healing time has passed. She had been doing hydrotherapy, which was wonderful, but Albert needed a team effort to get him going.

The hydro team were wonderful and we formed a great team each doing the part of the puzzle we knew best.

On the first session we saw Albert we got him standing. Mum was thrilled as she has not seen him stand in 2 months! The first thing he did was pee and poop! That may sound aweful but it was wonderful as prior to this he had needed his bladder expressing manually, so it was great to see he could do it when given the correct opportunity. Standing him up, is a much more comfortable position to pee in so it was a huge relief! His mum was thrilled.

We managed to get him to have some standing strength. He has some limb withdrawal and can move a little. But sadly its unlikely he will ever walk again.

But thats not the end of the story. What’s important to share here, is that Albert does still continue his physio as a monthly check in. This is to make sure that the muscle that are working, don’t get tight and contracted as this can be very uncomfortable. Ensuring he does have the opportunity to stand is good for his gut and peeing and pooping, and good for his circulation.

So this blog is shared to let you know the importance of starting physio as soon as possible and recognising that there is work to be done ongoing so the comfort of a paralysed dog.

Albert has an incredible and dedicated family. He remains very active and happy and we intend to keep him that way. Well done mum and the whole care team for Albert!