Sunshiny Stories Of Sunshine!

Hi Kah Yein,

The end year festive season and the visit of my parents for Christmas and the New Year just made the days fly past. We also have had new challenges with�Sunshine.

Sunshine�has so much renewed energy!! She is probably getting “cabin fever” and sometimes stretches her neck out of her play pen to grab her posters with her mouth and chew on them. It’s time to get creative to keep her occupied and stimulated appropriately too. She chews on her happy toy rope and constantly licks at her water bottle to entertain herself.

She’s really attentive and easy to teach new things. From the time she came to us I taught her to “wait” before i give the “ok” for her to eat so that she would not gobble but eat calmly. She has really mastered this and now we’ve extended it to placing a treat on each paw and she can sit and wait until the “ok” is given to happily woolf down the little treat.

Sunshine�tries to move as much as she can whenever she finds the opportunity. Her activity level is still restricted as I am still keeping this to at least the 10week mark when hopefully any injury she had would have stabilised. It has been a challenge to keep her for scooting off whenever she finds the window. She can easily sit up and move about by using her front legs and her strong trunk to lift the hind quarters.�A week and a half ago she started trying to use her hind legs, in�particular her stronger�right hind�leg.�She learnt to use her right hind leg like a stiff peg leg to prop her hind quarters when she moved. This week she is actually is using her right hind to some degree. The left hind leg is weaker leg but I’m seeing some small degree of function coming back too.

We took her to the vet last week. Had her all geared up with a�harness�specially made for handicapped dogs that�gives very secure and sturdy support to the trunk. These harnesses were developed for serch and rescue dogs as they often have to be lifted in and out of tight spaces. I have been concerned as�Sunshinehas�been having several days on and off where she is peeing 8-10times a day. From my description of her symptoms, my vet does not feel it is cystitis.�Sunshine�has also been whining and barking very loudly several times a day and I’ve been trying to figure otu what’s causing this new behavior. Partly she is feeling some boredom and calls for me as she is most attached to me. Partly when she pees or poos she practically screams for me to come and help clean up as she really does not like her sleeping place to be dirty to the extent that she quickly laps uo her pee or goobles her poo and it’s a race for me to try and get to it before her everytime I’m home.

Since we were at the vet’s, I also got her vaccinated too.

At the vet’s, we let�Sunshine�out of the carrier and let her move as she chose to observe her progress or changes. She was able to move around without difficulty although without the full function of the hind legs. My vet was very positive and said that at this stage ofSunshine’s progress, he felt that she�has already achieved a life of quality. My aim for her rehab has always been about mobility and function. Despite her hind legs not returning to full function at this stage, she can move around without difficulty which in practical everyday terms means she can poo and pee and get out of the way after that and not have to lie in it. So in this sense she can function even without her hind legs fully functional.

The vet’s advise, which I also agreed on, was to take another xray of her spine at week10 to see if she has stabilised. If she has stabilised, it means I can take her to another level and actually actively work and focus�on her rehab to walk. We would also want to take a closer look at her organs to see if there is any organ damage as her stomach upsets could be due to a subnormal functioning of her digestive system eg if the pancrease is

Sunshine�of late has deveoped more frequent stomach upsets and whines a lot and this sometimes subsides when she has made a poo. I am keeping a proper�record/observation for the next few days and will probably get the vet to review what may not be going right.

Last weekend we took�Sunshine�out to the garden with the company of our other dog as she was doing one of her incesscent barking episodes. Unfortunately it did not stop her barking and I had a difficult time understanding why she was behaving this way. The mystery has not been solved so I’ll continue to observe her.

Sunshine’s last (5th) acupuncture session went well. All the needles that Dr Susanna put in went it very smoothly without any resistence- which Dr Susanna explains as there is no blockage and her pulse and tongue were all doing vey well. Dr Susanna recommends that we only need to do the acupuncture sessions once a fortnight.

My mum has also been so helpful in lending a hand to bath her and also give her some attention as I would like to encourage her to not get too overly attached to me which is probably difficult as there is always a special and close indescribable bond between handicapped pet and caregiver. My parents are so fond of her so she gets attention from them too.

I’m not sure if I updated earlier but her tail can twitch at times when previously it was totally “dead”. I just looked at her early days photos and I could see that when she tried to sit up, her body was hunched in pain and she had so much difficulty to do it. Now she does it effortlessly and if she is not moving, one can hardly tell she has a disability

Tonight I tried something different and took�Sunshine�out of her playpen when I was catching up with my email and work on the computer. I puayt her on a gentle harness to ensure that she would not scramble away and as she is familair with the command “lie down” from Day1, she just wanted to lie by my chair as I worked on my laptop. In fact she has not done her barking episode since she has been sleeping by my chair. I will do this once a day at night so she learns the routine and hopefully can wait for this time instead of barking the house down several times a day.

I’ll email you the updated spending by this week. Thank you and I just read your blog and your cats look pretty happy in their new home!!

Cheers!

Boredom turns to chewing…

See, I can do it!

I got it! One down, another to go!

Hanging out with friends on a sunny day.

With happy face toy.

All rigged up for visit to vet.

Sunny vaccination.

For a change of scene.

Hanging out with family.

 

Keeping me company.

Looking back…seven weeks ago.

Sunshine has certainly come a LONG way from the time she was rescued in Cheras after being beaten up by residents until her spinal chord broke. Sunshine was confirmed paralysed as her back bone was completely obliterated. By western veterinary practice, she was a case for euthanasia because she would never walk again and she had no owner who would care for her. However, since it is our policy to do our very best for the wellbeing of every animal who comes our way, we opted for non-mainstream treatments such as acupuncture, stem cell tech, homeopathy, physiotherapy, but most importantly, LOTS of tender-loving, skillful and experienced caregiving which my friend had so graciously provided for the last 7 weeks. Without this last ingredient, Sunshine would not have been able to make so much progress and achieve this level of wellbeing thus far. For this, I thank my friend from the bottom of my heart, for her very generous, loving and committed caregiving, and to all of you, for helping out in all ways (donations, forwarding links, prayers, positive vibrations, etc.).

Thank you, everyone.

More updates:

Resigned to higher walls

Looking good at boarding place.