# Hannah



## Johnster (Nov 10, 2014)

Greetings everyone. I've lurked about here for a while, and now I'm in need of some help dealing with my beloved GSD rescue, Hannah. This is a little long-winded, but hopefully you'll bear with me and be able to help.

Hannah was rescued after being found wandering in the wreckage of hurricane Hannah in 2008, she had sustained an injury to her front left shoulder and had obviously had a litter somewhere along the way, but was rescued alone. We adopted her shortly thereafter and she has been part of our family ever since. Her shoulder has deteriorated over time to the point where she now walks with a severe limp, and to compound this, she has lately begun to show signs of DM. We are not sure of her age, however our vet estimates her to be around 10-12 years old, and so we are very sadly coming to the conclusion that she might be nearing her time. I am hopeful she will be able to last throughout the winter, and hopefully see one more spring, but I'm not sure as the cold weather hits her pretty hard, making her DM much more pronounced on the very cold days. The thing I'm looking for help on is this: right now, every night, Hannah insists on sleeping in our bedroom with us, where she has always slept, but we have a spiral staircase that is a huge obstacle for her to climb every night, and is treacherous for her to come down in the morning. I have carried her up and down, but it seems to be extremely painful for her because of her bad shoulder, so right now, we're considering barring off the bottom of the stairs at night, so she'll stay on the main floor. It hurts me to do this as she obviously wants to be with us at night, but I'm afraid she may fall (again) on these stairs and really hurt herself. I also dont want to do anything that may cause her to "give up" and accelerate her downward progress. 

What do you think? Is it better to make her stay downstairs and make it easier on her at night and in the morning, or to keep letting her climb up and down the stairs every day? I appreciate your input, and also for taking the time to read about her. She's an extraordinary girl, thanks for helping.

Cheers
John


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I'm sorry. I don't have any solution for spiral stairs. Do you have a loft area open to access?

Is she taking anything for the pain?

On regular stairs, I would suggest a sling to help her with but that would be hard on spiral.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8082
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3307+20748+21348+27325&pcatid=27325


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## MyHans-someBoy (Feb 23, 2013)

This idea may not be possible, but do you have a downstairs room that you could use as a bedroom for awhile?
Our bedroom is upstairs, but if a beloved pet with limited time wanted to be with us at night and the stairs were too painful...I know we would move into the downstairs guest room.
I just wonder if blocking her from the staircase would cause her a lot of stress? Just a thought.


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## Johnster (Nov 10, 2014)

Thanks for your responses. We don't have any rooms on the first floor, and in all of the times I've tried to help her climb the stairs, it's resulted in nothing but problems since her front end is actually more painful for her due to her bad shoulder. We had her on Metacam and Deramaxx, both of which helped, but she developed blood in her stool after a little while and so we have to use them sparingly. At this point I still let her climb at night and bunny hop down in the morning, but I might start keeping her downstairs a few nights a week just to give her a break. 

Any other thoughts are welcome.


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## Bridget (Apr 5, 2004)

I am so sorry. I can see this is a huge problem and I don't have any ideas. But what you are saying might be a good middle-of-the-road solution. You and Hannah are in my thoughts and prayers.


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## MyHans-someBoy (Feb 23, 2013)

Hmmm, the only other thing I can think of, and I have had great luck with it and have been recommending it a lot lately is Microlactin.
My GSD has bad hips and is 3 years old. I always let him decide when to stop our play/train sessions and he was stopping after only 6-7 minutes.
I added Microlactin (brand name is Duralactin) and he now keeps going well past the 30 minute mark. He is actually only on 1/2 the suggested dose. 
If you do a search on the forum for it you should find info about it and other people's experiences with it. 
The website for this product states that it is a natural product that can be used with or w/o NSAIDs and helps with chronic inflammation.
Might be something to consider since she doesn't do well on NSAIDs.


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## lorihd (Nov 30, 2011)

I can certainly feel your pain; we had a mini doxie that would come up with us at night, she could hardly walk so we would carry her up at night, we knew it was time when she would go to bite us when lifting her, and she would cry. also tried all meds for arthritis and pain, gave her terrible digestive problems, she just made it short of her 17th birthday. im sorry I don't have any advice john; very hard to see your fur baby in pain  lori


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

What exactly is wrong with her shoulder? Would adequan injections help? Tramadol for pain?


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

I am sorry you are dealing with this. I lost my old girl to DM. She used to sleep upstairs in our room. It was a lot of stairs and not safe for her. I put a baby gate up to keep her down stairs. Yes, it made me very sad. We do have bedrooms on the main level and my kids sleep there. At least she wasn't alone. 

You might consider sleeping on the couch - at least long enough to acclimate her to sleeping downstairs. I wish I had a better solution.


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## Johnster (Nov 10, 2014)

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have gated her downstairs a few times and she seemed no worse for wear the next morning. I just hate the idea of doing it and looking at her sad eyes as I head upstairs. I just don't want to do anything that makes her feel forgotten or like she's done something bad. I might try carrying her again and see if I can manage to do it in a way that causes her less pain.

Her shoulder injury is muscular, so the only hope to fix it would have been surgery after an MRI to determine what was actually pulled. It was barely noticeable when we got her, but unfortunately, it has progressed to the point where I am sure she is in pain whenever she walks. The pain meds do seem to help, but they were hard on her stomach, although I think we're going to start her on them again. I think her walks were actually helping her stay limber, but last years winter was so harsh and so long, she couldn't walk for more than a hundred yards or so on the uneven and icy sidewalks before she had to turn back, and I think that caused her shoulder to stiffen and make her less mobile. Regardless, at her age and with the DM, surgery is out of the question and I just want her to be comfortable as possible and keep her around as long as we can. This is my 3rd GSD, and I'm starting to think this will be the first time that we'll have to actually "make the call" as my first 2 had medical emergencies that made the decision for us.

Thanks again.

John


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

do you give her any joint supplements with MSM? The MSM is supposed to be good for muscle. I suspect tendons or ligaments over muscle if it's ongoing.

maybe a shoulder brace?
Hobble Vest for Medial Shoulder Instability


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