Bella is a 5-year-old Pomeranian who suffered a severe injury after she was picked up and shaken by a larger dog. A disc in her neck — between her C5 and C6 vertebrae — ruptured and entered the spinal cord region.

After the injury, Bella had no use of her front limbs and uncoordinated use of her hind limbs.  On initial presentation to VRSVA, she was only able to move by scooting along on her chin.  Her front limbs were contracted and it was very painful to her when they were extended manually. Bella’s rehab started with acupuncture to improve comfort, stimulate circulation, and encourage healing. She was treated with Class IV laser therapy to help warm and loosen contracted tissues.  Our therapists did a large amount of body work with Bella to help restore motion and flexibility in her limbs. These included scapular glides, range of motion work, and passive stretching.    

Once it was less painful for Bella to extend her legs, the goal was to get her using her front limbs again. We used our underwater treadmill as a pool to elicit the paddle response. As Bella was dipped into the water, she began using her front limbs to try to “swim.” We had achieved unweighted, but coordinated, use of the front limbs! A big step! As Bella’s pool work progressed she became ready for more land exercise.   

Bella did a great deal of work re-learning how to sit and stand again. Bella was outfitted with a special walker and sling to help retrain posture and encourage partially weighted standing. Special booties on her front feet helped to provide stimulation to the front limbs and extra feedback to remind her brain to use them.    

As Bella regained strength and coordination our therapists developed challenging obstacles with fit ball equipment to have her climb elevations and coordinate declines with the the goal of engaging different parts of her body.

The road was long and challenging, but with Bella’s determination in rehabilitation sessions and her owner’s hard work adhering to her home exercises plan Bella has made a remarkable recovery. She is now back to 95% and we are so proud of her success!