Peace of Mind for Pet Parents Episode 046: When Mobility Changes: Adapting Your Caregiving Role for Dogs and Cats

Episode Transcript: 

Karen Wylie: Hello and welcome back to Peace of Mind for Pet Parents. I'm Karen Wylie here as always with my friend Gail Pope. 

Today we're going to talk about something that doesn't get near enough attention and that is what it actually means to be a caregiver when a pet's mobility changes. Not just at end of life which is what we're often talking about and how the caregiver's role is affected in that process.

Today we want to talk about what to do when a dog or a cat is living with a chronic or difficult condition. Mobility challenges can crop up very suddenly or they can evolve very slowly and affect pets at any age— whether they're young, middle age, or older— and when they do, caregiving changes sometimes overnight. 

I certainly had a reminder of this a few months ago because my 7-year-old Aussie Chey was diagnosed with a partial cruciate tear in his right hind leg. Overnight my role shifted not because he's dying but because his body suddenly needed attention in a new way and something that is totally different from anything I've had to handle.

So Gail, you have supported so many animals in so many ways. You had many with mobility challenges: dogs who were paralyzed, seniors who lost strength in their ability to get around, cats who had to completely relearn how to move in their world. When you hear the phrase "Mobility Caregiving", what could that mean for you in that role?

Gail Pope: I think the first thing that springs to mind is to divide it into two whether it's mobility towards the end of life or other, because that can bring all sorts of other pieces into the puzzle. 

If it's a physical mobility issue in young life or middle life or even older age and that is the only issue then I think at that point, for me anyway over so many years and so many animals, I've learned that old saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" comes into play. Especially if you've got a large dog and they're having trouble walking or something like that.

I guess we went through all of it and my biggest lesson I think from that is to follow the adage of that phrase and actually instead of, "Oh, this is terrible." And instead of sinking into, "Oh heck, this is so sad" to actually come out on the other side, say, "We've got a challenge. We're going to help and we're going to make it better."

I think the modern instruments that have been developed to help animals that have trouble walking are just amazing. Let's face it, even a human with a dog who struggles can take an old fashioned bath towel— roll it up, hold it under them and walk with them. There are so many easy fixes and so many less easy fixes. I think, gosh, I've had so many lessons from cats in particular. The first time I was exposed to that— actually, we took in two female cats together both scooting on their bottoms.

A part of me was horrified and "What are we going to do? Where can we put these animals?" It never occurred to me really that they didn't need help.

Karen Wylie: They were going to go wherever they wanted to go.

Gail Pope: They actually were! When we first took them in, we had them in actually in my little office at the time, to just help them settle in. Of course they didn't move much because it was a small area and they were a little timid. But then when the door opened and then I realized that "Wow! They seemed to be able to actually walk on their front two legs."

So from there it became a lesson for me. Over time, gosh, I could talk about this forever, you should probably shut me up, but I can remember days and events when volunteers or visitors would come to BrightHaven and I would open the front door to welcome them. There would be Talya the cat sitting on her bottom. You could see almost instantly that the person coming in would say, "Oh. Oh, that's so sad." And I'd say, "Oh, actually, no, don't feel sorry, she's absolutely fine." Again, you could sense the, "Oh, she doesn't look fine to me” thought.

But then this poor cat would scoot across the floor and look briefly back at us as if to say, "You are watching, aren't you?"

And then there she is, there's a six foot cat tree, and she puts her claws in and she climbs up like a monkey and sits at the top. "Hi, here I am”. So what we found with the cats is they didn't want wheelchairs. They felt completely able and with the attitude of "Leave it to us and we'll do it ourselves."

We tried with many but no, they generally wanted to be self-sufficient. I'm passing it back to you now, otherwise I could keep on talking about the cats and dogs in wheelchairs forever.

Karen Wylie: I so wish that you and I knew each other back when BrightHaven was a physical sanctuary. I could have visited and seen everything. Instead, I make my way through hundreds of amazing photographs but the amazing thing in so many of them is, I guess, the word that comes to my mind is how joyous the dogs look in their little wheelchairs with their little carts. They are not letting that stop them enjoying life and the expression on their faces shows that.

Gail Pope: Yes, you know what? I have to stop you there because remember that video of Bailey in his wheelchair running round?

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/uLsv1yLJNXM 

Karen Wylie: Yes!

Gail Pope: I think people would love to see that. I think we called it that just pure exhilaration.

Karen Wylie: I agree that would convey so much of what we're talking about in a way that talk just doesn't do justice to what they were showing how they felt and how much they were enjoying their lives. When you're talking about the cat tree, I was reminded of going back 30 years when I had my Birmans and I had one who had experienced a saddle thrombus which is a blood clot. That was the first sign when we knew that she would ultimately have heart disease but she was totally paralyzed the first day that happened. We were sent home with all sorts of medicines— they put a little catheter in her and gave us all the syringes of everything we'd need for 48 hours. We were told that  "If she is still alive on Monday - bring her in."

That was the first time I'd ever had that kind of serious diagnosis and illness with an animal. But the reason I'm bringing it up is that when Monday morning came and of course I'd barely had any sleep Saturday night and Sunday night. So I went to the little area that we had created for her with a heating pad on a little bit, and everything was protected. She wasn't there and it was like, "Oh my God." I was immediately thinking, did she crawl somewhere to die? They had prepared me that could certainly be one of the outcomes. I was looking all over the bedroom for her and under the bed.

Finally, I looked out of the window. We had a screened in porch out the window of our bedroom and there she was at the top of a six foot cat tree where she'd obviously regained at least some level of control— certainly not all. 

But she did exactly what you were describing, where you're seeing the cats just using their front legs with the power that they do have. The strength they do have, the limbs that are working and they adapt. 

In 48 hours after this happened to her, she was adapting. I wish I could go on and say that had a happy ending but I learned so much from her in the five weeks we did have left with her— about her ability to adapt.

So when these mobility challenges occur, it doesn't have to be the end of the world and in most cases it is not.

Gail Pope: I think the one thing that comes to my mind as well is that animals… We always talk about it - animals are our teachers. They come to us in our lives, I firmly believe, to help us to “be” and to teach us important lessons. One of their most important lessons is living in the moment. When we talk about mobility as we are now, that's what comes back to me. They adjust, they change, they accept, and then they live in their new moment and they go forward.

They don't do the human element. They don't bring in the human element of wondering what went wrong, and “oh my goodness!”…. For the most part, they just accept, and then they figure out what's going to work best to get them moving again.

Karen Wylie: I think that's really important for pet parents to understand because obviously it's not always end of life issues with the things we talk about. There's lots of caregiving and lots of day-to-day adaptations that are needed for any of the chronic or difficult to manage diagnoses that we might get. 

With Chey, as I started out saying, for a partial cruciate tear there's a $8,000 or $10,000 surgery that could be used to repair it— with a steel plate put in.

Or you can try a conservative approach to see if there's a way to knit those ligaments back together. That's the approach I chose to take and fortunately my vet was feeling he was a good candidate for us to try, but it immediately thrust me back into caregiver mode.

I remember saying something in our spring or summer conversations last year that I wasn't in active caregiver mode at this point. All my animals at that moment were in pretty good shape. Callie's the oldest, she'll be 13 this year but knock on wood. She's in great shape but suddenly with an injury like this for Chey, where there are consequences, not just financial, but affecting his mobility long term for the rest of his life.

He's seven years old. He can potentially have many good years ahead which I expect and hope for. But I had to immediately start adapting, I had to block the stairs. They're not supposed to be going up and down stairs. I had to begin having him on crate rest because in order for all these soft tissues to be knitting back together, you have to limit their activity.

So he's in his crate during the day while I am in my office. At night we're doing the same thing and we actually chose to do the same thing with his sister. They're very bonded and whatever we do with one, we have to do the other. For us to just put Chey in the crate, she's going bonkers because he's not supposed to be in there.

That's just not what we do around here. 

It's affecting the family dynamics and we need to prevent him from jumping up on the furniture. He's a couch potato. He loves his couch and his loveseat.

It's been an amazing 90 days. I have to take him out to go potty on his leash because I can't allow him to be running in his fenced-in yard and messing with his sister. So I had to rethink every moment of every day and all of our routines.

Gail Pope: Yes, you're taking me back into the sanctuary again. I'm visualizing all the various types of steps and other little pieces of furniture that either we built or other people built as a good idea to help this or that particular animal. But yes, it really is about looking to see where you can be of most help. What you can do: steps and ramps particularly or for a wheelchair…oh my gosh, you've got to have ramps, otherwise, you're forever following them around and lifting them up or down.

Karen Wylie: And let's see… I was at the vet yesterday, he was 43.1lbs yesterday. That's not a horrible weight. Certainly, he's in very good shape but that's still a lot of body weight to be working with.

Gail Pope: Oh, yes. Again, something else we've talked about that springs to mind is elevating feeding bowls. For cats or dogs, if they're having trouble with a bad back you need to make everything easier. The water bowl and the food bowl. You can do that in obviously so many practical ways. Or you can spend money and buy raised elevated ones with wooden adjustable bottoms. There's a lot of those available now.

Karen Wylie: There's just so many adaptations that need to be made, and you're never going to know what they are, what needs to be done until you're in this situation with a specific animal that's right in your own home. You know where the stairs are, yes, he can go up the two stairs from one level to another level but he can't do a full flight of stairs and you just start adapting.

But it does become something that you are preoccupied with from the minute you wake up till the time you go to bed. That's not to say every minute of the 16 hour day but it's on your mind. You're thinking about it, you're observing all the time. How's he walking?

Gail Pope: Of course, yes.

Karen Wylie: There's medications that have to be given. There's blood work that has to be done to make sure the medications for pain and arthritis are not affecting their kidneys and liver. So there's all these new things I'm learning about because of this new injury that hopefully we're going to get him past. We'll just keep working toward it.

There's so many other conditions that are not necessarily injuries that can be resolved but the situation can still be managed.

Gail Pope: Absolutely. I completely agree. It’s important and part of understanding the animal spirit, to watch them carefully and observe their zest for life, and then use what you know to NOT restrict their walking. They need to go out in Mother Nature.

Karen Wylie: Oh, that's a great point, Gail.

Gail Pope: Because depending on what the mobility issue is. A dog walking on two wheels and two feet— take them in gradually. Don't take them for great long walks. Take them for shorter walks and then gradually increase. It depends. A dog like Bailey, "It's come on! I’ve got more energy than all of you put together."

It depends on the dog. Some smaller dogs particularly may not want to walk very far in their wheelchair or they may want to be in a push chair.

Karen Wylie: Yes, you’ve got one of those.

Gail Pope: You can take one on a leash and the other one can sit in his chair and just have a little walk. I did that with Andy a few times. So yes, we add those in.

Karen Wylie: That's a great point to make because that's something I have learned. Again, this new learning process— how all of this is affecting Chey because one of the things he has most enjoyed in his life was playing with a herding ball around the fenced-in yard which is basically like a dog playing soccer. They use their nose and their legs to move a ball all around the yard. He adored that. It's probably something that helped to injure him. So he will never be doing that again and certainly not in this timeframe where we're trying to help his body heal.

I'm limiting his activity so much. I have had to find ways to still let him enjoy aspects of his life. Like now that I'm having to take him out to the yard and back on a leash, I could just take him out, do his business, and bring him back. He's got to have a little "sniff-ari". That's part of how he's always enjoyed his day in his yard and he would just meander and sniff around for rabbits and possums and everybody else that might've come through the yard.

That's something I need to still allow to happen. So I have to change my routines and the time allowed to help him still enjoy aspects of his day-to-day life. I've even pulled out like the puzzle toys that you hide little pieces of treats and food because he can just do that laying down. It doesn't require a whole lot of movement that's going to affect his hind leg injury.

So I think so much of this, you can get depressed about what's happening. You can keep worrying about it or you can be looking for what you can do. That's when you were saying about protecting their spirit.

Gail Pope: Yes, exactly.

Karen Wylie: And trying to make sure that they're still enjoying what they've always shown us that they enjoyed about their life. So I think it is just a process of continually rethinking what is possible because that's going to change whether they're 7 years old or whether they're 12 or 15 or whatever age.

Gail Pope: Now, I'm just thinking back to when my little Andy was still alive. He still loved his walks. Instead of the long walk, we would gradually shorten it. Little by little as his energy went down, until out came the push chair. He loved that. At first he was scared but then he realized, "Oh, this is easy."

So I think you are right. We have to adapt with them and rather than cancel walking because they don't have the energy or the mobility to do it. We'll do a small walk, even if it's only out in the back garden for a while. As you said, playing around with the kinds of things you can play around with.

Karen Wylie: Yes, it's being vigilant in different ways and that's been a series of lessons that I've been learning and in my last 90 days. Supposedly, it can take up to a year for the soft tissue injury to heal. So I've got many months to continue learning.

Gail Pope: I congratulate you and I hope you do graduate after this course.

Karen Wylie: I'll be waiting for you to turn my little tassel when Chey and I graduate. Alright, that sounds like a good place for us to end. We thank you for being with us today on Peace of Mind for Pet Parents.

We hope you'll be with us next week. Thanks again. Bye-bye.

Gail Pope: Bye-bye. Thank you.