The First Few Weeks Post Diagnosis

I think it a fair summary to say that after Holly's diagnosis I spent a few days reading a lot about CDM online and walking round in a state of shock as the reality of what was going to happen.

I think the hardest part was the unknown, not knowing if Holly would still be with me in a few weeks, months or even years. Needless to say there were more than a few tears shed.

But the practical common sense side of me took over and some sensible decisions got made.

The first decision was about diet and supplements.

Holly has never been overweight but the advice from the vet was to loose a little weight, to deliberately take her to just underweight for her size. The theory here was that if she weighed less it was less weight to carry around and therefore we could keep her walking longer. As anyone who has anything to do with weight loss will tell you, gradual smooth loss is better than fast and rapid. So rather than start adjusting how much I fed her I decided we would see if upping the amount of exercise would do the trick. I will cover walkies in a later post.

As I said before there is a lot of information out there, its just a question of working out what is useful and relevant. Dietary supplements is one area that nobody seems to agree on.

I read my way through a lot of blogs, message boards and a few vetinary publications. For each supplement that was suggested I investigated what the supplement did and what its side effects were. For a lot of things I couldn't work out why it was being recommended as there didn't appear to be any effects or side effects related to the spine or neurological matters.

The current theory is that degeneration that causes cdm comes about by free radicles. So i chose three supplements based on this. Vitamin E is supposed to reduce free radicle production. Brewers Yeast which claims to mop up free radicles. And Omega 3 fish oil which is promoted as being good for all things brain related (and in my thinking the spinal chord is an extension of the brain).

After checking my reasoning with the vet we double checked her weight and worked out some maximum doses. I didn't start her on the maximum dose immediately, I started fairly low and increased it a little every 6 to 8 weeks.