Cady lost use of her back legs temporarily after swimming...huh?

[Cadygrl]

So we had something weird happen yesterday, and I'm wondering if anyone here has had this happen. We just got a house with a pool, and want to teach Cady how to swim with us. So I got her a little life jacket at PetSmart, so she can learn not to be so afraid. We practiced for a while with her paddling next to us, though she still seems terrified. She keeps putting her nose down under the water level as she panics, which means the life jacket does nothing...she could still drown. So she needs a little more practice with us close by. We had her sitting calmly on a pool float for a while, and she seemed fine there (she just wants to be near us...even though she's scared to swim, she'll jump onto pool floats if we're in the water, haha).

When we were ready to get out, we had her swim to us at the steps, and she looked scared again, so I lifted her out of the water, took off the life vest and put her on dry land. That's when we noticed that her back legs weren't working, it's like her hind end was totally paralyzed. She tried to run, but kept falling and slipping, the feet couldn't stand at all. It scared me to death! We began to think we somehow maybe we'd hurt her or traumatized her in some way. Luckily, we noticed that the more she ran around, the more the legs started to work again. In about 5 minutes, it seemed like she was totally back to normal again.

Do you guys think maybe it was something as simple as the jacket cutting off circulation or something? Or is it possible for a dog to get so frightened that they bring on temporary paralysis? I definitely want to avoid it happening again, poor thing. But I also want her to learn that the water is a good, relaxing thing eventually. What do you think happened?

[nevada.the.eskie]

Have you had her thoroughly checked out at a vet? It is possible that Cady has bad joints or hips (like hip dysplasia). She may have also pinched a nerve. I have a rescue (Tahoe) who has extremely poor joints and would occasionally get a temporary hind leg paralysis. Once Tahoe had a very thorough exam and we knew what we were up against, we started a swim-therapy with him. Now he has enough muscle tone to compensate for his bad joints and he no longer gets the temporary paralysis. We do not use a life vest with Tahoe as it doesn't allow him to move freely, but we do use one for one of our other dogs as she prefers it.

[JimmyThy]

Yikes -- what a scary thing to go through! What Heather (nevada.the.eskie) said sounds about right -- a pinched nerve of sorts. Maybe have her go back in but only by the steps where it's really shallow? You said she looked scared again, which is why you picked her up. Were you able to notice if she was using her back legs while in the water, or if she temporarily lost use of them when she was picked up?

If she's still nervous about this whole pool thing, that could have exacerbated any nerve issues she might have from being tense and using her muscles a certain way. I'd try the pool thing again, but a little bit at a time. Again, stay close to the steps, and watch to see if her back legs are kicking while under water. Do it all in small steps so you can try to pinpoint what action was causing this to happen to her.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Cadygrl]

Yeah, she's been to the vet probably 2-3 times in the last month...she's a little accident prone! She's been known to eat Swiffer mops, flower fertilizer, chocolate brownies, cut her paw, tweak a neck muscle...they know her by sight now, haha! She pulled something last week when she was playing too vigorously, and yelped when she turned her neck too far, so I took her in for an exam and all seemed fine. She'd been on anti-inflammatories and a painkiller last week, but has seemed back to her old self as of a few days ago. Running around like normal, chasing the cat happily, no sign of pain any more. Perhaps there's still something pinched or weak? I'll experiment again later, it did seem like she was using her back legs in the pool, but I wasn't paying that close of attention, more focused on keeping her head up. At least she seems fine now, so I'll bet it's just an isolated thing. A mystery!