Cassie's Story
Helping a Dog with Arthritis of the Spine
My boyfriend and I adopted this shaggy, white, 70-pound Spinone mix through the FOCAS organization 2-1/2years ago. Among other passions, our Cassie is a "squirrel girl". The highlight of her existence is our daily walk in the park, and she is in hunting mode from the moment her paw hits the ground. In May 2001, her fixation on squirrels almost did her in. After having pulled the leash right out of my hand, she was in the heat of what a friend called a "blind run", a full-speed pursuit of a squirrel who was inside the fencing of a baseball diamond. She simply didn't see the chain link fence that separated her from her prey until it was too late. Although I couldn't see it from my vantage point, I heard her hit the fence full force -- it was a horrible sound.
At first, she seemed a little stunned, but okay otherwise. As we made our way home, her usual, seemingly effortless trot slowed to a walk; then her head lowered; then she lay down on the pavement. It was hot and she was tired, so I hoped that was the reason for her behavior. After a few minutes I coaxed her up and we walked slowly home, where she lay down again... this time she could not get up.
Cassie is my first dog and her "dad" was out of town, so I did what any mother would do, I panicked. Off to our veterinarian. He lifted her lips (something I never would have thought to do), and found her gums to be shredded and bloody. He surmised that she had hit the fence headfirst, so took her right down for X-rays. No spinal fractures, thank God! He gave her a shot of something for the pain, gave me some pills for her and sent us home. She seemed fine the next day.
A few days later however, down she went again … and again she couldn't get up. Off to the vet's. This time he X-rayed her hips and found large arthritic lesions in her lumbar spine. "There's our problem!" he said. He also informed me, considering the advanced state of her arthritis, that our Cassie had to be two or three years older than we had been told when we adopted her. Options? "Surgery. And it's very expensive, very risky surgery. Her condition will get progressively worse, so you'll know when it's time to schedule the procedure."
Because of her "new age", and given the empirical evidence on film, we accepted the diagnosis, but surgery was the last thing we wanted for our baby. And it was indeed risky --results could include incontinence and/or paralysis. There was no way we were going to wait for this eventuality! Meanwhile, Cassie's episodes ramped up from an average of once per month, to once a week. We were frightened.
We began a long process of investigating and trying alternative approaches, including massage, Reiki, acupuncture, veterinary orthopedic manipulation, and Chinese herbal remedies --we even consulted an interspecies communicator to see if Cassie herself could tell us anything about her condition! And we found Mary Debono.
Mary saw Cassie only three times and, after the second visit, she said that she didn't think Cassie needed her anymore. It was I who insisted that we needed to see Mary at least one more time! I don't know exactly what Mary does, except that the SENSE Method which Mary developed helps the animal to choose other options for movement, retraining the body's habits. I do know that it was a struggle for her dad and me to stay awake during the treatments. There was something so peaceful and relaxing, almost spiritual, about the experience. Cassie thought so, too.
We are now within days of having four full months without a single event... the longest period since her accident. Last week I watched Cassie run full speed ahead, leash free, on a Northern California beach. My heart soared at the sight!
I can't thank Mary Debono enough for the work she did to perfect the SENSE Method, but I can whole-heartedly recommend her to you. I would be happy to talk with you by telephone if you have any questions -- just let Mary know.
Written by Cassie's mom, Michele McDougal
Mary Speaks About Cassie
When Cassie came to my office, she was dealing with two traumas, one acute and one chronic. The acute trauma came when she hit the fence at full speed. The chronic trauma was the arthritis in her lower spine.
Cassie was seemingly asymptomatic before her accident. Her arthritis, although classified as "advanced", had been hidden just below the level of awareness. It took a headlong gallop into a fence to bring it up to the surface, causing Cassie, and those who loved her, some real problems.
Cassie, however, had been coping with her arthritis long before she met the fence. It is likely that her nervous system had already altered her movement patterns to compensate for the discomfort and lack of movement caused by the arthritic lesions. All of this can go on without it being obvious to anyone. After all, Cassie was a relatively young dog, full of life, running and playing with abandon.
Many times arthritis develops because the individual overuses a particular part of the body. The reason a part gets overused is because other parts are not doing their share of the work. Cassie had arthritis in the area where the lumbar vertebrae meet the sacrum. This place, commonly referred to as the "L/S joint," is capable of much movement, so it's easy for the body to let this part work hard while the other parts of the spine are tuned out. And when some parts are left out of a movement, other parts have to work harder than nature intended. Those parts can sustain wear and tear damage.
Once arthritis develops, the nervous system inhibits movement to minimize the pain. While it is an effective short-term strategy, this lack of movement creates a vicious cycle, leading to greater strain on joints and muscles. My job was to help Cassie interrupt this vicious cycle and hopefully lessen the chance of her arthritis causing her any more problems.
To start the session, Michele asked Cassie to lie on her side. Understandably nervous about what was going to happen; Cassie refused. She was only comfortable lying in the "sphinx" position. Since it is important to keep the animal feeling safe and comfortable in a SENSE Method session, we began with Cassie lying like a sphinx.
Cassie was in pain, and a nervous system distracted by pain and tension is incapable of learning. Since such a nervous system is busy defending itself against the threat of more pain, it can't process new sensory information. Therefore, the first step is to quiet the nervous system by eliminating the "background noise" of chronic muscular tension and anxiety.
With my fingertips, I began to softly lift the muscles along her spine. My movements were very slow and light. As I lifted each small area of muscle, Cassie began to relax. Before I knew it, Cassie flopped to her side, obviously confident that no harm would come to her.
In addition to helping her release tense back muscles, the delicate and evenly paced lifting movements were giving Cassie's nervous system a rhythmic stimulus to organize around. Using rhythm is a wonderful way to quiet the nervous system and increase relaxation. The gentle lifts along her back were also increasing her awareness (and thus her use) of her entire spine. In addition, my actions were showing Cassie that movement was possible and comfortable throughout her whole back.
With the nervous system no longer engaged in maintaining its safety or distracted by energy and attention-sapping muscular effort, it can attend to the sensory information being conveyed by my hands.
After working with her entire spine from head to tail, I used my index fingertip to gently lift the muscle in between two ribs. This movement induced a sigh of relief from Cassie. I worked my way through Cassie's ribcage, effectively outlining and highlighting all her ribs.
Increasing awareness of the dog's body brings about a greater distribution of effort, thus relieving strain throughout the system. The more parts that participate in a movement, the easier and more elegant the movement becomes.
With the ribs on one side thus outlined, I held a rib between my fingertips and delicately explored how that rib moved. What direction was easiest? Knowing that if I go with the direction of ease, the other directions improve too, I repeated these explorations with her other ribs. By this time, Cassie was close to dozing off. With the ribs now clearer in her awareness, Cassie could use them more effectively. And since the ribs are directly connected to the mid-back, using the ribs more efficiently is a way to improve the use of the back.
After working with Cassie on both sides, I placed one hand gently on her head and my other hand against the back end of her pelvis. I gently pushed through her pelvis, seeing a wave of movement travel from her hind end all the way to her head. My intent was to have Cassie feel the relationship between her head and her hind end. This would allow her to notice, and thus to use, all the parts in between. I removed my hand from her head and placed it on her sternum, or chest bone. As I pressed through her pelvis, I was again giving Cassie the sensation of connection between her hind end and her front end, this time highlighting the connection between her ribcage and pelvis.
Since the SENSE Method movements were pleasurable, Cassie's nervous system would want to recreate them on her own. In other words, she would learn to use her whole back more fully after experiencing how easy and enjoyable the new movement felt. From her SENSE Method sessions, Cassie's nervous system had created a new "body map". This new image more accurately reflected the movements her body was capable of. As a result, Cassie immediately began to use her back in a fuller, more efficient way. She was now unstuck from her habitual ways of moving. And she could once again run and play without pain.
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