Big Thank You to Kristina Kiefer & The U of M

Cody had a check-up with his doctor Kristina Kiefer yesterday to determine whether or not he needed a second stem cell treatment and the verdict was that he did not - YAY!

Cody is now walking around by himself without the support of his walkabout harness. He's wobbling at times and sometimes falls on his butt but that's to be expected. With ongoing rehabilitation he'll continue to gain strength.

Adam and I are so very grateful for the U of M and specifically Kristina's knowledge and studies around the use of adipose derived stem cells in canine orthopedic conditions such as IVDD.

According to the MANY hours we've spent researching IVDD, dogs that go in for surgery before they lose deep pain sensation, have an 80-90% chance of walking again but once they lose deep pain, the chances greatly decrease. In Cody's case, he went in for surgery about 36 hours after he lost DPS so the odds were against us from the beginning. We wholeheartedly believe that the decision to go along with stem cell therapy along with the skills of his amazing DVM Kristina, Cody is able to walk today.

The Bodem family sends a big THANK YOU to Kristina Kiefer and the entire University of Minnesota CVM team.

3 Weeks Post-Op Report

We are happy to report that Cody is now standing on his own and can even take a few steps without his walk-about-harness for support. They are wobbly steps, but steps all the same. He loves the fact that he has some mobility back, when it's time to go outside for a potty break or when we do his physical therapy exercises and let him walk around the house his tail wags in such excitment. It's such a heartwarming sight and we could not be happier for him!

He had his first hydrotherapy session at Flying Cloud Vet last week and Sandi said she that he did great! She's thinking he'll need about 10 weeks of rehabilitation to build up his strength but we'll see how he progresses.

Being that he's getting his energy back it's getting harder to keep him on 'crate rest' but we are sticking to it the best we can to ensure he has the best recovery possible. We do cheat a little by letting him lay with us on the bed once in a while but it's just for a short time.

We'll never know for sure, but given he had no deep pain sensation, had complete rear paralysis and was past the 24 hour time frame when he went in for surgery, we credit the stem cell treatment for giving him the chance to walk again. We are so grateful to the U of M for having known about this study and giving us the option to try it with Cody. 

For those Dachshund parents out there, if you ever have to go through IVDD and spinal surgery be sure to ask about stem cell therapy. I haven't seen many IVDD forums talking about it. My guess is that it's so new that not many people are aware of the benefit.

Cody & His Potty Pads

Cody makes me laugh - He really hates the fact that he has to lay on potty pads now and last night I caught him expressing his anger....Hang in their Cody, you're getting stronger every day and soon you'll can say bye bye to those potty pads forever. (Pawscrossed)

Christmas Progress Report

Merry Christmas!

Cody was so excited to open his stocking from Santa this morning. Here he is sitting on daddy's lap!

Cody continues to progress in his recovery from his IVDD surgery, he is not strong enough yet to stand or walk without the help of the walkabout harness own but he is getting stronger everyday.

We are continuing with his range of motion exercises and take him on multiple short walks outside.

Given he is on crate rest most of the day he gets so excited when it's time for his walks. We love seeing his tail wagging in excitement, especially since just a few short weeks ago he couldn't wag his tail at all.

Cody is starting his Hydrotherapy sessions on Thursday. Unlike most Dachshunds, Cody prefers land to water so it will be interesting to see how he does.


A Christmas Gift from Health Paws

On Christmas Eve we received a letter from Healthy Paws about changes in our insurance plan. As I read I was totally expecting them to say that are premium was increasing due to our recent claim but nope, it was just a letter to say that as of January 1st, they would be covering alternative treatments that included: Hydrotherapy, Acupuncture and other rehab services, what great news!

Deep Pain Senstation is Returning

Cody's post-opt check-up yesterday at the University of Minnesota went awesome! The doctor who did Cody's surgery was very pleased with his progress. He is starting to get some of his deep pain sensation back. Given that, the doctor said she was confident he would be walking again. She didn't say WHEN that would be but Adam and I both know that would be an almost impossible question to answer anyway.

We also met with the canine rehabilitation group and they taught us some new range of motion exercises to do at home. Rather continue with rehabilitation therapy down at the U, we opted to do rehab with Sandi McDonough at Flying Cloud Animal Hospital. She's local to us in Eden Prairie and honestly, is older and has more experience. We are hoping to start up right after the Christmas Holiday.

We were sent home with the instructions of getting him into a rehab program as well as to continue with the new exercises we were taught.  Part of Cody's at home exercises includes short walks outside. To help support his back-end while walking we purchased a walk about harness that he dosen't seem to mind one bit. We also use Pawz dog boots to prevent injury to his back paws (since they drag behind him much of the time)

When Cody is not doing his rehab exerises he still needs to be resting in order to continue to heal. Crate rest may be hard for some doxies but we are finding it's not all that difficult for Cody. Pre-injury he used to sleep most of the day anyway. As long as we are in the same room with him he seems pretty content.

Since Cody is one of the first Doxies to try stem cell therapy for IVDD the University of Minnesota wants us to keep them in the loop of his progress as well as meet with them on occasion to do their own follow-up checks. Cody may just make it into one of their famous case studies, wouldn't that be cool!

Healthy Paws Pet Insurance Rocks

When my husband and I adopted Cody from Small Dog Rescue of Minnesota one of the first things we did was research pet insurance companies. We didn't know a ton about Dachshunds back than other than that they were very susceptible to Intervertebral Disk Disease or IVDD.

IVDD  is a debilitating and costly disease that affects many different breeds including Dachshunds. Knowing the cost associated in the surgical treatment of IVDD we did not want to be in a position of not being able to provide care because we could not financially afford it.

Researching Pet Insurance is Daunting

I'm not going to lie, researching pet insurance was a daunting task, especially because you can't always believe everything you read. (I work in marketing after all and a marketers job is to make everything sound great) When deciding on a pet insurance policy you have the same things to consider as any other type of insurance policy:

• Cost
• Deductible
• Policy Limits
• Coverage
• Reimbursements
• Restrictions
• Ease of Use

After researching online and reading reviews on Angie's List we decided on Healthy Paws. The plan we choose costs $44.58 per month, has a $250.00 yearly deductible and pays out a 90% reimbursement. The plan covers everything except routine vet care. This includes genetic conditions as long as they were not pre-existing.

Submitting Our First Claim

Cody's IVDD surgery was our first claim in the almost 2 years since we'd had insurance and was going to be a BIG test as to just how good our policy was. In all honestly I was prepared for having to go through a bunch of red tape. I just didn't believe filing a claim and getting reimbursed was going to be as easy as it claims it would be.

Healthy Paws Reimbursement

The total cost of Cody's IVDD surgery and hospital stay was $6,279.53, this included a CT scan, MRI and his stem cell harvesting and shot. Submitting a claim was super easy and I'm not just saying that. We sent everything in on Monday December 10th and 1 week later we had our reimbursement checks in hand. Here's how our payout worked....

Kudos to Healthy Paws

In addition to their super simple claim filing process, we called customer service a few times since it was our first claim and I have nothing but great things to say. Good customer service is hard to find these days and their phone reps were very helpful. They kept us in the loop every step of the way via email.

Thanks Healthy Paws!

Cody Wagged His Tail

Adam and I took Cody outside for the first time today to go potty (we've just been letting him go on his potty pads in his crate to avoid unnecessary movement) We used a scarf to support his back-end and let him walk around in the front yard for a few minutes to sniff around and low and behold he started to wag his tail in excitement! At first with thought it might just be involuntary movement that happens when he has to go #2 but nope, it was clearly voluntary and it wagged the entire time we were outside. Yay for Cody! I sure wish I would have had my phone with me to take video but of course I did not. If Cody had it his way, we'd still be outside but doctors orders he is only allowed a few minutes of exercise a day..