Acupuncture and Wheel Chair

Samba has gone through 5 acupuncture appointments with no visible signs of improvement. She is not able to get up on her own without assistance, and because she can't move much, we have had more frequent accidents. Her holistic vet says that it takes 4 - 6 sessions to see results, so I will give it one more session.

Last month, I purchased a used wheel chair (Walkin Wheels) for her with hopes that she would be able to walk more often without my assistance. She didn't want to move once she was in it, so I pulled her along by the harness to get her going. Later, she developed a very severe rash on her right side (the shape of her front harness), which I first thought was neoprene allergy. After discussing this with her vet and the manufacturer, we decided that there was something on the harness that caused this since it was only on one side of her. The manufacturer was nice enough to send me a new front harness and suggested that I put a t-shirt on her before trying it again once her skin is healed.

Samba is 17 years old and life has been a daily challenge for her. For now, I have to focus on healing her wound with daily baths with a special skin shampoo (Malaseb), epson salt warm compress and Silvadeen dressing. I think her body is trying to heal as I see fur regrowing. We are also dealing with her very frequent heavy panting at bedtime and into the night. The vet thinks it may be anxiety or metabolic heat (something like heat flashes at menopause). So I have a fan for her by her pad. Speaking of pads, she doesn't like 'cushy' any more as it is too difficult for her to get up. I made her an orthpedic bed by buying a memory foam topper from Target, folding it in half and using a cover I made from a flannel sheet. She stays on it when I try to get her to sleep at night.

Another idea why she is so anxious and panting so much at nighttime ("Panic Attack") is possibly due to dementia. I'm trying Senilife to see if I can get her brain to function better and calm down at nighttime, as my husband and I are now getting little sleep. At times, we cannot calm her down and so we have to leave her out in the garage so that we can get some sleep. Not only is this stressful for her but for me and my family too. We haven't planned many vacations due to the special care she needs. Luckily I found a great doggie boarding place in San Francisco, High Tail Hotel, who is very sympathetic towards senior and special needs dogs. We managed to fit in a trip to Disneyland during spring break.

I realize that I will never be able to 'fix' her and I can only try to make her as comfortable as possible. I just wonder how tolerable it is for her.