10/25/2026
Life has changed a lot in the past month. What started off as some hearing loss at the beginning of the month, we thought that was just Auggie getting old so we had a just Auggie day where we spent the day at the beach and he had the most fun he’s ever had at the beach! Just 10 days later he woke up one morning unable to really stand without falling. We rushed to the vet later that afternoon and the next day he went back for a full body xray and bloodwork. His bloodwork came back completely normal and the vet said he had hip dysplasia and arthritis from it. This didn’t sound right to me because Finn’s had hip dysplasia his entire life so we know what that looks like and this came on so sudden. So we made an appointment with a neurologist and they did an mri of his spine and spinal tap. His spinal tap concluded that he had a stroke to his spine causing the weakness in his back legs. He will need physical therapy to help strengthen his legs again. Unfortunately, they are booked up until the end of next month. We’ve just been taking it very slow, carrying him up the stairs, bought rugs for the entire house,grips on his nails. He was on gabapentin for some pain relief. His stomach was not handling that well, so we stopped that. His stomach still is recovering and we are going on two weeks of explosive diarrhea every day. Three days ago we noticed his lip starting to droop and his nose was stuffed. Back to the neurologist we went and found out he is now experiencing facial paralysis on his right side completely unrelated to his back legs and just pure coincidence that this is happening. His right eye and right nostril aren’t making any tears, or mucus, and he can no longer blink his eye. His jowl and lip are drooped on his right side so drool, water, and food are constantly just dripping out. Unfortunately there is no way to know why this happened, we will be getting another mri of his brain done in the next few weeks just to rule out a tumor in his brain. There is a chance he could recover in the next few months however some dogs don’t and will always have a droop. (Contd in comments)
