Dogs and strokes....

Dogs and cats can have strokes, however, can present different symptoms than humans.
 
Here's some info:
 
[linkhttp://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/06_Animal_Welfare/Neurology_Facts/Stroke.html]http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/06_Animal_Welfare/Neurology_Facts/Stroke.html[/link]
 
[linkhttp://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/11500.htm&word=cerebrovascular%2caccident]http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/11500.htm&word=cerebrovascular%2caccident[/link]
 
Hope this helps somewhat.

yes that is helpful.
I think through further research, acknowledgement, trial and error, they could help dogs (who don't recover within the few weeks afterward) recover again. There's got to be certain therapies they could do on a dog, like, say for the circling and falling after a stroke. I don't know. They figured it for humans, and I think with time they'll figure it out for animals too.
I tried doing a search on "Occupational therapy for dogs" and came up with nothing. I came up with dogs being used in occupational therapy, but nothing to do with O.T. for dogs.

My boss and I are both interested in doing canine rehab and have done some research on certs and such. Here is a site that works with dogs that are recoving from illness, injury, and for sports work.
 
[linkhttp://caninerehabilitation.com/]http://caninerehabilitation.com/[/link]
 
While it doesn really explain much about it, you could always contact them if you wanted more detailed information, or better yet, take the courses. That's what I would love to do (I already do wildlife rehab), but can't afford it at this point.
 
Try looking up canine rehabilitation or physical therapy, there's tons of stuff out there.

Well, I was mainly curious because I've been thinking about it lately (and my boyfriend thinks I'm crazy). I'm going to school for occupational therapy (not taking actual OT classes yet, still taking prereqs), with a concentration in sensory integration (dealing with the "inner senses" tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses) working specifically with children with autism. Since Autism is a neurological disorder it always made sense to me how children inflicted with it would have sensory issues. They can receive the signals but somewhere on the way to being processed or during the process, the end result or the output is incorrect. Or something like that, heh, like I said, I haven't taken the actual required courses yet.
Anyway, I was wondering if something similar can happen with animals. Like, if their system might be "out of wack" or something and some simple exercises could possibly help "regulate" them properly. And by out of wack, I'm talking about their nervous system. Where they receive certain signals from their senses. And not their "five" senses, but the inner senses. HA! Am I making any sense? D'oh.

I've experienced both young and older dogs with strokes.  It's much more common in very geriatric dogs (in fact, "old dog vestibular" disease is often confused with a stroke) -- dogs tend to be SO much more adaptive than we are that I suspect strokes are more common than we know -- particularly in older dogs.  But both dogs I've known who were older and had strokes were in the very late stages of a very LONG LONG life (my Prissy had several strokes at the age of 21).  But typically the strokes do more damage -- and when they are so senior it's very difficult on recovery because by then they are nearing the time when THEY may want to quit.
 
My Pollyanna apparently had a stroke that killed her.  She was very young -- only about 7 months -- and had been victim of horrific abuse (some creep broke her back with a broom when she was just 3-4 months old) and she couldn't walk.  Apparently there was simply a blood clot at the original injury site that eventually detached and moved.
 
Strokes aren't as common in dogs as humans -- and the young who would benefit the most from therapy, probably most often wind up with a stroke that takes their life simply because where a human may get headaches or something that will cause them to seek help, a dog can't tell us that.  So it's tough to diagnose.
 
However -- if you are interested in occupational therapy, man -- there is SO much that can be done with dogs with neural problems -- things like DM and stuff where often therapy and massage can slow the disease process SOOOOOOO much.  You may want to check out Dr. Roger Clemmons (UF at Gainesville) -- he's put a LOT of stuff up online about DM (degenerative myelopathy -- sort of a dog version of MS) -- then there is stuff like Wobbler's Syndrom (mostly dobies) and a lot of other neurally based stuff that could use your interest.

Well, I mean, even if animals can't communicate certain things, verbally, like humans do (and we must remember that autistic people more often than not cannot communicate verbally so a lot of this knowledge comes from observing behaviors), and it would take more work to figure issues out, but that's where I think it would interest behaviorists, I believe. See, I know that with O.T. and sensory integration therapy for humans, they have found that a lot of these "misfires" are effecting a child's (or adult's) behavior and with some simple exercises tuned in on their exact misfires, have helped these children dramatically, like my son. I wonder how many problematic dogs (and I mean behavior problematic) could have sensory issues (if that's even possible) that could benefit from some type of therapy. Is that too far-fetched? Am I WAY off base in my thoughts on this?

I don't think you are off-base at all -- but most people just aren't that in tune with their dogs to seek that type of help unfortunately.
 
However -- that leads me to another thot -- dogs that survive distemper OFTEN have neural problems and I would think OT would be extremely helpful -- it often leaves them with everything from drooling to 'muscle ticks' etc. -- I know last year when we were looking for dogs, I was also open to taking a special needs dog and down near Ft. Lauderdale there were a BUNCH of dogs that had been brought thru distemper but who had some neural difficulties.  Wouldn't that make an awesome research paper. 
 
In honesty -- if you go to the UF website you can get Dr. Clemmon's email and I can betcha if anyone can point you in a practical direction he can.  The other one would be Dr. Crissman -- and if you want to tell them "Callie Kennedy" suggested it, go ahead.  (They'd both laugh and say 'gosh, what's she got me into NOW??" *grin*) -- both of them are neuro surgeons but BOTH are also part of the Chi Institute (acupuncture/Chinese herbals) so both are going to be super open to such stuff.

I will check out BOTH of your guys' information, when I get a chance. My boyfriend thinks I'm silly because he thinks there could be no link, dogs aren't humans, blah blah. But dogs have nervous systems too. They feel things when they touch them, they have a sense of balance and muscle and joint input too. Of course it won't be the same as humans, but I'm SURE there is something similar enough that OT for dogs (even focusing in sensory integration) would be found to be useful.

Wouldn't it be awesome if I could go through my schooling (add animal studies or whatever I'd have to add to make it a minor) and be able to rehabilitate children AND dogs??? I could work with behaviorists and I believe it would help behaviorists possibly figure out what's going on with a problematic dog and/or help them with certain behavioral special needs dogs so they can be homed properly. Maybe. It's all still kind of forming in my head.

At any time, if any of my ideas are COMPLETELY off or impossible, please do let me know, I don't want to keep going on a path to find out it's only completely impossible due to some type of biological reasoning or something.

My dog Ty had a stroke almost 2 years ago at age 6.He had partial paralasys on his right side after ward,His spine looked twisted in a way,his head tilted to the side and his lip hung looser on that side.His muscles on his side hung looser and he walked a little sideways.The loss of muscle control and the "twisting" of his spine really aggrevated his hip problems.The vet told us that the damage was probably permanent and reccomended nothing in the lines of therepy to help him recover.I had to basically try and figure out what he needed and do it myself.
I did it,he has made a 100% recovery with therapy ,special diet and supplements in fact i think he is acting younger and more energetic now than before!
I do have to say that if a doggie physical therapist was an option i would have taken it,with out question!It just wasnt an option.