My australian shepherd’s name is “Little j” He is named after his Dad, a big beautiful ranch Aussie named Jasper Jack who sired a beautiful group of pups. When the pups were born at the Missouri ranch there was one who favored the appearance and even the behavior of Jasper Jack. So, that pup was named after him as Little j.
Little j came to me when he was only 8 weeks old. The day after his third birthday June 21, 2015 would change all of our lives in a way that we could not have imagined. Visitors arrived at our ranch, people we had never met, but who were helping to drive a relative back home to Eastern WA. They were arriving from Eastern WA after more than 4 hours of driving.
Little j ran barking toward their car, He didn’t recall that day though I called out to him. The car hit him and knocked him down, but stopped. The driver couldn’t see him. As Little j tried to right himself the driver drove forward, confused about where to go or park. The car ran over Little j and stopped. He was screaming in pain, and was apparently pinned down under the exhaust manifold and under the weight of the car.
I ran to him, unaware he was pinned down, and tried to pull him from under the car- but he bit on to me in a panic and would not let go. I could feel the nerve pains running the entire length of my arm and I too was then screaming in pain.
My husband Don had the presence of mind to run for a car jack and jack up the car. He was able to pull Little j and I apart, and pull Little j from under the car. I laid on the ground in so much pain as I watched that Little j was not able to stand so that Don had to lift him into the truck to drive him to the emergency clinic. An ambulance was called for me and I was advised it was best to accept transport due to probable nerve damage in my arm.
The following morning Don and I arrived at the veterinary hospital to see Little j. The doctor requested a meeting with us first. We were told Little j had sustained a broken vertebrae near his tail end, was in extreme pain from being run over, was unable to control his functions, stand, or walk, and refused to eat. The advice was that we should consider putting him down.
As we arrived to see him, I saw that sadly he had to be in a cage, was strapped to hydration and pain medications- laying down of course. When he heard and saw us he tried desperately to stand. He was obviously very happy to see us. I reached in the cage and took what looked like baby food in my hands. He ate heartily. Don and I looked at each other and said the words simultaneously, “he is coming home.”
We turned the entry of our house into a 6 foot by 6 foot padded hospital bed for Little j. We bought cases of incontinence pads. I called our vet who was unable to provide house calls. I called our horse vet who came to the house. She examined him. I shared the x-rays. She was concerned he most probably would never walk again, at least with the left rear leg. It hurt him tremendously to move and he would scream in pain. But with horses, as some of you may know…it is important to get them UP when they are down. We were advised to try but Little j cried loudly when he was moved. I asked her why his left hip area felt so hard, like cardboard. The fur seemed all in tact but his skin felt hard about the size of a dinner plate in circumference. The horse vet said the skin was actually cooked, and that it would start to crack. She told me I would have to cut it back as it cracked, and scrub the cooked area. She provided a jar of silver salve to put on it as the skin cracked and opened up.
Little j was unable to move his hind quarters and he was unable to control his functions. We had to be diligent about cleaning up any mess, because if we didn’t get to it fast enough he would ingest it to clean it up himself (knowing he wasn’t supposed to go in the house). He vomited often because of meds or because he would get to a mess before we could do it.
We were advised by 3 professionals it was best to put him down. However, his happiness being with us and the brightness of his eyes and expression only created more determination in us to keep working with him.
One night I laid there with him, thinking to myself maybe we were wrong. I thought maybe we should put him out of his misery. Though he did not seem in misery!… Except when we had to move him. I clearly heard a message within myself. It was two things: “Remember that book your client gave you about the horse, Kitty Silverwings?,” and the second message…CALL DR RAY!” Kitty Silverwings is a true story about a horse born with a dangling front leg. The story is about that against all odds this horse recovered to become a champion show horse and a Breyer horse model. And as for Dr. Ray, well, he has been our chiropractor many years and is well known to us a miracle healer.
I called Dr Ray the following day and he came right away to our house. He examined Little j, adjusted him, and told me he believedLittle j would walk again. He gave me instructions on how to move him. He loaned me a device I had never heard of, his Infratonic device. He instructed me to set it on Little j’s hip area and lower back at least 3 times a day.
I did as he instructed every day for almost 6 weeks, holding the Infratonic on him up to 20 minutes, 3 times per day. During that time I kept him very still and we were diligent about cleaning up after him, cutting back the cooked skin, scrubbing the cooked area and applying the silver salve. At about the 6 week mark, I used a sling to carry his hind quarters so he could stand, and I continued the treatments with the Infratonic. He tried to walk but he was stepping down on the top of his feet. We bought him braces to hold his feet in position and he tried to walk, but though he touched his feet to the ground, I had to carry his weight in the sling.
We purchased a swimming pool. We were referred to a K-9 swim therapist. I called her, and she came right away. After spending a day with us, she offered to work with Little j every day for no charge. We had to slide him by using towels under him onto a snow tabagon, transfer that onto a wooden cart, roll the cart to the pool, transfer the tabagon onto a picnic table at the head of the pool. One of us would get in the pool and one outside the pool, we lifted the tabagon into the pool and lowered it until he was floating with a life jacket on.
Our water angel volunteer worked with him in the pool and massaged him in the water. We watched under the water over the weeks to follow how his rear legs began to straighten. Transferring him out of the pool was the same procedure we had done going in, except in reverse of course.
The Infratonic treatments continued, and we stayed diligent keeping him clean and medicated on the burn area.
One day I was able to walk him, outside to the bushes, though I was still using the sling to support his hind quarters. Then after several days, he pulled away from me and out of the sling, then walked about 6 steps before falling down.
As this progressed I realized in the mornings he wasn’t leaving a mess, he was waiting for me to take him outside. I would walk him with the sling but with less and less help, then once in the brush he would relieve himself. He was controlling his functions to poop and pee!
The Infratonic, practicing standing, swimming, practicing walking with the braces on his feet, he progressed. One day I had him lying in the grass waiting for his water angel to arrive. As she drove in the gate, he STOOD UP AND WALKED TO HER CAR!
This story has so many chapters to it, so many wonderful parts to it, too many for this brief article. I do for purposes of this article however want to encourage others to use the Infratonic on their animals as well as themselves. I have continued using the device on Little j and he is 12 years old now. He progressed from walking on his own to climbing our stairs, hiking with me, accompanying me on horseback rides, jumping up on the couch, and even the bed. He is weakening now but he is still climbing stairs and able to jump up on the couch. He is still going on short walks with me. He has lived a full and beautiful life. I do want to add that I fully understand many people don’t have the luxury of nursing their animals back to health to this extent because of the need to work. I was retired and able to care for Little j full time without a conflict over dollars. Still, my message here is that the Infratonic was a wonderful addition to our treatment plan and without our chiropractor loaning us his device we would have never even known about it. He not only treats people, but also horses and dogs. He taught me that I didn’t even need to lay the device on Little j, I could just wave it over him. THAT is amazing to me!
