Border Collie Kiba learns to walk again aged 12 after devastating paralysis

Kiba, who lives with his owners Katie Burns and Max Walker in Sherburn, went from running around as a happy dog to having to be carried everywhere after paralysis struck.

After having discussions with their vet, Katie and Max decided to take Kiba to canine rehab centre Operation K9 for treatment. They wanted Kiba to enjoy the last few years of his life as best as he could.

Rebecca Wilkinson, owner and vet nurse at Operation K9, said: “I was surprised to see the extent of Kiba’s disability, but you could see straight away he was such a lovely boy and trying so hard to wag his tail for us.

“We started an intensive laser and physiotherapy regime to increase awareness of his limbs and help regenerate nerve pathways. Every week we saw changes in him, first it was a waggier tail, then a head lift and sitting more upright.

“Eventually he was mobile enough for hydrotherapy treatment in our pool, it was amazing to see him move his legs under the water and swim.”

The reason for paralysis in dogs is often serious and complex. There can be many reasons it can happen, from accidents to a disease process.

An MRI scan and surgery could be recommended but is not always practical or accessible for every owner.

Kiba underwent hydrotherapy and physiotherapy, as well as laser treatment, and Katie and Max also did lots of home therapy with Kiba and they visited hydrotherapy twice a week.

They said: “It was a slow progress to start with but with help from the amazing team at Operation K9 we slowly saw improvements and after three to four months he got up by himself for the first time. Since then he has progressed amazingly. He can get up and walk about by himself completely unaided and seems to improve with his mobility with every session.

“His walking isn’t perfect however his progress from being completely immobile to now being able to do almost everything again is outstanding and we believe none of this would have been possible without the constant support from all the team at Operation K9.”