Our old dog collapsed and then could barely stand up. We really thought that we might lose her.

Olive, our old greyhound, is over 13 years old. She still enjoys life, but is on medication for arthritis and for her heart.
Twice this month we've had an incident of  her collapsing. Fortunately she recovered both times - by the next day she was her usual self.

What happened was this...

She has the use of a couch with a duvet on it. It's comfortable and draught-free.
Normally she jumps on off quite easily and without any problems. (You should see her leap when she's excited - she moves like a much younger dog!)

Both times that she collapsed happened after she fell while getting off her couch. Her legs went front and back and she was unable to stand without support.
Obviously she was frightened (so were we) and she was also in shock. Boris, our younger male greyhound, was very concerned and rushed over to her.
We laid her gently on her side on the floor.
Her heart was thumping, so I gave her some Bach Rescue Remedy. This calmed her and her heart beat became more normal. She rested and dozed for a while.
But she was still unsteady on all of her legs, so I massaged her muscles to increase the blood flow.
(You can do this by making small firm circular movements with your finger tips on the leg muscles. Then put both hands around the lower part of the leg and move them upwards using firm pressure (not too hard!). If your dog doesn't like it try using less pressure.)
This helped her a little. But she was afraid of squatting down to go to the toilet. I put a large towel around her middle and supported her by holding up the free ends. This is a useful trick for dogs with mobility problems.

We were really worried and thought that we might be in danger of losing her. But she seemed to be recovering a bit, so we decided to wait until the next day to see if a trip to the vet was needed. Great news - she was her usual self  by the next morning. She even went for a short walk. Boris was quite happy to walk slowly along side of her - I think that he realised that was what Olive needed.

I put large cushions in front of the couch. This was to create a step to make it easier for her to get on and off, and to make a soft landing if she fell again.
Olive ignored the cushions and leapt over them getting on and off! So I removed them, of course.

I think that Bach Rescue Remedy should be in every dog owner's medicine cabinet. (it works on peopls as well).
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