Max’s Story
The inspiration for this website.
How this site came to exist
On September 23, 2023, I was walking Max back from our morning route when I noticed something was wrong. He was walking drunkenly — weaving, uncertain, not himself. My first thought was that maybe he’d gotten into some medication while my parents were visiting. By the time we got home, he had collapsed to the floor in a lay position. He looked up at me with calm, trusting eyes — completely unbothered. He didn’t know yet what had happened to him.
I did.
At the vet, I learned the words I’d never heard before: fibrocartilaginous embolism. Spinal stroke. The vet — one of the rare ones who had actually seen this before — suspected FCE based on how it happened and how Max presented. He was calm. He was not in pain. He was just… down.
I did not share any of this publicly when it happened. I was devastated, and I didn’t know what the outcome would be. I took Max out to potty in the early mornings and late at night, before anyone else was on the sidewalk, so I didn’t have to deal with the staring or the questions.
I didn’t want pity. What I wanted was information — and there was almost none.
The search for answers
I spent the next several days reading everything I could find: handicapped pet forums, YouTube videos, every veterinary research paper and integrative medicine article I could locate. The picture was incomplete. The information was scattered, often contradictory, and almost entirely written for IVDD — not for FCE specifically.
Then, on a whim, I searched “FCE dogs” on Facebook. A group appeared. And with it — a community. Real owners, real stories, real data from people who had been exactly where I was. Everything I read pointed to FCE. And Max was already showing early improvement: deep pain response returning in both feet, though his left side was weaker.
I decided to skip the MRI when the November appointment rolled around. I had enough. I knew what we were dealing with.
What I didn’t have was a single resource that put everything together — the science, the therapies, the supplements, the home exercises, the emotional reality of caregiving through a long recovery. I had to build that knowledge myself, piece by piece, over two and a half years.
FCEDogs.com is what I wish I had found that first night.
Max’s recovery
Max began formal rehabilitation at the Animal Rehabilitation Center of Michigan on October 5th, 2023 — less than two weeks after his stroke. Stephanie, his rehab therapist, became one of his favorite people despite his initial growling and biting (he’s working on his first impressions).
Seven acupuncture sessions in the first two months — stopped because Max refused to cooperate with the needles, and the stress wasn’t worth the benefit for him specifically. Twenty-eight PT sessions over six months. Hydrotherapy. Laser therapy. Electrical stimulation. A supplement protocol built around omega-3s, vitamin B12, Voltrex, Lumbrex, vitamin E, vitamin C, SOD, Boswellia, and more. A homemade fresh food diet with sardines, red cabbage, blueberries, and broccoli chosen deliberately for their neurological support properties.
And a cone. A soft donut cone, worn during walks, because at five months I noticed Max had developed a head-down, front-heavy posture — compensating with his front legs, not fully trusting his back ones. The cone forced his head up, straightened his spine, and shifted weight into his hind limbs. His back muscles toned up significantly within weeks. It was something I invented out of observation and stubbornness. I haven’t seen it recommended anywhere else.
At six months: 90–95% recovered, depending on the day.
At one year: still improving. Incremental, but real.
At eighteen months: added chiropractic. More improvement.
Recently: added homeopathy. Further improvements.
Today, two years and seven months after his stroke: Max is at 98% function. You would not know unless you watched his slow-walk gait very carefully — and I only notice because I have been watching, every single day, for two years and seven months.
Why I built this site
I am not a veterinarian. I am not a researcher. I am a dog owner who loved her dog enough to become an amateur expert in spinal cord injury, Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, photobiomodulation, myostatin inhibition, and the neurophysiology of recovery — because Max needed me to.
The resources I found were scattered, incomplete, and almost never written by someone who had actually been through it. Felinecrf.org exists for cats with kidney disease and has saved countless animals and owners because of the depth and honesty of its information. FCE dogs deserved the same thing.
This site is built from Max’s recovery — every therapy we tried, every supplement we added, every exercise protocol we developed, every machine we used or wished we had. It is annotated with the research that supports those choices. It is written with the caregiver in mind — the person who is up at 3am, terrified, trying to understand what is happening to the animal they love.
Everything on this site reflects my personal experience and my interpretation of available research. Nothing replaces a veterinary neurologist or a certified canine rehabilitation specialist — and I say that throughout this site, repeatedly, because I mean it. But knowledge is power. And you deserve all of it.
A thank you
To Stephanie at ARC Rehab Michigan — you turned a growling, terrified dog into a patient who wagged his tail on the way into the clinic. You are exceptional.
To Dr. Steve Marsden, whose integrative veterinary wisdom I have been absorbing for years and whose Gold Standard Herbal formulas I believe helped limit the damage Max experienced that first day.
To the FCE Dogs Facebook community — for being there in the middle of the night when there was nowhere else to turn.
To my pet insurance company — for making this financially survivable.
And to Max — for never giving up, for always looking up at me like I had everything under control even when I absolutely did not, and for being the reason this site exists.
FCEDogs.com is an independent educational resource. It is not affiliated with any veterinary practice, product manufacturer, or research institution. Affiliate links throughout the site help support the cost of maintaining it — at no additional cost to you. All content is reviewed for medical accuracy. This site does not provide veterinary advice.
If you found this site helpful, please share it with anyone who needs it. That is why it exists.