Trek had just finished a search and rescue demo for a group of students.  It was overcast with light drizzle falling and the ground was very slippery.  Once he had finished, Brian threw Trek’s towel as his reward (as he had done thousands of times after a successful search) and while running to retrieve the towel Trek lost his footing and incurred a traumatic back injury. 

Brian rushed him to East Fishkill Animal Hospital for emergency treatment.  He underwent intensive treatment at the clinic for 24 hours.  When we picked Trek up after his overnight stay at the clinic he had little use of his left rear leg and limited use of his right leg.  As soon as we picked him up from the clinic, we began looking for physical therapy clinics that could begin his recovery immediately.  We found out that Newburgh Veterinary Hospital had an underwater treadmill and physical therapy services.  We started his therapy sessions about 3 days after his injury.  Even after his first session he began to respond incredibly well.  It probably helped that he absolutely loved to swim and seemed to really like his "therapist" Gail.

We decided to also include electrical stimulation acupuncture treatment in order to increase recovery and neurologic communication with his hind legs.  His first electrical stimulation acupuncture lasted well over 2.5 hours and he had such dramatic improvement he almost walked out of the clinic without assistance.  After about 2-3 weeks Trek actually began running around the yard, he could not resist chasing the puppies (Boomer and Candy) and playing with our son. 

Once he completed his intense 5-week rehabilitation regime, he was back to short training searches and continued swimming at the local ponds.  Six months after his injury, Trek was virtually back to normal except for a slight drag of his back leg.  He is one of the most determined and resilient dogs that I have ever met in my life.  From the moment he was injured, he seemed to strive to recover in order to get back into his search harness and go FIND IT!!!!