Picture this: you adopt a dog, spend a wonderful six years with him, and then you wake up one day to realize everything’s changed — for the worse!
This is exactly what happened to Dagmar Gudmundsson from Idaho and her long-time dog, Tyrion, when the pup woke up from one of his naps.
Instead of jumping onto his paws and switching to his happy-go-lucky mode like he always does, Tyrion became wobbly and unsteady. He could barely move his paws.
The reason? A shocking diagnosis that changed their lives within hours!
A Shocking Turn Of Events
Dagmar adopted Tyrion years ago while she was in college in California. She purchased him for $300 after a road trip with her friends. Back then, Tyrion’s condition was far from perfect, with his body covered in ticks and fleas.
The Idaho owner spent a wonderful several years with Tyrion, teaching him all about life in a loving home. Ultimately, the duo became inseparable. Tyrion received all the love he could have ever wished for, and more.
Then, one day, everything changed!
One night, as he woke up from a nap, Tyrion was unable to walk. His back legs and his tail became one hundred percent paralyzed within hours, leading the owner and the vets to believe Tyrion had suffered from IVDD.
However, his condition was far more serious than that. After extensive medical exams and an MRI, the pup was diagnosed with Meningoencephalomyelitis of Unknown Origin. It was an autoimmune disease in which the spinal cord was severely inflamed and attacked by his own body.
Just like that, Tyrion’s life as he knew it disappeared. He and his mom needed to adjust to life in a wheelchair and learn how to cope with upcoming challenges. Fortunately, neither Tyrion nor Dagmar wanted to give up! Quite the contrary, their fighting spirit has inspired the entire internet!
Taking His First Steps After So Long
It took Tyrion two weeks to go back from being confused to learning how to thrive in his wheelchair.
In the meantime, his mom made sure he got all the medical attention possible. Tyrion regularly had hydrotherapy, physical therapy, and acupuncture sessions, which helped him regain his muscle memory.
After a while, Tyrion could use his reflex to move his legs, even though his brain had zero control over his movement.
“He is still 100% paralyzed back there but he’s spinal walking! So he’s able to “walk” using only reflex and muscle memory. His brain has zero control over his back legs,” Dagmar wrote on Instagram.
In an emotional viral TikTok post, Dagmar showed Tyrion’s miraculous progress during one of his hydrotherapy sessions.
After a year and a half of being subjected to hydrotherapy, this resilient pup was finally walking! His body had become so strong that people actually believed Tyrion’s paralysis didn’t exist anymore.
“Once a week. Every week for a year and a half you watch his body strengthen and learn to control itself without the help of his mind. He’s gotten so strong, people don’t even believe he’s paralyzed anymore,” the video text reads.
Just seeing Tyrion take a few small steps was huge progress, and a rewarding moment for his owner.
“This has been an emotional rollercoaster but I knew that I would do whatever I could and whatever I could afford to do to give him the best quality of life,” Dagmar said in another TikTok.
Today, as an eight-year-old dog, Tyrion has never been happier and stronger. He’s taking on every challenge with the biggest smile, and he’s not intending to slow down any time soon!