Holistic Treatment Appointment for Gracilis Myopathy | Lily the German Shepherd

This week we took Lily to see Neil Barnsley at Animal Holistic Therapies. He is a third generation practitioner specialising in musculoskeletal treatment in canines. He came highly recommended by several of our day care clients.

His practice is about 2-2.5 hours away from the farm in a country area just outside of Sydney and close to Camden.

Luke and Lily left early in the morning and travelled down to see Neil with the objective of extending and improving Lily’s quality of life as much as we could, after her diagnosis a few weeks ago of Gracilis Muscle Contracture or Gracilis Myopathy. It is a very rare genetic degenerative disease that does only affect German Shepherds.

Neil shared lots of great information with us. Some great news, exercise and swimming are extremely beneficial to Lily. We are relived and thrilled that this is the case.

I’m sharing the appointment with permission from Neil. Thank you kindly. A clever person commented on Lily’s diagnosis video saying how valuable Lily’s journey would likely be to those few in the future that might sadly discover that their German Shepherd too has Gracilis Myopathy. As there is hardly any research or treatment information available, this might be of help for someone in the future. She also said that it may be of interest to vet students who will likely not see a case otherwise. Not sure how interesting it is for everyone else, but we think it could be important.

Apologies to the lady who Lily barked at in the streets of Camden. Luke felt terrible and told me later. Lily is going to get more practice at it now she’s going weekly.

P.S Also apologies for the navigation voice over at the end. Luke didn’t realise and I can’t edit it out. We won’t have it playing next time.