My name is Ron Bailey. My nightmare began on April 7th, 2025.

My best friend, my 5-year-old Akita Kokoro (Koko), (who we welcomed to the family after having to say goodbye to our previous Akita during Covid), was running around that morning, limping before lunchtime, and not getting up by dinner. The following morning, we went to the vet because she had lost the use of both back legs and was beginning to lose the front. The vet was stumped for a couple of hours and finally asked if she had been in a fight with a raccoon recently, and she had the week before.

By process of elimination, she was diagnosed with a rare disorder called Coonhound Paralysis.

Coonhound paralysis, also known as polyradiculoneuritis (PRN), is a serious but survivable condition in dogs that occurs when the immune system attacks the nervous system. It's linked to raccoon saliva but can also occur without raccoon contact.

There are no known cures.

Treatment consists of keeping them comfortable, turning every 2 to 3 hours around the clock, hand-feeding, finding ways to encourage pees and poops because she has no control, and keeping her clean.

We went through a bad UTI a few weeks in and had to get much more efficient at helping her express her bladder. We were taught how to manually express her bladder, but being a marker, she doesn't empty her bladder on one pee. We learned if we catch her when she starts to pee, we can express her fully, so we go to dog parks and the vet yard to get her encouraged.

The first week was terrifying. In some cases, the diaphragm can be paralyzed, and they stop breathing. She did have breathing issues but not real severe.

Her issue seemed to be her neck would spasm, forcing her chin into the ground, and her jaw would lock up, forcing her to breathe through her nose only. When she panicked, it became hard to breathe enough air.

She also had an issue with her tongue, where it would push food out instead of pulling it into her mouth. It even affected her voice. Her bark went from bold and gruff to a higher pitch.

We set up an airbed on the living room floor, and I built a platform for a camp cot so she can look out front. My wife and I take shifts staying with her constantly.

Recovery times vary because of many factors: age, health, severity, etc. All we have learned is new symptoms can continue to appear for up to 3 weeks. We are in our 6th week, so there's a little comfort in that.

We have finally begun to see tiny improvements. She can hold her head up, her tongue works better most of the time, but we still have to hand-feed her. She rolled up her front half the last few days, and we are doing well at keeping her spirits up. We got her a quad wheelchair, but she is not quite ready, so we bought a 100-gallon stock tank to do some hydrotherapy with her life jacket on. We are working hard to get her back. We will sleep when she is better.

We have always been the people helping others, and it seems strange to ask for help, but we are struggling a bit with all the vet bills, and more to come.

And with this being our full-time job right now, I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

I appreciate all who read our story, whether you can help or not. I feel the need to educate people on this illness and hopefully give someone else going through this a few ideas to help them help their desperate friend a little more.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. We appreciate ya!