So, I have a dog. I actually have 2 dogs, but this is about Bella. Here's a picture of the two- Kenzie, the shepherd lying on the really expensive bed I bought for Bella, who is ignoring it and lying on the floor, as she often does:
Bella is a 12 year old female spayed yellow Labrador Retriever. She was originally my parents' dog- my step-father got her as a Valentine's day gift for my mother. At the time, they lived in a place without a fenced in yard, so the dogs had to be leashed walked to go to the bathroom. Bella ended up with me after my step-father was involved in a car accident on Christmas eve. He was injured pretty badly. It actually ended up really screwing up his foot. He never walked normally after that, and really only had a few months of good walking and use out of it at all. But anyway- my parents had 2 dogs at that time, and I was home for Christmas break. I offered to take one dog back to school with me, whichever was harder for my mom to handle alone. And I ended up taking Bella. She came back to Virginia Tech with me, she was with me for my internship at a warmblood breeding farm in northern Virginia, she was with me at NCSU for my last year of vet school. She did not come with me to Grenada, I did not think plane rides would be good for her- plus I lived in the dorms, no dogs allowed. A different regret I have is not taking the chance to live on a tropical beach when I had the opportunity, but I felt safer on campus, and didn't have to worry about anything but a food bill.
Bella is a very sweet girl. She has been having progressive hind end weakness the last year, and some weird popping of her hind end (probably knees) I could never localize or re-create. She was actually a large part of the reason I wanted to learn acupuncture- to help keep her comfortable as she ages. In July, she had a bad bout of diarrhea and vomiting, and was on fluids for 2-3 days, and got very weak. She has recovered mosty from that, but her hind end weakness took a significant jump forward. She now noticeable struggles to stand, and sometimes can't stand unaided if she falls over because she tried to walk backwards. I decided to seek out a rehab place to help keep her as strong as we can. I am able to life her when she goes down, but my mother can't, and she's the one who is usually he first one up with the dogs, feeding and taking them out.
And I found PAWS for Rehab about an hour away from me. Bella has had 3 sessions there, and I thought I would document her progress here. The plan is twice-weekly visits for 6 weeks. So far, I noticed an immediate improvement in energy after her first visit and laser therapy session, and am seriously considering a laser unit for home use. Laser therapy is used to aid healing and help with pain and inflammation in pets. It isn't suitable for all conditions- for instance, you don't want to use it over areas with tumors- but it is often used in arthritic patients as an additional modality for pain relief. I'm running out of reasonable drug options to try- I have a few left I can switch to if needed, but not a lot so any non-medication pain relief options are of interest to me. I am also looking into Asissi loops but that will be in the future, after her rehab.
Her first session was underwater treadmill and laser, the second visit they showed me exercises to do at home, and today was massage (and maybe something else- I pre-paid for all 6 weeks, so I forget).
Bella is really eager on the car rides there. I think she also misses riding shotgun, since she used to for our car trips until I got this car. the leather seats are too slick for her, and the floor is further down from the seat, harder for her to put her front legs on the floor and sit in the chair like she used to.
She tends to sleep a little more on the ride back- the excitement of getting there and seeing people wears her out.
I forgot to take pictures the first time there, so these are the car ride from our second trip. She wears the Help 'em up harness for car rides so i can catch her and lift her into and out of the car easier-. She still tries to jump in and out, though it doesn't end well for her without help.
I did get a picture of her being really pushy and demanding a walk after her first visit
Our current homework is 4 exercises to strengthen her back end and core muscles. I am trying to figure out the best way to work doing these 2-3 times a day into our schedule without just taking a huge chunk of time to do it all at once, which doesn't really give the best benefit. They're fairly simple exercises to do, it's just remembering to do them throughout the day. Tomorrow is my first full day back at work since I was given the exercises, so I am planning to split things up into 4 or 5 chunks of time- first thing in the morning, ideally with a walk if I can wake myself up that early, when I get home for lunch and before I leave from lunch to go back to work, when I get home from work, and before bed. That is my tentative plan at the moment, I will update as we go along with progress and pictures. I can say, one of our exercises is standing on the stairs with her front paws for several seconds. She's already showing some improvement there- mostly that she realizes I am not trying to make her go up the stairs, which she has not done since early July. She's extremely food motivated, which helps a lot.
