Wet Dog Blog: Pretty Good Weekend

Last week was a tough one for Sophie. Starting last Sunday, she was unable to put her right rear leg down and subsequently she would hop on three legs rather than walk on four. When we did our PT on Thursday it was the worst it had been. She was barely able to do her ball exercises since she couldn't stand on both rear legs. The PT folks suggested ice, stretching and gentle massage.

We have been diligent about the stretching. Roy, really, has been diligent about the stretching. I'm on ice and on massage. Over the weekend we saw huge improvement in the leg and she has been walking on all fours for a few days now. She will still hop from time to time, but mostly she is walking (as newly defined by the new Sophie scale). Maybe about 65% of the time she can walk without any assistance. She is trying more and more to stand up on her own, but she still has trouble. We will find her in odd places so clearly she is able to stand and walk somewhat on her own, but she eventually falls. She also has trouble standing. She can get planted, but then her hind quarters starts to sway and she melts.

PT was good today. Massage, ice, laser, fitball, and (JOY!) underwater treadmill. below is the side view of her walk. You can see that it isn't great for a "normal" dog, but for Sophie this is a miracle. Also, she is wearing her walkabout harness which you will see me refer to (in other posts) as her "pants".

The fitball is used for Sophie to 1. practice balancing on her back legs (and even remembering she has back legs) and 2. strengthening her legs by standing on them and being rocked left and right, forward and back.