Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Setback
I have some fun here with my little blog, and I really enjoy seeing the comments from visitors. I love my Feedjit tool that tells me people are dropping in from Spain, India, Russia, and so many other exotic locales - the world truly has shrunk when international visitors can drop in to see the goings-on of two English Springer Spaniels in a mid-sized Canadian town.
I typically refrain from putting anything too profound or heavy on my blog because I tend to view it as a bit of fun and a nice way to talk about our obedience competition, and because I love my dogs (probably too much) I like taking lots of pictures of them and sharing them with other like-minded addicts.
Today, though, I'm breaking my rule of not getting serious on my blog. I will ask for the collective goodwill of the dog-crazy people who drop in, if you could, just send a good thought towards Elliott. He has suffered a gigantic setback in his ACL recovery, and so far we don't know what has happened or how to go forward.
About a week ago he started hopping on 3 legs seemingly out of nowhere. He has been to the rehab vet twice and, while she is pretty certain that his ACL repair has not failed, we are hoping to get together for a consult with the surgeon who did the repair soon just to see what he thinks might be going on. The knee itself seems fine. There is tenderness at the back of the leg, so we are hoping that what might have happened is a strain or sprain to a muscle. However, here we are at day 7 of basically what continues to be non weight-bearing hopping around. We have rested him aggressively and gone back to square one: no walks, or only very short 5 minute walks (hops); no stairs; no uncontrolled activity of any kind. I have to open my mind to the possibility that the repair has somehow failed or that something else quite serious is going on in that leg. After almost 6 months of good improvement this is extremely hard to deal with and emotionally draining.
I am not typically a touchy-feely kind of person but I will shamelessly ask for anyone who cares to, to send a good thought Elliott's way. Maybe it will make a difference, who knows.
I typically refrain from putting anything too profound or heavy on my blog because I tend to view it as a bit of fun and a nice way to talk about our obedience competition, and because I love my dogs (probably too much) I like taking lots of pictures of them and sharing them with other like-minded addicts.
Today, though, I'm breaking my rule of not getting serious on my blog. I will ask for the collective goodwill of the dog-crazy people who drop in, if you could, just send a good thought towards Elliott. He has suffered a gigantic setback in his ACL recovery, and so far we don't know what has happened or how to go forward.
About a week ago he started hopping on 3 legs seemingly out of nowhere. He has been to the rehab vet twice and, while she is pretty certain that his ACL repair has not failed, we are hoping to get together for a consult with the surgeon who did the repair soon just to see what he thinks might be going on. The knee itself seems fine. There is tenderness at the back of the leg, so we are hoping that what might have happened is a strain or sprain to a muscle. However, here we are at day 7 of basically what continues to be non weight-bearing hopping around. We have rested him aggressively and gone back to square one: no walks, or only very short 5 minute walks (hops); no stairs; no uncontrolled activity of any kind. I have to open my mind to the possibility that the repair has somehow failed or that something else quite serious is going on in that leg. After almost 6 months of good improvement this is extremely hard to deal with and emotionally draining.
I am not typically a touchy-feely kind of person but I will shamelessly ask for anyone who cares to, to send a good thought Elliott's way. Maybe it will make a difference, who knows.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
This is neither a cart nor a carting breed!
Bernese Mountain Dog - NOT.
Elliott continues to progress in his recovery from ACL surgery. One of the biggest problems we have right now is that he has lost a lot of muscle on the surgical leg. He still goes to therapy and does work on the underwater treadmill, but we are now trying new ways to challenge different muscles in his leg and rebuild the muscle. One of the things we have been given the ok to do by our rehab vet, Dr. Leslie Woodcock, is to work sets of stairs every day as exercise. Another way to get him to dig in on the surgical leg in a controlled fashion is to have him pull a weight. She suggested a wagon or a toboggan with some books on it.
A great friend at work who is very sympathetic to Elliott and his rehab, and who has a whole passel of human children, loaned me one of her kids' toboggans so we could try having him pull it on our lawn. This morning Paul and I got Elliott suited up in his harness and set about trying to get Elliott to pull this toboggan. For now we are not putting any extra weight on the toboggan because it in itself weighs about 8-10 lbs. That's enough to start with.
Hooking up his harness to the toboggan with 2 leashes through the holes on the toboggan.
I was quite surprised that Elliott did not mind in the least when we hooked this thing up to him and did not freak out or even blink twice about us asking him to then pull it around the yard. I could see that it definitely made him work his surgical leg in a new way, but still in a controlled way. I think we will try to do this every other day to see if it will help to build up some muscle in his leg. If he becomes very good at it we can add a little more weight.
Quite the sight to see an English Springer Spaniel pulling a toboggan! Maybe this is an area for future competition!
What are you doing back there?
Coming, Dad!!!!!
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