MOTHER NATURE ONE, DOGS ZERO

It's been a tough few days recovery wise

Not because of anything wrong with Terra but due to the weather. Our mid-December ice storm (it is December right?) created some precarious situations for Terra, well for both dogs.

We're at the stage of Terra's rehab where the amount of exercise required has ramped up quite a bit; three 30 minute walks with figure 8s, curb work and the puppy squats. Those became almost impossible to do. First we had a sheet of ice over the snow so even taking her out to poo was a challenge, a couple of times she slipped Luckily no damage taken

Walking was a challenge. In our neighbourhood with no sidewalks, we are forced to walk in the road. Well the roads around here did not get blowed. So when the weather was mild there was a tremendous amount of slush and I was concerned with Terra missing her footing When the air cooled, all those slushy ruts became hard and slippery. Difficult for both dogs

Panda is a 13 yr old dog with some arthritis in her back legs. Generally she does just fine walking and jumping but I kept her off the ice sheet for fear of slipping. Even when the snow in the backyard (where we do our morning play) was not icy, the snow was very hard and her paws could punch through it with potential of twisting something

So for most of the weekend both dogs were on restrictive duties, as we say. I didn't like that Terra wasn't doing her rehab but that was preferable to her damaging herself

Because of the conditions and the fact that Terra had a couple small slips we've put her back on Metacam for a while. This is an anti inflammatory with a mild sedative. That should take care of any discomfort

All of this left be entirely pissed off with the weather. Me and Mom Nature, we gots a discussion coming up. But as of this posting conditions have improved. The roads are clear now for walking and both the backyard and the parks are in decent condition so I can take the girls out.

Considering when Terra had her surgery I certainly anticipated many challenges but snow and ice storms were not among them

Yeh. Mama Nature. You got some splainin to do

WEEK FIVE: THE TERRA OLYMPICS

Up until this point, the recovery manual progressed me week by week, each week adding new activities for Terra. Now, I am getting Week 5 to 8. New activities added but that will be the plan until Week 8 which is when she has her re-check and evaluation at the vet's

Mostly I am very pleased with Terra's progress. Her walking is very good. We are now doing walks up to 30 minutes, on the flexie but extended out to about 10 feet. She can do some jogging. I know that if I let her off the leash at this point, jogging would become a full out run.

Here is a recent video clip of her walking

Here's an angle of her walking from the side of the injured leg

Pretty happy with the progress, she walks very easily. There is a slight hitch in her step. That could be from some latent weakness which according to the book, is normal. May be hard to see in the video but the paw on her surgery leg is slightly turned out when she walks which is something we need to work on

In the pic below, you can see that Terra is extending her repaired leg. Again, very normal but the idea is to have that leg "squared" up to her body as is the other one

The exercises called puppy squats, where I have her sit then quickly sit, are designed to help her with this issue. The version that seems to work best is when I have her go tight up against a wall on that side of her body and do the squats. That forces her to tuck in that leg

This week we've added a couple of new exercises. While walking I have go up and down a curb, in an S formation, as we walk along. That's easy to do in our neighbourhood where we have no sidewalks. I'm also doing hill work which is exactly as it sounds: On a tight lead, I walk her up and down a steep hill and also walk her laterally across the hill. Another easy thing to do in our area. Just a couple blocks from the house we have streets that dip down into the Humber Ravine

So at this stage we are doing several exercises: Leash walks, figure eights, puppy squats, curb work, hill work. It's like one of those multi sport events in the Olympics. I have an athlete who can manage the task. It's the coach I'm worried about.

The coach needs beer

WEEK FOUR: HOLD BACK, GO FORWARD

Here we are into Week Four

The rehab protocols are beginning to ramp up the activities: Walks up to 20 minutes, walks on the flexie leash up to 10 feet, some light trotting. We are doing Figure 8s (which are exactly as they sound) and increasing the puppy squats.

During these puppy squats (she sits down then comes up fast and repeat) I notice that her surgery leg is sticking out, she is not "sitting square". It's not as bad as some dogs where they tuck the leg right under her body but the idea is to get that leg properly under her. One way to correct this is to do the exercise with Terra up against a wall, the "bad" leg against the wall, forcing her to move that leg in. These seems to be working

The first few times I put all these new protocols together, I could see that it was really tiring Terra out. So amazing, this is a dog that throughout her life, would do about 2 hrs of really active exercise per day. But considering that for about 2 months before the surgery I was  not allowing her to go "all out" it's not surprising that she has to relearn her stamina

So although I am following the rehab advice I'm also adjusting it as needed. So for a couple of days I eased off on the new activities to allow Terra to ease into it. That worked. Now she is able to better tolerate the new schedule and I can see her getting a little stronger every day

We've been warned that the next 4 weeks are very crucial; it's when the highest rate of re-injuries occur. The dog is feeling better, feeling stronger. I'm walking Terra in a park, letting her have more lead, and she thinks "Hey, we're back to normal" The other day I was bringing her home; she's still not allow to go up the steps so I've been carrying her. There was a neighbourhood cat sunning himself up on the porch, as I was shooing it away Terra put her front feet up on the stair and started to go up ...

This is the kind of thing we have to watch. No stairs, no jumping up (and jumping down), no balls, no full out wrestling with her stuffies Trust me, that's  not easy to do