1 Month After Surgery

It's hard to believe, but a whole month has passed since Romeo's surgery.  The stress, the worry, and the amazement to see our baby boy walking again has been incredible.  As I said on Facebook, we can't say enough good things about the veterinarians, techs, and staff that have helped Romeo on his journey.  Dr. Su and Dr. Pinto at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, SK, Dr. Hamilton at Natural Healing Veterinary Care here in Winnipeg, and Romeo's regular vet, Dr. Sexsmith, have been awesome and we highly recommend them all.  


And, of course, all of you.  Your love, support, kindness, and donations have helped immensely in getting us through this.  From friends, family, and total strangers, the outpouring of interest and love towards Romeo has been so amazing.  Thank you all so much from the bottom of our hearts.  :)


And now, time for something lighthearted:  A one month post-surgery video of Romeo and Mia!  Music by The Monkey Bunch (this is the perfect dogs playing song).

These Tiny Feet Were Made For Walking

This video was filmed on 6/20/2011.  You can see how much Romeo's walking has improved and it's getting better everyday.  He hardly knuckles his back feet anymore and when that does happen, he tries to right them.

Romeo had an acupuncture appointment with Dr. Hamilton today.  She was so impressed by his progress that she skipped electro-acupuncture and instead did regular acupuncture, lasering, and some lasering to his incision (there are a few stubborn scabs that are so tempting to pick off).  She gave us some new exercises to do to challenge him a bit more so that'll be good as we're pretty sure he's tired of us bouncing his back legs on the exercise ball.  Romeo sees her again at the beginning of July and then she said after that she should only need to see him about once a month or so, so that's great.  It's nice that the vets are pleasantly surprised by his progress.

I don't want to come across as tooting our own horn here or anything, but this conversation has come up with a few people and I think it's worth mentioning.  I'd like to think that part of the reason Romeo's recuperation has come along so well is because we haven't overly babied him.  I think a lot of people in this situation would baby their dog, thinking it's the best thing to do, instead of helping the dog achieve some independence.  Let's face it:  Romeo's a cute small dog and at 18 lbs he's not difficult to hoist and carry around.   It would have been easy to be, "No, no, don't strain yourself.  Let me pick you up and carry you the 5 feet you want to go."  But does that really help him?  We didn't do that.  The first couple of days home post-surgery we did that to an extent, but most of the time it was helping him use his legs either with a sling or just carrying his back end a bit if he wasn't going far.  Within the first week home, we took the attitude of "if you want to go somewhere, you need to make an effort first; you have legs and we both know you can use them."  I think helping Romeo regain his independence has helped him immensely.  If someone was carrying you around everywhere, wouldn't you stop trying after awhile?  Same thing goes with animals.  The only times Romeo gets carried are up/down stairs, up/off bed, and kennel to outside to avoid a sudden pee accident.  My advice to people in a situation like this is to really know your dog.  If they can do certain things, then encourage it and get them to (safely) do it instead of helping them to a fault (i.e. overly babying them).  Obviously, every situation is  different and you shouldn't be borderline abusive about it.  We knew Romeo's limitations and we knew when he was simply being lazy.  

Update From Home

Napping with Mommy and Mia after a big day

Romeo had a check-up with his regular vet, Dr. Sexsmith, today.  She was very impressed with his progress.  The last time she saw him was the day after his paralysis kicked in.  So today, she walked in the room and said, "Oh good, he's able to stand."  Then he started to walk and she said, "OH!  And he can walk!  Yay for ambulating!"  *lol*  She checked his reflexes, his back end business, and a urinalysis and she said he's looking great.  There were some crystals in his urine, but it was very concentrated so that's not a surprise and she's not concerned.  His back legs still have aways to go to build that muscle back up.  We're going to talk to her in a few weeks about doing some more advance rehab exercises though, to be honest, he's able to partially do some she already suggested (like stepping over something like a broom handle).  

Romeo made some big progress this evening:  He was able to scratch his ear with his left leg!  :D  You try not scratching at something out of your reach for nearly a month and see how you'd feel once you were able to finally get at that itch.  And it wasn't a clumsy scratch either; he was giving himself a really thorough scratching so that was completely awesome.

We've noticed that he's trying to compensate for his right leg not being as coordinated/strong as his left leg.  For example, he'll balance himself more to the left or he'll hop his right leg to try and catch up with the left.  Animals are so much more resilient than people are.  I swear.  

Wags!

I made this video last night and posted it to the Facebook page, but I was too tired to post it on here.  Whoops.  Anyway, here's some footage from yesterday when Romeo started wagging his tail more.  :) 



Poke, Poke

Romeo and Mommy during a tub rehab session

Romeo had his first acupuncture treatment at Natural Healing Veterinary Care with Dr. Hamilton yesterday.  It was an hour long session so towards the end he was getting antsy and was trying to sneakily escape.  *lol*  Anyway, Dr. Hamilton said she was impressed with Romeo's progress thus far.  She had him on a mat with emits an electromagnetic field and she did some needle acupuncture (which he shook off), needle-less laser acupuncture, and some physiotherapy along with vibration massage.  She also used a laser on his incision to create more blood flow to the site to help with healing (more blood flow = more oxygen = faster healing). 

Dr. Hamilton gave us more exercises to do now that Romeo's legs are getting stronger.  Some of the exercises include gently but firmly pulling on his tail, using his tail to assist with his walking instead of using the sling(s) which can hinder some of his leg use, and leg stretches.  She also suggested we give him more massages, particularly his upper body and neck, to keep his muscles loose.  She pointed out his triceps are getting quite big/muscular because they're carrying most of the weight.  I couldn't help but think of Joe from "Family Guy", hahahaha!

Needless to say, Romeo was quite tuckered out for most of the day yesterday.  Dr. Hamilton said that's normally what happens, especially because the first appointment is a bit longer.  Romeo's going to see her again next week.  Dr. Hamilton suggested we video tape his progress.  Andrew said that was funny because we have been, he just forgot to take the camera along yesterday.  She said a lot of people wish they would have recorded things, but didn't.

Update Video

Big Update!

So, I (Holly) was in the house baking brownies.  Andrew ran in and told me to come outside quickly.  He had taken the dogs out for a potty break so I went to see what was going on.  Andrew told me to stay by the house and he took Romeo to the fence...and Romeo jogged to me like he used to!  :D  I almost cried!  He had his ears down and this really determined look on his face as he jogged up to me and gave me a big kiss.  This is so incredibly amazing!  Mia thought the old Romeo was back and was nipping at him to play with her so we had to get her to settle down.  Romeo did this not once, but thrice!  So, so awesome!  We can't be letting him run, but this seemed to be a pretty good pace.  

He's taking careful steps around the house and keeping himself upright while walking a little longer now so this is all great, great progress as you can imagine.  His rehab today consisted of being in the tub, standing/light bouncing on an exercise ball, and balance shifting on the ball.  I think Romeo deserves a nice leg massage later.  :)

Update From Home

Post-rehab session in the sun

Thank you for the tips on how to get Romeo to eat his kibble.  To our surprise, he started eating it up again without any further problems so that's great.

On Thursday, Romeo had a case of lazy legs compared to the day before and we figured out why:  He had finished his pain medication.  He's back to moving his legs a bit more now, but he groans a lot.  We need to chug past this stage because we don't want him hooked on pain medication, obviously.  He took a break from rehab sessions yesterday so we'll do some light ones today.

Romeo's still trying to walk, but his right leg isn't progressing as quickly as his left.  He'll walk/hop a bit and then his right leg will either give out or trip his left one.  Hopefully it starts strengthening up.  He wagged his tail a lot, the most we've seen yet, yesterday evening and today so that's awesome.  He and Mia try to play together, but we have to remind them (or, more specifically, remind Mia) to be gentle.  Oh, and Romeo's getting far too brave for his own good.  He tries to jump on/off things and, in fact, has been successful in jumping off the bed twice now while one of us has been asleep.  He definitely can't be doing things like that so we'll have to watch him like a hawk.

He had a couple of accidents in the house yesterday which is surprising because he'd been doing so well.  We'll have to keep watching him carefully and trying to get him into a better routine.  

Romeo has his first acupuncture appointment since coming home on Tuesday so we're optimist that will go well.  

Update From Home

So that video is of today's progress:  Romeo has started flop-walking (as I've dubbed it).  Flop-walking = Romeo stands himself up, takes a few steps, and falls over.  And repeat.  It's progress, that's for darn sure.  :)

He started flop-walking out of excitement when I got home.  I took him out in the yard to go potty and thought he should spend some time outside since the weather was nice so I started gardening.  You can't keep Romeo in one place if he doesn't want to be there.  So, he got bored and started dragging/flop-walking around, barking at people passing by, etc.  We came in for a bath and to do some aquacising for his legs.  He rights his back toes in the water, but outside the water he still usually knuckles them (instead of putting his feet pads flat on the floor).  It's very odd.  Anyway, he did very well in the tub and, as you can see, did a good length flop-walk.  I'll give him a much needed leg massage later.

Romeo has his first acupuncture appointment next week and a check-up with his regular vet, Dr. Sexsmith.

One problem we have, and this has been an issue pre-all this, is Romeo is very, very finicky about eating kibble.  Now that he's had over 2 weeks of canned food, you can imagine how much harder it is now.  We switched him to a kibble that we thought he might prefer, but he doesn't seem interested in it.  We soak the kibble for awhile to make it softer, but that doesn't always get him to finish his whole meal (or eat any of it, for that matter).  Any suggestions on how to encourage kibble eating would be greatly appreciated! 

Step 3: Home

So, we took a road trip just shy of 19 hours (including breaks) to drive to Saskatoon and back home with Romeo.  :)  I accidentally turned off the camera before Romeo broke out into an "I'm so excited to see you guys I can't even bark or make a normal noise so I'm going to do crazy whining while kissing you instead!"  We cannot say enough good things about the staff at Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon.  Dr. Su was very thorough with us during discharge going over his medication, exercises, limitations, etc and gave us a very thorough write-up of everything we discussed.  She even showed us what she had removed from Romeo's spine (it's crazy how stuff that small causes so  much damage).  They gave us everything we would need so we wouldn't have to come back to Winnipeg looking for them, specifically slings to support his back end, a leash, and medication.  Dr. Pinto, Romeo's rehabilitation doctor, made a disc of videos for us showing how to do each exercise.  Wonderful, wonderful staff.

Romeo and Mia were very good for the super long car rides.  We'll upload a video to show Romeo using his back legs when we stopped outside Regina for a potty break.  

Romeo's getting stronger in his back legs.  Sometimes he just drags them when we're using the sling but most of the time he at least moves them a bit, if not exactly how they should be.  His left leg is coming in stronger than his right, which I find interesting since the left one was the first to stop working.  When Andrew came home earlier, Romeo was scooting around excitedly and actually stood up a couple of times on his own without assistance.  Amazing!  He also wagged his tail a couple of times.  

We have to watch for signs of when he's ready to go outside.  For example, he was eating his breakfast and he suddenly stopped, looked at me, and a pee dribble happened so he ran towards the door.  I took him outside and he positioned himself to do both deeds.  

We gave him a haircut today so his shaved back and front leg aren't super obvious like they were.  Right now, he's just napping on the floor next to me.  We're going to get a wobbly disc and a rubber bath mat to use during rehab sessions.  

Thank you all for your love and support!  :)  Paws crossed!

Update From Saskatoon

Cuddling with Poe

Dr. Su said Romeo is a little stronger today.  :)  From now on it will likely be small progress at a time, as I'm sure you can imagine.  As much as we want him to be up and walking again straightaway, that's not realistic (I have to remind myself of that).  Romeo is basically peeing on his own now without having to have his bladder expressed.  He's taken outside and supported with a sling and he goes on his own, which is very good as this is a big concern for dogs who suffer leg paralysis.  

Dr. Pinto had Romeo on the water treadmill again today for his rehabilitation session.  She said he moved his back legs without assistance for a few steps before he needed help (i.e. started dragging his feet).  It's still progress so that's great!  

We're very much looking forward to seeing Romeo tomorrow.  It'll be so good to hug and kiss him again and Mia's going to be soooooo happy!

Big Update From Saskatoon!

Romeo sitting on Mia's head

Big update from Dr. Su today...


ROMEO'S MOVING HIS LEGS!!!


You can guess that I started crying when she told me that.  Dr. Su said she was examining Romeo this morning and he was a bit fidgety.  She put him on the floor to scoot a little and he ended up trying to push with his hind end!  He then had a rehabilitation session with Dr. Pinto who said he's a "totally different dog".  She put him on the water treadmill and he was moving his legs away!  


We are so, so, so incredibly happy to hear this news!  We should consider looking at getting a kiddie pool deep enough for Romeo so we can try doing some water therapy at home with him.  


We can't say this often enough, but thank you all again for your continued love, support, and donations to help Romeo.  It means so much to us, more than we can ever express.  Paws crossed, maybe Romeo will be able to make an appearance at the Winnipeg Humane Society's Paws In Motion this year.

Update From Saskatoon

Hot dog!

Dr. Su just called with some great news: Romeo wagged his tail a couple of times today! Also, he postured to pee outside and in fact was able to pee a little on his own! A student had taken him outside and was supporting Romeo with a sling. The student rushed in, excited to tell Dr. Su that Romeo postured and then peed a little. This is excellent progress and it sounds like everyone there did some celebrating over the wagging and posturing/peeing.  :D  We're obviously very excited about this, too.

Romeo had an acupuncture session today and he just loves it (he falls right asleep).  

Only a couple more days 'til we see our little guy.  We feel so bad because Mia's been moping around the house.  I bet she's going to go crazy with excitement when she sees Romeo again.