6 Months!

"Are you coming or what?"

Playing at La Barriere Park

It has been quite awhile since we've updated.


It's now 6 months since Romeo's surgery and, what can we say?  We're really happy and so is our little boy!


He goes to see Dr. Hamilton for acupuncture and physio about once every 2 months now and Romeo always impresses her.  His doggy yoga is a piece of cake to him.  He can easily do hemi-standing (front and back leg of the same side lifted at the same time) and standing with front right leg lifted at the same time as back left leg and vice versa.  He walks with a bit of a back leg shuffle, but I don't think anyone who doesn't know what happened could tell.  He lifts his back legs to step over things.  We tickle between his back toes to get him to lift his legs more and to kick them for full range of motion.


Aaaaaannnnd...Romeo can walk up steps!  Though, granted, he'll only climb the 3 steps to come into the house and that's it.  *lol*  That's fine by us.  Going down steps is no problem whatsoever.


Romeo has gotten much better at telling us when he has to go potty, but sometimes he changes what his cues are and an accident happens.  Oddly enough, he still pees and poops while walking.  I thought maybe that would go away after awhile.  Dr. Hamilton said a lot of dogs with back injuries or sore backs will walk while pooping.  You learn something new every day.


He plays tug-o'-war with Mia and pulls quite well using his back legs.  The other day, Romeo looked like he was really close to doing a downward facing dog stretch, but he only lifted his butt about an inch off the ground.  Still something though!  Maybe one day he'll finally get that good stretch again.


Hopefully in the next couple of days we'll have a little video up so you can see for yourself how Romeo is doing.  :)


Thank you all again for your help, well wishes, and asking how Romeo is doing.  We really appreciate it.

Alternative Health

Romeo, Mommy, and Mia

I (Holly) am a big believer in alternative healthcare options.  I would much rather see my naturopath over a regular doctor.  Chiropractic care saved my back in my teens.  Massage therapy is absolutely wonderful and last year I had my first Reiki session which I've found to be beneficial and insightful for my all around health.

You can imagine how happy I am to have alternative healthcare options available for Romeo.  It's kind of funny, the last time Romeo saw Dr. Sexsmith (his follow-up after coming home from Saskatoon), she asked if we were doing anything besides "alternative aftercare".  I replied that we were doing rehabilitation.  But, really, alternative healthcare has been so great for Romeo and he hasn't had to go back to Dr. Sexsmith.  *knock on wood*

Yesterday, Romeo had an appointment with "Aunty Linda" (Dr. Hamilton) for acupuncture and lasering.  She was very impressed and very happy with his progress.  She said his back leg muscles are toning up nicely.  She said he may permanently walk kind of funny, but that doesn't bother us (we think it's kind of cute).  Besides that, it's only been just over 2 months since his surgery and his back leg muscles aren't completely back up to what they used to be. 

After that, Romeo had a Reiki session with Shannyn at Be Still in Osborne Village.  Andrew, who has never had a Reiki session, got to take him to these appointments.  For those of you who don't know, Romeo had his first Reiki session with Shannyn last Saturday.  At the time, she said that he was all jumbled in his hind end and his left side hurt so he was trying to compensate with his right.  She worked on removing the negative energy build up and centering him.  She told me that Romeo knows he's very lucky to have had the opportunities he's had (like us adopting him, having his surgery).  As the days went on after that appointment, we noticed Romeo was getting braver with things like climbing stairs (he's climbed a few now), he even hopped up on the couch, and having more energy to go for longer walks (as in a lot more energy).  Anyway, at yesterday's Reiki session, Shannyn said Romeo was much more open and his hind end wasn't nearly as jumbled as it was before.  She said he's very happy and not in so much pain.  She also had a thought come through about a top hat so she asked Andrew about it.  He said he didn't know what it meant except that Romeo has a non-stuffy gorilla that we sometimes put on his head.  *lol*  The thoughts of pets!  Romeo will have another Reiki session with Shannyn in the near future.  Oh, and she primarily works on humans so check her out.  

2 months post-surgery

We're at 2 months post-op and I can honestly say we're very happy with Romeo's progress.  We weren't too sure about consistently walking him after surgery, but we're getting in a better habit now of taking Mia and him for walks around the neighbourhood.  It allows Romeo to get used to different textures to walk on (asphalt, loose gravel, sand, grass) and we've found some small hills which he does very well on, both climbing up and down.  He can also step up and over street curbs without trouble.  

As you can see in the video, he loves to play!  Sometimes I have to yell, "That is enough!" because he and Mia get too riled up.  Oh, and he has his spinning back though it's not 100% perfect, we'll take that over paralysis any day.  

Romeo is getting better at standing up on his back legs with his front legs on something higher.  He can stand on a step for some time and he'll jump up to put his front legs on you as a greeting.  Just a moment ago, he stood up and put his front feet on the computer chair here.  I haven't seen him do that since before all this happened so that's great.  

Though he still has the occasional accident in the house, Romeo is getting much better at holding it 'til we go outside and is getting better at letting us know when he has to go.  For example, the other day he squatted a bit in the kitchen as I (Holly) wasn't paying attention to him.  I scooped him up and took him outside and he was able to hold it for awhile, realizing we were outside and, yes, that's where he's supposed to do his business.  Yesterday, Andrew was at the computer and Mia was whining at him and looking towards the door.  He got up and found Romeo was standing by the door, waiting to go outside to pee so it was doggie teamwork between Mia and Romeo to be like, "Hey, he's got to go and he doesn't want to have an accident!"  One thing though is that Romeo either doesn't realize he's not done peeing or he doesn't care because he'll start walking away while still peeing.  *lol*  It's like pee graffiti on the ground.

Update

Napping with Mia

Well, it's been about a week since the last update.  I've been meaning to upload and edit the video we took of Dr. Hamilton doing acupuncture on Romeo, but the lovely weather has been keeping me away from the computer.  ;)

Romeo is back to wanting to play with Mia all the time.  He chases her around the yard, herds her when I call for her to come to the house, and spins in circles.  Definitely have to get video of that.  It's so amazing to see/remember how he had completely no use of his legs at all.  Sure, he walks kind of funny now, but we'll take that over not walking at all.  

We've been taking the dogs to the park down the street as there is small loose gravel which is a challenge for Romeo to walk through to keep himself upright.  What we've been noticing is that he tries to put most of his weight just on his front legs, especially if he's tired of walking.  If he had his way, he'd probably just walk in a handstand position.  We've been putting his front legs on a step to shift all his weight onto his back legs.  That's difficult for him and he can't do it for long so that's something we're going to keep working on to build up more muscle.

As you may have read on our Facebook page, Romeo broke off one of his toenails on his back right leg from dragging his foot.  There was much blood and it looked like it hurt, but Romeo was his typical self:  Completely happy and walking around like nothing was going on.  We have taken a rest from walks so as to not damage his toenail(s).  We now have vet wrap though so I think we'll just wrap up his foot to protect it from any further damage.  

Update

I apologize for the lack of updating.  We, including Romeo, have been enjoying time out in the sun.  :)

Romeo had an acupuncture and physiotherapy session with Dr. Hamilton on Tuesday.  This was the first time I (Holly) got to be in one of the sessions.  It's pretty neat!  She did some physiotherapy with him and then did the acupuncture (traditional needles and laser acupuncture on his feet).  Romeo was very squirmy for it which is okay as it's better than what he was like before.  Dr. Hamilton said Romeo's leg and lower back muscles are redeveloping at a good pace and she's happy to see that.

Dr. Hamilton gave us more exercises to do and explained how we can try to get Romeo to do some of the exercises Dr. Su suggested, specifically figure-eights.  We do what I call doggie pilates with Romeo where he does 3-legged standing and eventually we'll get him to do 2-legged standing.  We're also to get him to walk backwards and introduce standing on stairs (meaning put his front feet up on a step with his back feet on the floor).  

On Monday night, Romeo used his back right leg to scratch at his ear for the first time which was super exciting to see.  Dr. Hamilton showed us how to tickle his ears to get him to reach and scratch so we're working on that, too.  

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.  

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!