Hee hee Mary, I've been known to wield a few of those "sledgehammers" myself. Not a fun tool but can be very effective when used with precision, such as your direct aim.
Again, thank you.
So...much like that fate-sealing day in January, March 15 is also going to be a memorable day for a long time.
The vet called yesterday and left a voice message to contact her. Called her today from work, not quite sure what to expect. She asked how Vince was doing and I guess I gave her the specifics she was looking for - how he was getting up, what he looked like walking, stuff I had noticed like the split second foot on top of the other, the speed of the flopped over foot and a few other things like turning around in the hallway, blah, blah, blah and then she said something I was not expecting at all.
Guys, it truly is the darkest right before the dawn. She said it's time to start INCREASING his exercise!!!! My jaw almost hit floor and all I could say was OMG, Really!! Must have sounded like I won the lottery or something cause she kind of giggled and said, "It’s been a long time hasn’t it." She said no going wild, we're talking small, gradual increases.
We talked a bit about the prognosis at this point. She said it's a bit difficult to tell because we can't tell the full extent of compression on the disc and because of the stability for the last couple of weeks, an increase in overall movement will tell us a bit more. If there's any sign of pain or decrease in the stability I'm to contact her right away.
We talked about what he should be doing. With the floppy foot, I told her I check it at least once a day and sometimes two or three times at a shot if I feel I didn't really get an accurate read (it's not the easiest thing to do - hubby walks in or calls me from another room, phone rings, etc). He's in a stand and I expect him not to move but things happen and I'm bent over and let go or something. Hard to explain, you've got to try it - daily.
In any case, I told her that because I was doing it so often I felt like I was training him to hold his foot over like this. She said not to worry about that, it's actually a really good thing and wants me to continue it as often as I can. It gets the neurological sensors things (she used some other big word) stimulated. As well she wants me to have him walk over poles and said a ladder would work well. To get him to stimulate those things and start picking up his back legs accurately again.
She talked about the weather getting better and swimming. Nothing crazy but a long line and over his head so he gets the movement.
She also mentioned the option of acupuncture and I didn't quite understand this whole deal. I said if he doesn't seem to be showing any real pain is this really going to help. She said it probably would but wasn't necessary at this point with the other things we're doing. It just something she's seen success with and might be something to think about.
And we also talked about supplements!!! I approached it from kind of a back door saying so... you really don't think there's any supplements I could be giving that may help at this point. She said she hasn’t noticed any reportable improvements using them but said the salmon oil he gets is definite plus. She went on about the Omega 3’s and actually sounded just like Connie at that point.
Actually quite knowledgeable. She said she would increase him to 10,000 mg's which she didn't know he was already getting. And said glucosamine and chondroitin won't hurt him and gave me the daily doses of 2500 mgs and 1500 mg respectively.
So all in all a really good call. She didn't feel it was necessary to see him right now based on everything we discussed. We'll finish the prednisone, one tonight and last one on Saturday. Increase the low impact exercise daily, do his specific exercises and the next couple of weeks should tell us more.
I am a very happy girl tonight.
Re: Accidents and X-rays
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