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Awww, poor Diz! I hadn't seen this til now. How's he doing? Did he have to go to the vets?
I came in here to have a moan.
I'm ever so slightly upset to be on the treatment trail with Carrot so soon. Doesn't seem five minutes since I was back and forth for this and that therapy, this and that scan, with Pilau.
Poor Carrotchops. He's so young and we're already talking about trying to push back the arthritis to later in his life and hoping to avoid hip surgery.
He had his second tip to the animal rehab centre today. Second go on the underwater treadmill too. Which is kind of cool. Carrot likes it, and seems to have got to grips with what is expected of him really quickly. We're not in the pool yet. Don't know if that will come into it at some point.
At present the goal is to try and correct his walking. He needs to learn how to walk properly. He's pushing his back feet too far forward, under his belly as he walks, and that means he is unstable, is creating additional impact within the joint, and isn't developing normal muscle tone around his hips and bum. Instead he's taking the strain of movement on his back and abdominal muscles.
The sensitiviy I I'd detected around his back end is not a sign that his hips are painful, but his back is. He's almost certainly been dealing with low level pain for quite a while. My poor little boy. To try and avoid introducing him to painkillers so young, we're going to try acupuncture. It seemed to help Pilau quite a lot with his bad back, just loosens it all up a bit. Hopefully that will help.
We have exercises to do for homework and he'll be going to the rehab centre twice a week for the next few weeks then dropping to once a week, then hopefully once a month.
For the next few weeks whilst he's building up those muscles and relearning how to walk, he's only allowed lead walks, no free running. And no careening around the field with other dogs, wheeling and dodging and changing direction suddenly...and being bowled over or pinned down at the back by bigger dogs.
I also have to train him not to go up onto his back legs. Which is a bit of a bitch, frankly. Carrot is typical of his breed and one thing most beardie owners will tell you is that their dogs spend half their time up on two legs!
Ach damn. Here I am again on the worry-go-round.
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