Last night John came with me and walked Winston so I could watch him. His walk is just terrible and I feel like it's getting worse. It's like he doesn't bend his right back knee so he swings his hips very far left to compensate. I will be taking a video and sending it to Dr. Durkes in the next few days.
Because of his walk I went into worry mode and watched Winston like a hawk last night, then finally around 8:30PM I sent Dr. Durkes this email.
Hi Dr. Durkes,
I'm writing the email instead of calling because I think if I call I'll forget to tell you everything that I want to tell you. We got the gold beads done on Winston on the 29th of October and his brace came off the Monday before Thanksgiving. I have seen some results, he stands faster, doesn't slip on the hardwood floors anymore, has more energy and more vocal, but I'm worried about what I've seen with him lately.
He's licking his back feet constantly and when walking he throws his right back leg out so he swings his hips far left to compensate and can't stay in a straight line to save his life. I can send a video of this in the next couple of days if you'd like to see. He also will start dragging his front feet if we're out more than 10 minutes. He still isn't good with the stairs and will need help getting back up, he'd much rather sleep upstairs on his bed anyway. I'm just wondering your thoughts.
I got a reply this morning saying that we need to put a neck brace back on for a couple of weeks (guess I should get that bath done then. I didn't find a place without ramps to the baths and I haven't forced the issue at home yet because I didn't want to jar his neck while he fought with us to get him into the tub. But Winston is stinky and needs a bath badly) and if we don't see improvement in a week then we'll put him on a small dose of prednisone. Mickey had/has to take the medication so I was aware of it and I'm thinking it will come to that.
Winston does have an insane amount of energy when walking so I really hope that that's a good sign. Last night he even charged a wooden fence to bark at the dogs behind it which he has NEVER done. I wasn't a fan of course and it took John and I to pry him away. I'll have to figure out a way to keep him more in control and still be able to use a harness. I'll probably ask K9 Lifeline since they're the ones who trained us with the Halti, which we loved and would still be using if we could.
I'll post the video of him walking soon. I really wish that we would have remembered to record him before the gold bead procedure like we were going to and a week after the procedure I thought I had recorded him, but instead I was just taking pictures.
The picture does show that his hip swings far, but it seems to be worse now and a video is always better.
Last night I was so depressed. Even after all the talk of not getting my hopes up is seems like I have. I was on the verge of tears all night while I watched him. Sleep also didn't come easy to me, but it never does when I have worrying on my mind.
This morning I'm feeling better, but I've talked myself into low hopes again. I just keep telling myself that if he stays stable then everything will be fine. That the procedure was worth it even if it doesn't work because at least we know we tried, I could never live with myself if we just gave up.
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