Anya the Frenchie Takes a Water Walk!

Aaaaaand we are walking! Kinda sorta.  Well, here’s what happened.

They did Anya’s therapy interview, and I said she was dragging her legs around behind her, kind of up on them, kinda not, but I had NO idea they consider this walking for dogs recovering from paralysis!  I thoooouuuuugggghhht that walking would be this precise, move one rear foot forward properly, with the pad side of the foot down, then the other.

But apparently the path back to some version of normal walking is weird and really whacky.

So I sent her down to therapy, they called me down when she was almost done so I could see her on the treadmill. The therapy director said, as soon as I walked in – “Wow, she is doing great, I think I’m much more impressed with what she’s doing than you are.”  Huh?  She’s just dragging her legs around.  Yeah, that’s walking!

I had no idea.  She hops and drags and splays and wobbles, sometimes pads down, sometimes walking on the tops of her feet, and it is gloriously messy.

But she walks great on the treadmill, it’s easier.

She still doesn’t have proprioception (knowing where her feet exactly are) so she won’t always flip them back pad side down if you flip them back, but that comes later and more nerves fire up and reconnect, or she may always be a little drunken in her walking. We don’t know.

So they sent me home with some exercises to help her get more weight aft (is that the right one or is it fore?) because she puts a ton of weight in her front legs since she doesn’t always know what the hell her back ones are up to.  I ordered some cheap yoga mats (she can only borrow one of my expensive Manduka ones temporarily) to lay down in the kitchen so she has good traction to walk on, which helps her feet find their way again, and instead of taking her for a walk in the sling on her hips and holding her trying to make her walk properly, I let her go, just use the sling to keep her upright and not falling over and injuring her back.  It is OMG crazy, and she is so fast!  I will try and get a little video.  She thinks we’ll do four more therapy sessions, and she’ll be good, the rest will just be time and more healing.

So that’s the update on little semi-crippled girl.  I’m super happy, this process has been a crazy learning experience.  But as her movement has increased, she’s getting more pee/poop control. Too much?  Well, I spend a big chunk of my day concerned about it!  I never thought in my life I would ever be kneeling on the bathroom floor, eyeballing a pupper’s backside to see if more poop was on its way before we wrapped things back up.   Well, life doesn’t always turn out quite like you expect, but we have a great sense of humor about it. She turns around and glares at me, and I just laugh at both of us.

If you are celebrating Christmas, are you ready?