physiotherapy for an old dog

Penny seems to have a weakness in her right  rear leg, so we're doing 'reps'. Or maybe we should call them 'sets'. Who'd have thought it would be so complicated being an old dog?

Anyway, Penny doesn't care what we call them. She just wants to eat the food she's offered. (Usually little bits of raw carrot.)

She puts her front paws up on a little stool.

I tap her left rear leg and she lifts it and I support it gently, not taking her weight, but just reminding her to keep it in the air.

Seeing she's totally focused on gobbling the food, she seems to hardly notice she has her weight on her weak leg. 

I think it might be working, because she jumped from the footpath into the back seat of the car recently, the first time in months we haven't lifted her in.

I wish she didn't lick her paws, though. You can see how stained they are. We're working on that problem too.

another torn cruciate and arthritis

Penny appears to be still enjoying life, even though she has significant arthritis in her left knee and a torn cruciate in the right knee. After the surgeon told us she's likely to get significant arthritis in her right knee if he operates to do a traditional repair of the joint, we decided to continue to monitor her progress. He believes enough scar tissue will build in the knee to enable her to move comfortably. She bunny-hops along when she's in a hurry, but otherwise walks on all four legs.

However, Deb from Bow Rei Me thinks Penny is weaker in her right rear leg. I'll have to keep an eye on this. Perhaps we could return to some of the physio exercises we practised when she had the first knee repaired.

So, all through the hot, hot temperatures of February and March we've been taking gentle walks, and the weather has made this a sensible choice. Now that it's cool once again, I guess we'll have to be more vigilant that Penny doesn't over exert herself. But so far she seems content to amble along. We're up to half-hour walks now.

Of course, any little puddle of water - hooray for some rain at last! - is very inviting.