A certain pug went on a poop strike this past week to protest my trip to Montreal. Despite Akemi’s attempts to coax her, Suji stuck to her, uh, guns until my return on Thursday. After that, the embargo was lifted and she more than made up for lost time.
As I mentioned in last week’s update, she has suddenly stopped walking. She has always experienced weakness in her hindquarters, but always compensated with the front legs. Now, all four legs seem to be incredibly weak. Akemi suspects this is due to injury, the result of wipeout on the slushy pavement a couple of weeks back, but we’re really not seeing any improvement. So we made an appointment for her to visit a physiotherapist – sometime in April as that was the earliest opening. In the meantime, we’ve been exercising her legs, giving her massages, and taking her out for “carpet runs” which require us to support her as she saunters up and down the hall. Good for her. Terrible for our poor backs.
Despite her bum paws, our girl continue to be very high spirits, especially when she feels we need a reminder about serving breakfast, dinner, or putting her to bed (where she gets her goodnight treats).
Getting some love from mom. Her fur is stained from the turmeric and mussel soup Akemi gives her from her joints. I’m thinking we should bathe her in the stuff and then post her on social media as a “rare golden pug” like the exotic yellow bird they discovered a few years back that caused much excitement…until they realized it was a seagull that had fallen into a vat of curry.
Exercise and massage time…
Just checking if I’m blocked
Sending lots of hugs to Suji-chan …
Cool, I’m not blocked. I had about 4 in a row that didn’t get through after the post where you talked about being a trigger-happy blocker. It was either that or I was commenting later and later and missing the approval rounds.
Very strange. There are no deadlines on comment approvals. And I don’t block people on this site. I do delete spam comments. Occasionally, actual comments end up in my spam folder, so I do review every once in a while – but didn’t find any of your old comments there. Strange.
Blerp with a flower on top!
Sending hugs to Suji and Akemi and Joe–I know this is a tough and stressful problem to deal with. We’re experiencing the same with our senior (but alert and very engaged) border collie, especially in her hind end. I have back problems myself and helping her is exacerbating those issues. So I just ordered several versions of a dog lift harness to see if one of those might help. There are full-body, front-legs-only and rear-legs-only versions, and some have long adjustable straps that allow you to stand up straight while supporting/walking the dog–I definitely need that kind! I’ll let you know if any that we try actually helps Abby.
I used to help dogs walk at the animal hospital and I remember how tough it was. It would probably be worse with a smaller one (lower to the ground). I used to use a bed sheet rolled (length wise) under their hips to support them. It was awkward with me behind them holding the bedsheet and other hand on their lease. If if was a very large dog, it would take two people. You’ve probably discovered something similar for your little one. Or… can you lower her doggy wheels so that she can support herself a little? Kind of like a toddler has their walker for support.
DP I see two of your posts. (?)