Bella is about 4 weeks into recovery from her ACL surgery. She continues to help me to smile and laugh even as she recovers.
The morning of the surgery, she was not allowed any breakfast. This obviously confused her as evidenced by the way she followed me around and gave long looks at her food bowl whenever we passed by. In the car on the hour drive to the surgeon, the poor girl was drooling. Remember this is a dog who has never missed a meal or an opportunity for a treat of any kind.
The Animal Clinic Northview is a huge building situated in a park like setting. Bella lost no time in figuring out why she was there. She was there to hunt her own breakfast of course. As soon as she was out of the car she was using her nose and pulling me behind her as she ran this way and that on her 3 good legs tracking rabbit ... or kibble ... or whatever she felt she was tracking. I was probably quite a sight being pulled around like the guy in the Marmaduke cartoon by my 3 legged dog.
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After a 24 hour stay at the hospital, Miss Bella came home. She greeted me at the vet cautiously using her bad leg for balance. Even though she had just been through ACL surgery, all was well in her world. She wriggled, wiggled and wagged when she saw me. And the small contented way her lips curled into a smile as she curled up on the couch to rest touched my heart.
Basically, water treatment is a treadmill in a water tank. 3 sessions were included in the price of the the surgery at Animal Clinic. We will continue treatments at Dancing Paws with Dr. Sivula. He is a bit closer & a much more holistic. We had our first appointment with him this week. He is the first vet to broach the subject of nutrition before I did & knew more than to just sell whatever product he has on the shelf. He recommended a hip and joint supplement that is sold at Petsmart and recommended that I increase her fish oil. Apparently dogs need much more than humans. Oh! And get this - I was told that Bella, being a sleek 80 pounds, falls into the "ideal weight" category. HaHA! Don't think I've ever heard that before.
Dr. Sivula also gave Bella a chiropractic adjustment. This was the best part of her day. She was one happy dog. She walked around and around the back yard when we got home swishing her tail from side to side and even had it going so fast it was spinning in a complete circle.
As I said, Bella is being a very good sport about not doing anything and being crated when we aren't home. As she feels better we are doing a bit more obedience work and playing games like "find it." But, she is starting to go a bit stir crazy. We are both looking forward to long walks in the park again. Soon ..... hopefully soon.
The Animal Clinic Northview is a huge building situated in a park like setting. Bella lost no time in figuring out why she was there. She was there to hunt her own breakfast of course. As soon as she was out of the car she was using her nose and pulling me behind her as she ran this way and that on her 3 good legs tracking rabbit ... or kibble ... or whatever she felt she was tracking. I was probably quite a sight being pulled around like the guy in the Marmaduke cartoon by my 3 legged dog.
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After a 24 hour stay at the hospital, Miss Bella came home. She greeted me at the vet cautiously using her bad leg for balance. Even though she had just been through ACL surgery, all was well in her world. She wriggled, wiggled and wagged when she saw me. And the small contented way her lips curled into a smile as she curled up on the couch to rest touched my heart.
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Even though they would probably never admit it, the cats were glad that Bella was home. After all, with her around the attention is off of them.
We call our female cat, Frances, the nurse kitty. When my husband is not feeling well, Franny rarely leaves his side. On the first night of Bella's injury, Franny showed her the same compassion. Frances made sure that she was near Bella almost the whole night. My husband had lifted Bells up onto the couch. And Frances laid just above her - in her line of vision. At one point in the night Bella woke up and whined a little. Frances jumped down and went over to the dog and rubbed her chin on Bella's sore knee, then went back to her post and continued to watch her friend intently.
And they have been sleeping closer and closer together during Bella's convalescence.
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We go back in the beginning of March for 6 week x-rays. Hopefully at that time some restrictions will be lifted and she will be able to start getting back to her active ways. She is being a very good sport through all of this, but I am sure she will be happy when she can go potty on her own again. We have had a few water therapy sessions & we plan on continuing with rehab.
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| 1st water therapy treatment |
Dr. Sivula also gave Bella a chiropractic adjustment. This was the best part of her day. She was one happy dog. She walked around and around the back yard when we got home swishing her tail from side to side and even had it going so fast it was spinning in a complete circle.
As I said, Bella is being a very good sport about not doing anything and being crated when we aren't home. As she feels better we are doing a bit more obedience work and playing games like "find it." But, she is starting to go a bit stir crazy. We are both looking forward to long walks in the park again. Soon ..... hopefully soon.
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