Day Twenty-Four

It's been a frustrating couple of days. On Thursday Bacci went for some laser therapy. He did really well! The vet was feeling him all around, his groin, back, etc., and he didn't seem to be flinching or anything. She wasn't doing it rough or anything, but before he would have been twitchy just to have somebody messing with his sore spots. She did laser on both sides and spent about 10 minutes on each side. He was looking good! I brought him home and a few hours later he wouldn't stand on his back right leg!!! It's been the back LEFT leg for about three months, but this time it was the RIGHT leg. As usual, like all of the other times, he was laying in his crate sleeping. He was like that a few hours. Then when he sent to stand, he was holding his leg about 3 inches in the air and was whining. I've never seen him whine before. I was so freaked out and soooo upset. I just don't get it. FOUR WEEKS of COMPLETE rest doing everything the vet and physical therapist said, and now the RIGHT leg is bothering him? I know it was sore before now, and the left was feeling better. However, for MONTHS he's been limping on the left leg and not the right. Then I wonder if slipping on the stairs did it. :( But that was before laser therapy, and he was fine during treatment, He didn't show any usual sore spots. He didn't act extra tender anywhere. I was crying after he did this and was extremely upset the rest of the afternoon.

I keep reminding myself that months of sore muscles and pulled muscles can't be fixed over night. If he really did have issues with his muscles back in November, we are looking at maybe 9 months of sore muscles. So I guess 3-4 weeks of rest shouldn't be expected to completely heal him. I've heard of some dogs needing 6 months to heal from this type of injury. I't's just so damn depressing and it's hard to imagine him being 100% back to normal again. I took him to the park today and walked around the baseball field where we usually train. The more I walked around, the more I got depressed thinking that it's been ages since we've been able to do any kind of training. Patience....patience....patience... but I just want to cry right now...

Grrrr!

Coming upstairs right now to go to bed and he *ucking slips on the stairs!! He better not have made it worse!

Day Twenty

A little frustrating today. I took Bacci to the park to walk around. He's getting so out of shape. :( Don't know if I'm imagining it, but he seems weak in the hind end. Then just walking around he was panting like crazy. I know it doesn't make sense to have him in shape when he's just injured and in pain, but I'm eager to get him on SOME kind of exercise program, even if it's just walking some hills and doing a little 5 minute trot! Twenty days of ZERO exercise and even minimal walking just seems like so much time off. :( I feel like his muscles are going to wither way. LOL He's actually had about 5 more days off than that. I was giving him rest before I took him to the physical therapist and started my countdown. He had laser therapy on Monday and will go again one more time this week. Next week is his regular visit with laser therapy at the end of the week. After that, we'll be gone in SC for about 9 days with no sessions with the physical therapist. Hopefully while in South Carolina he'll get permission to be a little more active. I'm so paranoid now with the leg. Every time he goes to stand up, I'm just staring at the hind legs so scared I'll see more limping. :( *sigh*   We'll get through it. I just need more faith that this will do the trick and he'll come out stronger.... I hope and pray that's the case! If not, ughh... don't even want to go there.

Day Seventeen

Yesterday was our first visit back to the physical therapist since he officially started his rest. She said he's looking good! The left groin muscle is doing much better. The right side it still a little sore, but getting better too. She also said his back wasn't that sore either. Yay!! So we have progress!! I can finally start some basic stretching with him. Next week we'll go for a couple laser therapy session. Then in about 10 more days, we have another checkup and will hopefully be able to begin some light exercise rehab work. I'm hoping come September we'll be getting back into our regular training routine. Not sure if we'll be ready for the Sept. trial, but that's ok. I just want him healthy again and able to do our regular French Ring training! I've been freaking over the leg every time he runs a bit or jumps over a chair (like today). I about had a heart attack! I just pray he continues to move forward in his progress and not backward. Our PT told us stories of people who didn't listen to her, did one little activity, and made the dog go all the way back to ground zero with training. I just PRAY that doesn't happen to us! So our plan for the next 7-10 days is to limit exercise to leash walking and stretch his back 2-3 times a day. I'm also planning to start teaching him to lay on his side, both sides, in preparation for his massages that he'll be getting. :) I should also do some scent work with him too.. Anyways, so far so good.. and I'm a bit more optimistic today with all of this. Fingers crossed and we just keep plugging away...

Day Twelve

Only day twelve??? Feels like it's been weeks!!  *sigh*

Just plugging along... trying to stay positive....

Day Ten

It's only been 10 days.. 1 1/2 weeks.. and we have many, many more weeks still to go. :( It was a rather boring day for Bacci. I had a canine conditioning seminar all day, and so he stayed at home. I took him for a 15 min. walk when I got home. Tried to let him loose in the house, but he just wanted to run around. I took him on the balcony to sit for awhile and watch all the happenings down in the street. After that, he finally settled down and is just hanging out in his pen. This Friday he goes back to PT for a check up to see if the muscles are still sore. I'm scared we won't be able to progress yet... This has been bothering him for soooo long. He's gone 3 1/2 days with no vomiting, so we are introducing his meds again.... Patience, patience, patience. I really don't see how I can get him in peak condition for a September trial. :( I'm going to be sooo scared to start jumping him again.... I'm feeling kind of down today...

French Ring Brevet

Here is his French Ring Brevet. His score was 98.9/100. I probably shouldn't have trialed him and should have started his rest a long time ago... but how could I have known? I had two orthopedic surgeons insisting he had Pano and not a strained iliopsoas.

Day Nine

Well, we just finished day nine. Just a few updates. First, Bacci had been vomiting a lot all this past week. I was getting worried, but then he threw up little pieces of a bone I had gotten him. I figured that was why he was throwing up. Well, I took away the bones and bully sticks, and he didn't throw up for a day. I thought I had figured it out, until he threw up yet again. :( So I thought it might be the meds. I actually stopped one of his meds when I stopped the bones. Since he was still throwing up, I messaged our physical therapist and then had the vet reply via email. She thinks that the little bone pieces irritated the stomach, and that's why he was still throwing up. She said give him Pepcid AC. If he doesn't throw up for 3 days, then I can slowly start up the meds again. So far, he's gone almost 2 days with no vomiting... fingers crossed. I hope that's all it was. He was doing it just about every single day. :(

So this past week, he's basically had limited freedom in the house. Sometimes he gets all excited, wants to run and play. A couple times he'll try to run across the hardwood floors, so I immediately put him in his x-pen. I've blocked all of the stairs too. He gets about 3-4 short walks every day when he goes to the bathroom. A few days ago I started sitting on the balcony with him to provide more mental stimulation. He gets to watch all the neighbors, neighbor dogs, and so forth and seems to enjoy that. I haven't been doing any training, positions, etc. because I don't want to force him into any positions that might be uncomfortable. A couple weeks of just hanging out should be good for him. We've both been going a little stir crazy hanging around the house, so today I took him and Risa to the park.

I'm using Fiddler's car ramp so that he doesn't have to jump in and out of my Xterra. At the park, I just walked him around for 15 min. or so, and then he hung out and watched everybody while Risa' got to play fetch. He was a good boy and seemed to enjoy watching everybody. He seemed to be walking a little odd... maybe I was imagining it? His walk ALWAYS seems odd, but then his trotting looks so normal. I wanted to let him trot around in circles, but remembered that our physical therapist said only short walks on a short leash, so that's what we did. I'm trying really hard to follow exactly what she says. I don't want to mess up his recovery, and am already worried that stopping the meds has set us back a bit.  *sigh* Right now, getting back into trial condition seems sooo far away. It seems like we'll never be able to trial at the end of the season and might have to wait until next year. Jason an everybody are training this Sunday. It's really hard for me not to join them. Just hanging out at home is not to bad, especially with the occasional trip to the park. However, missing training when everybody else is going.. not being able to prepare for our trial... that's depressing...

On a more positive note, I started my canine massage therapy course! Materials arrived today and I watched my first DVD! Need to ask our physical therapist what I can / cannot do with him since his leg has been bothering him. They did diagnosis as a bilaterial iliopsoas strain. I guess it is on both sides, but only the left side is really bothering him. He goes back to see the PT in a week. I'm really anxious to see what she says...

Day Seven

It's 1:50 am, and so the title of this entry is "Day Seven." The one week mark!! Hopefully that means we are a week closer to Bacci's full recovery! So far I've seen no limping within the last week. We had some vomiting for a number of days, but I think I got that figured out. I stopped giving him bones and cut out the Rimadyl. So far, no throwing up in the past 24+ hours. He's been doing pretty good, except for yesterday when I took him on the balcony. He saw a little dog out on the street and jumped over my lap. :( I was sitting in a chair next to the railing. He's not supposed to be jumping, and so I wasn't very happy about that. It wasn't like he half crawled over me... He jumped. Then when I brought him in the house from one of his short breaks, he was acting like he had the zoomies and was all eager to zoom up the stairs. I fussed at him, put him in a sit, and then he settled down. The week of no activity is starting to get to him. It's been around the low and mid 90's with high humidity, so during the day we are fine with sitting in the house. In the evenings when it gets coolers, I want to go out and play with the dogs.... Will hold tight. I don't want a relapse, and so we will stick with the plan. I sure hope our therapist does us right and can get him back even stronger.

Day Five

Almost at the 1 week mark! Not that it really means anything because it's not guaranteed that he will be all healed up at six weeks. Anyways, the more time that passes with no limping, the better! He's been good. He gets a little silly when I get him out of the crate and sometimes tries to jump, but I'm trying my best to control that. This morning he got on the couch for a minute or two... but given his size, I don't think it was a big deal. He's pretty much spending time in the x-pen and goes for his walks when he goes to the bathroom. Then in the evenings he hangs out with me and chews a bully stick or sucks on his blanket.

I'm reading Christine Zink's, Peak Performance: Coaching the Canine Athlete. Reading it makes me realize how I want to do things a lot differently once he gets better. He needs more down time after intense training, and we need to do more cross training. On top of this, of course, we need to do stretching/strengthening exercises. Just need to get him healthy for now before we can start anything. Praying our next visit on the 22nd shows that his muscles aren't hurting anymore.

Day Three

Sometimes I wonder if it's smart logging this every day.. or logging on most days. We are only on day three!??!?! I can't even comprehend how long this is going to take... Forty-two days? Forty-nine days? Will there be a relapse and will we then be back to square one? I know I can't think this way, but the thoughts do enter my mind.

Day three has been a rather uneventful day. Overall, I do think this is good. I also count the days of no limping... Day three... three days of no limping... I pray I don't see limping ever again! He's been handling this rather well. After putting the ecollar on in the house, I've been able to keep him from running like an idiot around the living room. I also blocked the stairs and am planning to buy baby gates. Moving chairs and other items around to block and unblock stairways is getting rather annoying...

Day Two

So far so good... I've seen no limping. I was working most the day and he was crated. When I came home and let him out, he was an ass. He didn't want to go to his pen and was trying to run away from me. The more I acted like I wanted him to settle down, the more excited he got. :( I was worried he's start jumping on and off the couch. (I blocked the stairs so he couldn't do that.) Well, he was looking at the chairs blocking the stairs as if he wanted to jump them. :( I was getting super pissed and decided it was time for him to wear the e-collar in the house. I really didn't want to do that. After I told him to go to the pen with a few corrections with the collar, he was all too ready to comply. Then I sent him in and out and in and out multiple times by voice command. He didn't think twice about disobeying me this time. So far I haven't been getting as depressed as I was earlier. Trying to see the positive in all of this....

First Day of Recovery

It's official..... Bacci is suffering from a muscle strain. It appears that it's the iliopsoas muscle, and possibly on both back legs. The left leg is the one that has been causing issues. Went to see the vet and physical therapist today. He's on meds and complete rest for the next 10 days or so. Only short leash walks throughout the day. If he's still in discomfort/pain when we go for our next visit, he'll need more time off with complete rest. If it appears that the majority of the pain has gone away, we'll begin his rehab process. I think it will begin with light stretching, and then we'll eventually build muscle strengthening into the routine.

I'd like to compete at the end of September, but for now, getting him healthy is my main concern. It's going to be a long process... probably six weeks minimum. I've heard of some dogs needing six months for this. I'm afraid that this has been going on for a long time. The orthopedic surgeons kept saying it was Pano, but Bacci's reaction to the pain today during his vet visit has me totally convinced that it's a muscle issue. I AM, however, thanking my lucky starts that it's NOT hip dysplasia or something more serious. The physical therapist said if I follow her routine, we should be good to go and ready to trial in a couple months.... fingers crossed.

Not sure how we'll get through this... but we will. The time off will be the hardest for me. I love training, visiting my friends while training, and watching Bacci excel. However, I miss not being able to see him jump. I hate having to be on pins and needles all the time, wondering when he will limp again. I can't wait to let him race freely across the field and not be all worried about whether he's doing some permanent damage to his tendons, ligaments, etc.

I keep reminding myself he's young, has his entire future ahead of him. He's not even two years old yet. The time we put into his recovery now will totally pay off in the long run.

Patience.... I must have patience....... In time, this too shall pass, and we will be back on the trial field before you know it!