Doctor visit today!

Cassi had her appointment at the Pet Emergency and Specialty Center of Marin with Dr. Cheri Nielsen today and Dr. Cheri is seeing the same progress we had hoped we were seeing!  Prognosis is looking good!  Christmas may be a little optimistic, but I am still hopeful...

Cassi has been progressing a bit more each day.  She is actually waiting until I take the diaper off (most of the time) to defecate.  She is standing when I change her and, when I place her feet right, she is squatting to urinate.  I have to hold under her tummy to keep her off the ground, but she is doing it herself.  Dr. Cheri said we could stop using the diapers, but we think it will keep her cleaner to continue using them until she can walk and hold herself off the ground.  Baby steps...a little at a time.

When she does her doggie "shake-it-off" shake, the legs go stiff...if we have them tucked under her, she "springs" up and sort of lurches sideways to the right side, which seems to be a bit weaker or slower in coming back than the left.  She has a tendency to lean to the right when standing on her own.  Dr. Cheri said to start gently "batting" her rear end back and forth when she is standing so she can get her stability back.  I am also working the right leg with pulling exercises (she is doing the pulling, not me...) and started to also gently lift her left leg off the ground so she has to use her right leg to stand.  She is standing for 3-5 minutes at a time with my balancing help.  Cassi is able to do this 4-5 times a day, but she does get tired and does her Lhasa "I'm done" thing and just lays down.  I did get her to "sit" the other day.  Here's a link to a video I posted on YouTube the other day that shows one of our exercise sessions. I will post more as she progresses.


Thanks for checking in!