Noun: Proprioception...

1. "The ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts..."

This is the technical name for what Cassi is lacking at this point.  Cassi has no ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of her rear end...and she walks like a drunken sailor on shore-leave.  The term is actually called "drunk-walking".  Good news is, she is already responding to the new exercises that I learned on our first physical therapy visit this past Wednesday.

Last Wednesday, we visited Animal Care Center and saw Juli Dell'Era, RVT, CCRP for about 1-1/4 hours and Cassi and I learned a lot!  I was able to video the session so I didn't have to take notes and could concentrate on learning the exercises to help Cassi.  Juli was very patient at answering all my questions, most of which had to do with stuff I had been trying with Cassi.  But a lot of the things I wanted to try need to wait...right now, we neet to work on her "ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts"...

At least twice a day (and always as much as I can push her to do), we do a short workout routine that Juli showed us.  The tools are the harness you see in the picture above, a couple rolled up towels (taped around) and a book I have covered with a non-slip material.  A carpeted floor is also required.  The harness if so I don't hold Cassi down in the rear by her tail...BAD DADDY!  (Disregard previous videos...)

After we put the harness on and get her legs (front and rear) planted firmly in a Lhasa stance, the idea is to shift her weight towards the rear and keep her from shifting it all to the front legs.  It is easy to see when she does this shift forward because she drops her head and "inch-worms" her back.  Until I saw Juli, I thought (incorrectly) that this was good...she was strengthening her front end...right?  WRONG!  She was putting un-Lhasa like pressure on the front end...and possibly doing other damage!  Harness on...CHECK!

While in the standing position, I use the 2 towels between her rear legs for a "half-squat" exercise...basically a sit, but not all the way down.  Juli feels Cassi needs to work up to standing from a full (on the ground) sit.  Eventually I will remove one towel so she will sit closer to the ground...and eventually no towels.  While she is in the sitting position, I rub and massage her back end, legs and feet all while I have her maintain the "squat".  After a few minutes, I then ask her to "stand".  She will slowly rise on her own, but sometimes needs engouragement from me with a little "tickle" to her rear-end. (VIDEO LINK)

When she stands and is in an aligned position, I start a "range of motion" exercise. Holding her leg just above the ankle, I start a "bicycle" motion, circling her leg forward and placing it on the ground...then sliding the foot along the carpet for "tactile" feeling in the foot...and continuing in the bicycle motion for 15 reps.  Then I move to the other foot and repeat another 15 reps.  The hard part is keeping her head up because she "cheats" by leaning downward in front, which takes the weight off the rear.  I have to stop and correct her.  I grab Diane for this whenever she's available because it's easier with two people...but I can do it with one.

After the "bicycle" exercise, we do another 1/2 squat.  After she stands from that part, we test her "orientation" sense by, first, having her stand correctly...then, I take her paw on the rear and "knuckle" it so she is standing on the top of her foot.  I then press on the pad of her foot and see how long it takes her to correct it to the proper position.  When she does the correction, she gets the high-pitched "good girl"  "good Cassi" from me and I praise her and rub her foot in the corrected position.  She is getting pretty good at this game, turning her foot before I get to pressing the pad...which is a good thing!

After repeating this 3-4 times per foot, I have her go to the "half-squat" once more and massage and rub her legs once more to make her feel it.  And once again she stands.  Done with the towels.  Onto the book...

As you will see on the VIDEO, Cassi doesn't like this one very much.  She constantly adjusts her front feet to "cheat" on me...but as you'll see, I am persistent, replacing her feet and raising her head when she tries.  The idea of this is to, again, get her weight to shift and give her a sense of where she is at.

Towards the end of the exercise session, the doorbell rings and she runs from the livingroom. When I came back to the bedroom, she had beat her brother back! But I must heed Juli's warning...QUALITY OVER QUANTITY! It' s like trying to hold a 2 year old back from the cookie jar. (VIDEO LINK)

Another recommendation was that we elevate Cassi's food and water bowls.  This also makes her keep her head up and her weight shifted to the stern.   We also decided to get a new bed for the pups to fit the corner where they sleep instead of bunching both beds into the corner.  There is another story around the bed that I won't go into now.  Suffice it to say, they love it...now.

And, with no more diapers...no more urinary tract infection!  Got the call today that she is clear!  But continue the course of antibiotics...of course...

Thanks for checking in...