Friday, February 10, 2012

A Member of the Gimpy Dog Club

After reading this blog post, I'm thinking of requesting a membership for Jake. The visits to the chiropractor are continuing.  What I was hoping would be a quick fix is dragging on. His pelvis doesn't want to stay in position.  It's better than when we started, but the ligaments have been stretched and the pelvis doesn't want to quite stay where it should.  So we are back to the restricted exercise, and now we have added heat and massage.  Our latest visit was yesterday.  Dr. Lana was complaining that his pelvis just didn't want to hold in place.  She figures the ligaments have been stretched and muscles are trying to compensate.
Last night I was all set to put the heat pad on him.  I made another cover for it, as Larry is using it a lot on his shoulders.  Quite often he has to get out of bed, throw it in the microwave, and slap it on his shoulder for some relief.  So the blue cover is for Larry, and Jake gets the yellow one with the cute pigs on it.  The bag is filled with buckwheat, and there is a pleasant porridgey sort of smell when it is heated up.  Anyway, I naturally assumed that since Jake is stiff/limps on his right rear when he gets up, that it would be that side I'd apply the heat to.  And then I suddenly thought that Dr. Lana had shown me the correct spot to treat, on Jake's left side.  Was my memory playing tricks?  Did she just show me on the left side because that was the side I was closest to?  The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.  But the right side seemed more logical, so that is what I did.  I phoned to the office this morning, but the Dr. wasn't in until late this afternoon.  So I heated and treated the right side again.  She left a message while I was out tonight.  Treat the left side.  Oops.  Thankfully Jake is a pretty cooperative patient.  We have another appointment at 5 on Tuesday.  Me and my 'heart' dog have a Valentine's Day date with the chiropractor.  Jake will get dog treats, I'm hoping for chocolate.

8 comments:

  1. awww :(
    I have seen miracles with dogs given Glucosamine

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  2. I'm thinking of trying the green lipped mussel.

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  3. I'm interested in how Jake moves with his pelvis out of alignment?

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  4. gvmama - If you didn't see Jake get up from the floor or out of his chair, you wouldn't know anything was wrong with him. He holds up or limps on his back right for a few steps, sometimes more than others, when he first gets up, but it's only for a few seconds. After that, I don't notice anything abnormal. That was why it took a little while to clue in that something was wrong. Maybe a more knowledgable eye than mine might be able to pick up a slight discrepancy in his movement, but I can't. It doesn't seem to hinder anything that he does, well did, as now we are trying to limit his movement. No racing through the bush with Luna, where he might slip on some mud or...
    On Tuesday when I go back I'm going to ask for an explanation as to why he limps on the right, and I'm heating/massaging the left:)

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  5. Just curious....did a little googling about it. Look forward to the heating the opposite side reasoning :0)

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