Update

Miley was rechecked by the rehab vet to see if we needed to continue the laser therapy ect.. She didnt show any signs of pain and no muscle spasm. So we get to stop the laser. Good thing because I was going to tell her I cant afford anymore laser treatment. Then she said we can take the ultrasound therapy down from 3 days a week to 2 days a week. WhooHoo! All this driving is hurting my back and hip. Miley is getting more crazy by the day. I hope I can keep her under control for 2 more weeks. This morning she got out of the little fenced in area I have for her to go potty. She stopped as soon as I called her name. Then I said "down". Well, she didnt do what I wanted. Instead she walked slowly to me and then laid down. Oh well. I took it and was just glad she wasnt running around like a manic saying "catch me if you can". Oh yea, she now weighs 15 lbs.(She has gained over a pound) I cant believe it. I thought I had cut her food back enough. She usually eats just under a 1/3 of a cup of food twice a day. Now Im only giving her 1/2 that. Just goes to show you, no exercise, no matter how much you cut back, equals weight gain. Ugh!!


Guiness is back to acting strange. He once again refuses to go on morning walks. Im not sure why. He will walk all other times a day. Also his rash on is lower abd. area and groin keeps coming back. I treat him with benadryl, it gets better. I stop the benadryl and 3-5 days later he is back to being an itchy raw mess.


I thought I broke my toe on Sunday. I was stepping over one of the many gates I have up in the area my family calls the obstacle course and caught my toe. Man it hurt for 10 minutes and I couldnt move it. I really thought I broke it. But after the 10 minutes it was feeling better and I could move it again. It did swell but never bruised. Today it back to normal, so thats good.

My son went back to college on Sunday and came back today because he forgot multiple things. Hmmm... I wonder if he did that on purpose just so he could come home. Anyway, I hope he does better this semester or there would be any more semesters.

New Park

I went to this new park yesterday. I needed to something to occupy my mind instead of obsessing over Miley's gate. This is a really small park and lots of people go there to take their kids pictures for prom. It has a really pretty pond with a fountain in the middle. Here is the bad part, "No pets allowed". Ugh. That made me so mad. Im not usually a rule breaker. But.... So I just went to the pond, set my dogs up and took the pictures quickly. I kept them close to me when walking and had my camera out so hopefully they would know Im just taking pictures. I didnt let my dogs use the bathroom at all. Oh yea, the park is right next to the police station. No one said anything to me. The header picture is from there too. Guiness didnt like getting to close to the pond when he could hear the water so thats why there are more pictures of Miley.

Stephanie's Senior Pictures

Rehab update

I have to tell you, driving back and forth to Charlotte is killing me. By Friday I can barely function at work. Im exhausted. Ugh! Anyway , her visit with the vet went well. She watched Miley gait back and forth and didnt see anything. I made her watch the video of Miley on Sunday when she looked so weird. She felt like Miley's hair flinging was misleading. If you continue watching the video it shows her gait from the back which looked normal. She felt that was more true, because you didnt see the hair flinging to throw your eye off. I also talked to her about the skipping. She said she felt the skipping was interesting but not concerning. It would be more helpful if I knew what Miley's usually gait was. Does she usually pace or use a diagonal gait. I dont know. I know she has done both. When Miley skips, she changes leads, which is what she needs to do. Then she examined Miley. Miley didnt have any signs of pain and no muscle spasm. She felt Miley was feeling really good. Then we talked about the ultrasound. Well, actually the tech had already told her everything I had said about the other girls technique and what happened. She told me that the ultrasound was at 50% and on pulse so it would be unlikely that she got over heated but it could happen. She didnt think the other girls technique was wrong but she was going to have her change it. The other girl was use to doing horses and since Miley is so little, she thinks moving the Ultrasound probe starting at one end and going all they way thur to the other end is best. (Instead of working in small areas.)

The pictures above are from the park this week but I didnt walk her far to get to that spot. We walked. Do you know how slow you have to walk to keep your dog at a walk and not trot? LOL, Im sure people think there is something wrong with me. I then carried Miley down the bank and out to the rock. She just stood on the rock and didnt walk around. So I think it was ok for her do this.

I ordered a Back On Track dog bed. It wasnt from the Back on Track company but someone called ANR specialties. It was an on line order. I got an email confirming the order. But I never got anything saying it was shipped or a tracking number. After a week I sent 2 emails several days apart. I didnt hear back. So then I called them. A lady who could barely speak English answered the phone. I had to spell every word to her. I gave her my phone number and email address. I didnt hear back from them. So I called the credit card company and canceled the order. The next week the package came. Ugh! So I called the credit card company , it took 4 times to get to the person I needed to talk to. I canceled the dispute but the company needs to call them to get paid. So today I get an email from ANR stating the my order has been canceled. Uh, to late I already got it. So I sent ANR another email telling the whole story and if they want to get paid they need to call the credit card company and I gave them the phone number. So now I feel bad and feel like I stole the product. Ugh!

Catching treats

Can you see the treat in the back of his mouth?

This is about as much effort Miley puts into catching treats. She doesnt lung ,jump or take a step forward to catch a treat. So it has to get near her mouth for her to try an catch it.

I didnt get to talk to the vet on Monday but I do see her today. I will talk to her about things. Miley is about the same. I do feel like she looks worse since starting laser and ultrasound. Weird.

Freaked out

Thats me. Freaked out! I took Miley to her appt. yesterday and a different girl did her therapy. The doctor first checked her and she didnt react to anything. The first time we did therapy, they did ultrasound first and then laser. This time they did laser first and then Ultrasound. ( not sure if that matters). Anyway, the girl who did the ultrasound the first time ran the probe all over the racing stripe area, around her thigh and then into her groin. She worked slowly going down the whole area to the groin, then back up to the start of the racing stripe area. The girl on Saturday, worked in small areas. It worried me because I know you need to keep moving the probe. She worked in such small areas( marked with the red X in the picture) and then moved to the next section. I talked to her about it and she said it didnt matter.



But when we were done, and she did the right side last, Miley got up and I saw her limp. She has never limped since this started. So I was freaked out. Then today I was walking her outside and she had a weird gait.


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After seeing this I was so upset. Why was she gaiting like that? She hadnt done that before either. Ugh! Maybe the pavement was to hot? I dont know. So later I took her to the park to watch her gait there. It seemed better but she was still skipping.
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Its hard not to be upset when you thought things were getting better.

7 things

Thanks for the Versatile blogger award. Several blogs gave it to us. Im sorry it took me so long to respond. It took a lot of thinking to get to 7 things you may not know about me or my dogs. So here it goes.

1. I was once engaged to a marine

2. Ive never drank coffee

3. I like to what old British sit-coms, like "Are you being served?" and "As Time Goes By", and "The Vicar of Dibley". They arent on here. I see them when I go to the beach and at my mom's house. They live in Ga. and get a South Carolina PBS station that I dont get. Weird.

4. When I was a little kid I stuck my hand in the toaster and turned it on to see what would happen. I also turned on the sink and left the water running until the lady in the apartment under us came upstairs to tell my mom that water was coming through the ceiling.

5. I lost my son at Bush Gardens when he was 4 yr. old

6.I use to be a neat freak. I drove my sister crazy. Now her house is neat and mine is messy

7. After having my son, I had 3 surgeries to fix my rectal-vaginal area. They said I would be ok unitl Im 50 then I could start having problems. At the time I didnt care, I was just glad it was fix. Crap, Im almost 50.

7 things about my dogs

1. I bought Roxy off of Petfinder from California

2. Roxy has never played with toys

3. Roxy stands on the edge of the tub when I take a bath

4. Micky sleeps most of the day in my bed.

5. Roxy can jump from the floor into the laundry hamper. (quit a jump)

6. Guiness used to be owned by a vet tech before going to rescue

7. Miley was terrified of cars when she was a puppy. ( guess I over fixed that problem)

Im suppose to nominate 15 other bloggers. So I put their names here but I wont be offended if you dont play. I understand, it was very hard for me to come up with those things.

Dawn King

Ricky's Life

Agility Adventures

Resq Tails

Manymuddypaws

Dream dogz

The Adventures of two Urban Border collies

Terrierizing

Jump-Run-Herd-Heel

Its a Berner -ful life

Sheltie Beauties

Margeblog

Life with Kana Dogs

Semper Fido Blog

Taj Mutthall

Days of Speed & Slowtime Mondays

BCX Four

Obay Shelties

Another Day

I really appreciate the blog award that several bloggers have given me. Im sorry I havent posted about it. It requires thinking and Im still thinking. Im sorry but Im having a hard time coming up with 7 things you dont know about me. I guess Im an open book or blog. lol

Miley may actually be getting better. This morning on our walk, I only saw one skip and it was right when we got back to the house. I think I saw it out of the corner of me eye. So Im keeping my fingers crossed that she is. We go again this morning for more rehab. I hope she will be a little more relaxed than last time. If they could do the ultrasound while she is standing, she would be much happier. The shaved some more hair off, so now her racing stripe is even bigger.

What a day

Today has been a long day. It started at 4:50am when I got up. I needed to be at work by 6:45 since its the first day back for kids and there was probably going to be a lot of traffic. Then all these parents are bring me tons of medication. Why didnt they bring it sooner. Then a student comes to the health room with medicaiton in his pocket and when I call mom she gets mad at me. Great, always nice to end the day that way. Plus I did a dumb thing and had a dentist appt. at 3pm. Well I was late because the buses were late getting out of the parking lot, so I couldnt get out. I hate being late. I feel its rude. Then I was late leaving there and had to go to Charlotte to Miley's rehab appt. So guess what? I was late getting there too. When I got there it was pouring down rain. I tried to get Miley out of the crate but she wasnt coming out. Not with all that rain. I had to pull her out. So now Im soaked. Thats always nice too. I get inside and Miley is freaked out. She is always so confident but not at the vet. She didnt like any of it. She didnt want to lie down for the ultrasound. But we made her. She did relax somewhat during the ultrasound. But it isnt like she enjoyed it. The they did the laser. That they let her stand for well, most of it. It wasnt raining as hard when we were done. I took her around back to go to the bathroom and soaked both my feet when they went underwater in the grass. Oh goody. The pictures above are from several rainbows that I saw when going home. I sure hope the ultrasound and laser are worth all that because Im exhausted. I cant find any studies that say therapeutic ultrasound or laser work on muscle injuries. ( sorry about the complaining post.)

Toys

I found this toy today. My dogs love hedgehogs for some reason. This one is really neat. It comes in a box with several squeakers, rattle and crunchy thing. It also comes with the white stuffing. The hedgehog has a Velcro opening so you can stuff it yourself and put different noise makers inside it. I thought it would be good because your dogs can destuff it and then you can just restuff it and when you are tired of the game, just Velcro it closed. Works great.

I posted this toy to go with Kathy's blog post on tug toys. It is also from Dog Dream Toys.This one is made of real rabbit fur for dogs that maybe arent into tugging or toys. It has a food pouch but Ive never needed to put food in it. She also put two squeakers in it because Miley likes squeakers. She loves this toy. I started with just regular rabbit skins that I bought from Clean Run and Miley really liked them, so then went to this toy.

Guiness has some type of rash going on. Its on his groin area and his nose. It started last week. I gave him benadryl twice a day and it seem like it was getting better. So I stopped the benadryl but its flaring up again. Not sure what thats about.

One day down

and 27 more to go on our 4 weeks of rest. LOL . Its going to be a long 4 weeks. I never realized how excited Miley is about everything. "you have my leash" , jump spin. "Its time for breakfast", jump spin. "look a leaf, a mailbox flag blowing, a person walking" jump, spin, jump spin. Ugh!! I am able to keep her from jumping on the couch and I am crating her a night which she wasnt happy about. If I try putting her in her crate while Im home she just spins and barks at me constantly so thats not good. Im just letting her walk around in the den and kitchen, with gates up every where. Its like having babies again with all these gates. Except now we are older and stepping over the gates is much harder. LOL

Here is Miley with her racing stripes. They shaved her down on each side.

And he is Miley wishing she could go run in the back yard.

Mileys Ultrasound appt.

Miley had her appt. today. Way out in the middle of no where. 5 miles of roads with just trees. I had to call to make sure I was in the right place. LOL Yea, no sign that says "ultrasounds here" for people like me. Anyway... Miley has a chronic iliospoas muscle injury on the right side of her back. The left looked ok with just a couple of mild places but probably caused by her compensating for the right. So last year when we thought it was her foot, probably this. You see how the one for the right side ( second picture) has so much white in it, right in the middle of the picture. Thats scar tissue all in the iliospoas muscle. Now where it inserts into the femur, she thought looked ok. She recommends 4 weeks of strict rest with short leash walks and heated ultrasound twice a week. She feels the heated ultrasound penetrates deep in the muscle area and help reduce scar tissue or maybe she said it allows more normal tissue to get into that area. She said she see a difference on the follow -up US when people use heated US vs when they dont. Remember this is what I thought she said and sometimes people hear medical information wrong, so I could be mistaken about certain points. She didnt feel using laser or e-stim helped healing much like the ultrasound does. But she said those could help with pain. The laser just cant penetrate deep enough. She would like me to come back in 4 weeks and see how she is healing. She feels in 4 weeks, she should be healed to start rehab.

Wordless Wednesday

Last Day

Yesterday was my last day off for the summer. So I spent several hours at the park. I always wanted to go on the other side of this creek and island to see the river. But my dogs dont want to go thur the water. This picture shows the extent they will go to the water by themselves.

I can stand them on rocks in the water and take pictures as long as I have treats.
So I picked up both dogs and carried them across 2 creeks and put them on the island. The Island is scary because its full of brush and all I can think is "snake". But no I didnt see any snakes, thank goodness. There are huge rocks on the other side that I took tons of pictures. To bad it was still to misty in most cases.

Doesnt Guiness look like he is smiling?

But when I got to the other side of the island, it was to misty to see the river. I was very disappointed.

We were out there for a long time and then I decided it was time to go home. I had the dogs off leash while on the rocks. I figured I put them back on leash when I got ready to carry them across the creek again. So we are walking thur the brush and the dogs go ahead of me. Well I cant see them. I call and Miley comes right back but not Guiness. Ugh! I call, and call. The island is only about 50feet by 75feet. Where could he go? Then I started worrying that he fell in the river and is going down stream. This time I call him with a few cuss words in there and he came up behind me. Uh? I dont know how he got around me but he was certainly glad to see me. He must of not been able to find me either. Needless to say, I was happy to see him and clipped his leash on. The picture below is of the brush island, can you find Miley?

I just thought this picture was funny.