Happy progress in the life of a senior dog!
Rocko made it through the entire week without going backwards. No breakout pain, no bad days. He’s a very happy boy.
Rocko with ultrasound gel all over his back, October 31, 2011
We had our fourth visit with Dr Boswell last Monday. He was all amped up to go. When we walked out the front door he just trotted down the steps like it was nothing. It really caught me off guard, by the time I got ready to start helping him he had taken off. Wow.
Rocko had a relaxing therapy session of ultrasound and tens-like treatment. When he was through, I wanted Dr Boswell to advise me on some pictures of harnesses I had found on the internet (more on that in a second).
I let Rocko off his leash – remember, if he wanted to kill her he would have already done it so I felt pretty safe. That boy walked all around the office, up and down the hallway, checking out each room. Every few minutes he’d come back and check on us, then he was off again. We had to laugh, this was the most Dr Boswell had seen him move around. On the first visit it was straight in and straight out. Now she sees the Rocko I remember.
I did ask Dr Boswell about how to deal with the bursts of energy that Rocko has now. As I thought, we should keep that somewhat under control. He might be ready to party but it is best to slowly increase his activity level so he doesn’t hurt himself.
We’ve graduated to a new level of treatment – Rocko doesn’t have to go back for two weeks. Of course if he starts feeling bad he can go right away, but if things keep going like they have been the time between visits will increase to every 4-6 weeks or whatever is most comfortable for Rocko.
Total cost of treatment to date: $488.00 Has it been worth it? Absolutely.
On a side note, one of my original goals was to get Rocko off the pain medication (which only started around March). I am now wavering on that goal. I was talking about it to Me-Ma who is a very young 73 years old and she made an interesting point. Rocko is old. Just like when people get old, they start taking a prescription every day for their arthritis or other aches and pains. It is just part of aging. Instead of thinking about it like a bad thing, she said I should accept that he needs the medicine, the medicine is helping him, and let well enough be. She has a good point – I wanted him off the pain medication for ME, not for him. That way I could keep on believing everything was perfect. It isn’t, I’m doing everything I can to help him, and sometimes that’s enough.
Back to the harness. If anyone has any advice for me, please either post it here or on the facebook link to this post (to find us on facebook, click on Rocko’s World in the upper right corner of this screen, then scroll down the right side of that screen for the link. It’s also a good time to Like us and check out the rest of Rocko’s World).
our steep stairs
We have to go down the stairs every night to go to bed and back up in the morning. Up isn’t too bad (yet) – I lift his front feet up on the first step, he gets up to the landing, then I get behind him and hold up his butt as he climbs up.
Down is not so easy. Rocko uses every excuse in the world to put off going down. NOT going down is not an option for him, but he has to get three drinks of water, check a couple times to finish off any food left in his bowl, look out the window and so on. When he’s ready he comes through the doorway in a straight shot to go down.
It seems that recently he has gotten more hesitant about going down. It might be his eyesight – that’s a pretty daunting drop if you can’t see the bottom. I have to hold him up and keep him from just sliding or going down too fast. Because one side of the wall is open we can only go down one way. My fear is that one day both of us are going to take a tumble.
I tried something new last night on the spur of the moment and I’ll see if it helps. I took blue painters tape and marked each step, then put a giant mark on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Maybe if he has something he can focus on instead of almost all the same color he will feel more confident.
My extreme dream is to put in a stair lift like senior citizens use and modify it with a walled platform to move Rocko up and down. One side would have a high wall so he couldn’t jump out of the side of the stairs. When we get to the bottom that side would drop down to make a ramp for Rocko to get down the last couple steps.
I would be able to build the platform and have a friend who could help if I had to make any modifications to the switches that make it move. I would hinge the platform walls so they would fold out of the way if I was going up and down the stairs. This is a very narrow and steep staircase. Our house was built in 1923 and like many old houses, they were an afterthought and would never pass code now. The treads are narrow and there is no room for any kind of ramp or changes to make it easier. A bonus would be that I wouldn’t have to carry anything up and down the stairs myself, I could just put it one the lift. As it is if I’m carrying down a box I can’t see around it because they are so narrow, so I’d win too.
You can see I’ve given this a little thought. The only thing I’m missing is the stair lift. Old used ones sell for over $1,000 and no dealer will sell parts because of the liability. If you ever hear of one about 10’ long that someone needs to get rid of, please let me know.
In the meantime, Dr Boswell recommended a harness to support him as we’re going down. I would still have to put in a railing to stabilize myself but at least it will help right now.
If anyone has used a good harness for this (remember, he’s a big boy so I have to hold on to 70 pounds) please let me know. I’ve checked a couple of websites but there is such a variety I’m not sure what to use.
I’m not the one who knows it all, I’m the one seeking answers and would love to hear from anyone who has any advice.
Gotta make it easy on the life of a senior dog!