The last few weeks have been totally exhausting, which is why I’ve not been on tumblr much at all.
However, I’m pleased to say that Barney is doing well. Even young dogs can take many months to recover from an FCE/spinal stroke… so I was really worried that at 14.5yrs old, Barney’d struggle a lot. We’ve been doing physio at home & Barney goes out for an assisted “walk” around the two playing fields near our house every day. He’s trying very, very hard to move independently & is much more confident & mostly just back to his normal, happy, cuddly self.
A month ago, Barney’s back legs were completely paralysed - he couldn’t move them, had no strength & no feeling in them. Progress is slow & subtle but as the days pass, his ability to move & use his legs is improving. He can now stand for short periods, with minimal support & when we “walk”, he’s frequently managing to correctly place his left paw down on the ground, weight-bear & then push off with it. The right is making “swimming” type motions. He’s still knuckling over a lot but seems to be regaining some awareness of where his paws are… He can certainly feel his paws now - when Barney’s lying down, I tickle between his pads & he vigorously kicks my fingers away!
Oh & as you can see, we now have a buggy for him! Barney really likes it - I thought we might need to do some conditioning… nope, he saw it & went: “oh, that’s for me, help me inside!”. He asks to go back in, when he’s had enough of hobbling about outside & settles pretty nicely in there (although I zip the front up when we’re moving - to prevent him trying to jump out because he smelled a good smell!).
Today was the first day Flynn came with us & the buggy… I was worried he’d be scared of the noise of the wheels, or the weirdness of Barney being inside… or something… Flynn’s a stressy dog, so you can’t always know what will panic him. I needn’t have worried - Flynn was absolutely overjoyed to leave the house with his “brother… He happily bounded along near the buggy & both dogs were woofing with excitement. It was really sweet - the collies don’t generally seem particularly bonded but they were clearly SO happy to be out together again!
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