TouchNPaws

We sure have been busy working with Marley and helping him regain his strength and balance. Marley is really doing his part and is not going to accept paralysis as his destiny.

December 28 we took the advise of Robyn Hood and put Candy Cane wraps on Marley's legs. I secured them with terry cloth scrunchies around his ankles. When you add all that to his walking sling and his harness & lead he looked an awful lot like an Marionette puppet! A very cute one at that.

You can see he has some concerns about what is going on but ever the little trooper he just went with hit. He didn't wear the wraps long but we did have him walk around with them about 5 minutes or so.

The point of the wrap it to bring awareness to the legs. It is much like putting a rubber band around your wrist. All of a sudden you are conscious and aware of your wrist. Leave it on for a while you you no longer think about it. TTouch wraps only stay on for a short time and can help with balance and body awareness.



The day after the wraps we noticed a significant improvement in Marley's ability to walk. He put more weight on his back legs. His feet had been quite stiff before and were now in a more natural position as opposed to him walking more on his toes. Steve needed to support him with the sling less and less.

On December 30th we visited Dr. Sosna, the vet that will assist us with Marley's rehab. Dr. Sosna shared details of Marley's surgery and recovery we were unaware of. Our Marley not only has IVDD but also a quite malformed spine. Protecting the integrity of his back is of utmost importance and we are at risk of more ruptures in other areas of the spine.

We reviewed some supplements that will be beneficial for him and set up a series of 20 rehab sessions that will be a mixture of underwater treadmill and weight bearing exercises. He will have homework too besides his therapy every Tuesday and Thursday.

Steve and I are very excited to get going on rebuilding the lost muscle in his legs.

Then on New Year's Eve Marley really had a great walk in the yard! Just look at him go!

Every day we are seeing Marley get stronger and stronger. His balance is improving and the exercises Dr. Sosna showed us how to do are really helping him shift his weight backwards and not carry everything up front. We are working really diligently on his muscle memory and making sure that he is in correct alignment as best we can.

Marley improves so much on a regular basis that it is a good thing we are aware of his malformed spine and the level of risk of having this happen again. If not, it would be tempting to forgo the 20 rehab sessions!