As hard as it has been sometimes to look at Risa as she’s progressed through her diagnosis of intervertebral disc disease, I’ve tried to at least document it in photographs. It’s amazing to see the progression. Especially since it’s often hard to see the changes when they occur slowly over time.
This first photo is from January 31st, a week before she was finally diagnosed. While she was feeling better than she had, you can still clearly see the weakness in her rear.
Sinking butt dog when we were still trying to figure out what was going on.
After 4 weeks of crate rest, her posture had improved yet she was still clearly trying to keep her weight off of her back end.
March 6th after four weeks of strict crate rest.
She certainly started to look better once she got moving again. After being off crate rest for a week and shortly after beginning physical therapy, she was standing much better. However, she was still keeping her weight shifted forward and standing with her backend under herself.
March 30th, looking a lot better!
It’s been almost a month since her crate rest ended and she’s been doing physical therapy exercises and 10-15 minute walking sessions for 3 weeks. I took her photo again today and I hadn’t expected to see such a dramatic change. Risa is clearly standing a bit more balanced and not placing so much weight on her front end anymore. I guess it’s worth the 30-45 minutes I’m spending twice a day doing her exercises! 😀
Standing more balanced on April 14th.
I can’t wait to see how much improvement there is in a few more months!
