Brackens Progress

Thursday 31st May 2007

Last day of May.......nearly June and its still P*ssing down with rain and only 12 degrees on a normal day.

Anyway enough about the crap Scottish weather. Sheena contacted me from Canada this week about Slim the whippet. Slim if you remember has the same injury as Bracken, paralysis due to a bump with a car. Anyway Slim has had some good progress lately, he has now started to put weight on his paralysed leg. This is great news for me and gives me hope. Slim was knocked over in Dec last year and is a couple of months in front of Bracken as progress goes, so here's hoping.

Were not putting the splint or boot onto bracken anymore, well not unless we are doing a lot of road work with her. Bracken is holding her leg up to the extent it is hardly dragging at all. Its not all Bracken though, due to lack of use in the leg the muscle is causing some of the lift, I asked Tom at the pool if it was anything to worry about, but he says no. The elbow joint is also getting a little more stiffer due to lack of use, but Tom did a lot of work tonight on her leg at the pool.

We were at the pool tonight for her weekly Physio and Hydro session, Tom is happy with the progress. She has more feeling in the leg and paw as well, She knows when your are tickling it when she can't see you, she feels it. All we need to do know is get the movement back. Muscle atrophy is our biggest worry, even if the leg recovers and feeling is completely restored, if the muscle has gone then the leg will still be more or less useless. The Key as Sheena said in her email is to keep working it, 5 or 10 minutes Physio each day should help to keep it at bay.

She's a bit restless tonight since the session at the pool, she gave out one almighty yelp earlier, I thought someone has trod on her good leg, but everyone swears they were no where near her. Since I started to type this post she's been up and down from her bean bag like a yo yo.........yelping on the odd occasion, not sure what to make of it, I'll just have to keep an eye on her, She did have a lot of work on her leg tonight, maybe she's feeling it all the more now.

Well That's it for this week, I hope the weather gets better in June.