Merry Christmas

Wednesday 19th December 2007

Hi,
Its been a while, Bracken is doing really well, still un-phased by the whole "On 3 legs" thing. She is still receiving hydrotherapy / physio treatment, in fact, we have just returned from a session tonight. Bracken is lying sound asleep now on her bean bag.
Not sure the treatment is doing much other than relieving the pain and pressure of her joints from all the scooting about on 3 legs. The feeling is back completely in her leg, all the way to her tipy toes, she just ain't moving it, she has had almost complete muscle atrophy of the shoulder and I'm not sure it will ever be any use. The main thing is, as I said, she's un-phased and as happy as a dog in a bath full of butchers bones!
I'm happy, Shes happy, what more could be asked, and the man in the big red suit is almost here.

So,

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Very Happy New Year.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and support over the past 10 months, it has been very much appreciated.

Hope your well Slim and Jaida.

Craig.

All is Well

Hi All,
It's been ages since my last post, Sorry,


I know that a lot of you have a genuine interest in bracken and it's unfair of me not to keep you posted more. Been very busy, had a job change. Anyway, there's not really a lot to tell, as they say no new is good news.

Bracken is still going for her hydrotherapy every week, we have managed to keep the ligaments from contracting although they did contract slightly whilst Tom was away in Australia. There was a gap of 4 weeks between her treatments when I last posted with the good news that we had managed to straighten the leg out.


Bracken still does not have complete feeling back in the leg, but, boy she feels it when Tom is giving her physio which is always a good sign, she fights with him in the pool, not literally but you know what I mean.


We are back at the pool again tomorrow night, it will be her 3rd session since Tom got back. He has started work on her wrist joint now to try and get it straightened out.

Sorry theres not a lot more to tell, I will keep posting as much as I can but its hard to post when not a lot has changed.

Times the healer I hope..........


;-)

Hydrotherapy session last night Unbelievable

Thursday 13th Sept 2007

WOW!

I am just stunned and speechless.......

Took Bracken for her weekly Hydro session last night. Bracken's leg was still stuck at a 90 degree angle due to the ligament contraction, well, after last nights session, all that has changed, Take a look.

Below, Bracken's contracted right leg. This was her leg more or less fully stretched.
















Now Look, for some reason the ligaments seemed to give last night. A Lot of it down to all the stretching and exercises, but, most of it due to the physiotherapy work Tom does in the warm water of the hydrotherapy pool.















And then.........















And a small video.......




Sorry about how short the video is, She was on her way out the pool and I had to run to the car for my mobile phone. I was present all through the session and I had no idea what Tom was about to show me. All he said was, "Now Craig, prepare yourself"........"Wait until you see this". He started to raise the hoist and I could see the difference right away, her leg was hanging a lot lower. It wasn't until he started to move her leg back and forth that I realised how much movement was back. There were 4 of us in the room including Tom, the other 2 are assistants and have helped with Bracken since Feb, I can't begin to type what they said when the saw the movement, I would be at risk of blogger deleting my blog.

I'm just stunned, not one to knock my vet, but, he had me believing we couldn't fix the contraction. Bracken is back on the protein powder every morning, we are going to give it our all now. Tom is off to Australia for 3 weeks so we have no Hydro until he is back. I hope when he does get back we have a surprise for him.

Good news all round with Bernie's leg and now Bracken's, our luck has changed and I'm off to get a lottery ticket!

Onwards and Upwards.

;-)

An Update At Last!

Wednesday 12th Sept 2007

Sorry,
I should have been on here before now to update you all on our progress, but..... just what is it with my family and legs?
Mummy has a horse called Bernie and he had an accident about 3 weeks ago, he caught his leg on a piece of tin from on of the lean 2 sheds and cut it very badly.
The cut was through the Coronal band, and for any of you who know about horses, this is not a good place to cut. The Coronal band is basically what attaches a horses hoof to the leg and Bernie had almost cut 40% of the way through. Anyway, the vet came and did all he could but didn't give out much hope.

?????? now where have I heard that before?

As usual there was a lot of talk about putting to sleep etc, but mum and dad being mum and dad said no way, we have to try and fix this. So, lots of bute and new bandages every other day, oh and some help of the good old "Echinacea" and Bernie is well on the mend, his cut is healing very quickly and the vet is over the moon.

Now for me,
I am still going to the hydrotherapy every week, in fact I am off there tonight.
Tom is really giving it all he can to get my ligaments stretched out, every week we go dad can see my leg getting lower when the raise me out of the pool. Dad and Mum still have stretching exercises with me every day. Dad is now thinking about putting my old boot back on me. He has talked it through with Tom and we have all came to the conclusion that it may be a good idea to put some weight on the boot. This way my leg and ligaments will be under tension if you like, we think it may help in stretching out the ligaments. Dad thinks that because he took the boot off when I started to lift my leg and not drag it, this may be the reason the ligaments contracted and if he had left it on it would have help keep the leg straight, you can see how it used to be in the earlier video's dad took in the field.

Anyway, all is still well, I still love to go for long walks and have a good old rummage! I'm not in pain, and oh......I still haven't caught my leg on anything, touch wood!

Dad is going to take some new pictures and video's when were out an about, he will get them posted on soon.

A Happy Dog

Sunday 26th August 2007

Just a wee post to show you how happy Bracken seems to be with the decision not to remove her leg just now.

??? I'm on a Roller Coaster right now

Wednesday 22nd August 2007

We were at the Vet's last night and it was not good news. The Vet advised that he was of the opinion that the leg was beyond recovery. Gutted.....empty sinking feeling inside, whole lot of emotions going on, back to beating myself up for ever letting it happen, if only I had put that god damn lead on. Myself and Lesley spoke a lot last night about what we should do. By this morning we had almost convinced ourselves that we should bite the bullet and remove the leg.

Is it doing any good being there, not working?

What if she gets it caught out on a walk and does even more damage?

We almost called the insurance company this morning to request authorisation for the operation, but I thought no, I have an appointment tonight with Tom at ARC for Hydro, I need to discuss it all with him.

At the Hydro tonight I spoke to Tom, I explained to him what the vet had said about the ligaments etc. and he just nodded and carried on with the treatment. Then he asked me a few questions to get the whole situation into perspective.

Back in February when the Vet advised waiting 4 weeks and if there was no improvement remove the leg, did you take that advise?

No I replied.

Is Bracken in any pain or discomfort when she is out on here walks?

No I replied.

Has Bracken been rummaging through the undergrowth and woods jumping over fences and running like the clappers for the last 3 Months?

Yes I replied.

Then why the hell are you considering removing her leg?

Ooh I thought, not sure, a bit confused now, because your making sense here.

Tom then went on to say, Craig, a while back you said to me you were a bit concerned about the leg getting stiff and that you were worried the muscle lose was causing the leg to wither slightly, I told you then not to worry about it, Did I not? Tom then said, I'll show you and began to work on her leg again. Her appointment was to be for 30 mins but it over ran to 40.

I can't believe what's happened tonight, Bracken was raised on the hoist to get her out of the pool and Tom said "Look", Bracken's leg was hanging a good inch to 2 inches lower. Excuse my language folks, but I thought, Shit! Tom has shown me some new exercises for Bracken to try and get the leg to straighten out. I took Bracken to the field for a walk after we got home, I can visibly see the leg's position a lot lower than when we went to the hydro.

God, this bloody roller coaster seems like its going to go on for ever, I'm so confused. I think maybe I'm loosing a bit faith and need a bit of a kick up the arse.

Anyway, The decision has been made, she's not in any pain and the leg has never got caught in the past 3 months so were going to leave it where it is and carry on with the treatments and physio.

here we go..........the roller coaster seems to be on the way back up again.

;-)

Vet Appointment

Friday 17th August 2007

Had another session of hydrotherapy on Wednesday, all went well, no visible changes to note.
Our appointment with the vet is on Tuesday next week. I have been stretching the leg daily as often as I can. I can feel a difference in the leg, it seems to be easing each time I stretch it. but I'm not sure if its of any use.

Anyway, the key is to see what the vet has to say about it all, I will keep you posted as soon as we have been to see him on Tuesday.

Were Home

Wednesday 8th August 2007

Well were back again, all refreshed and tanned! We had a great holiday, so much so were desperate to go back. Bracken enjoyed her holiday too, she settled in well with frank and Margaret and I think she may have been spoiled a little. We got home a week past Friday and I picked her up on the Saturday morning. I was so nervous about collecting her, I was excited and apprehensive at the same time.

Would I see a difference?

Bracken came bounding over to me, on 3 legs! She looked great, she had been given a bath and her coat was gleaming, I think she had lost some weight too! She was staying close by to a farm and she had 3 walks a day, in the fields. Frank thinks she ran about 10 miles per day.

I have taken my time to post my latest blog as I have been looking for signs of improvement, unfortunately, I'm still looking. Bracken had Hydro both weeks we were away and I took her last Wednesday and Lesley took her tonight.

Lesley had a good discussion with Tom about where we are at with the treatment. We have taken bracken to a local river a couple of times since we got back and can see her trying to use her shoulder, it moves in sync with her left one in the doggy paddle motion. The problem we have though is I think her ligaments have contracted between her shoulder and elbow, her elbow joint seems locked, it has been slowly creeping up on us, we thought we could keep it at bay with regular physio, but I fear I have lost the battle. She has feeling in almost 90% of the leg and given that before we started the treatments there was none, I feel gutted, we were almost there.

We have decided tonight that we need a visit to our vet, the same veterinary company only not the one the wanted to remove the leg back in March. I'm taking her to see the vet who carried out the acupuncture, he seemed more open to her treatment and was keen for her to recover. Maybe there is some kind of operation they could perform on the ligaments, I'm almost certain she would start to put more weight on it if she could put it down.

Sorry this post is not as encouraging as I would have liked, I will keep you posted on the vets visit, in the meantime we carry on as usual, hydro and Physio.

You can see the contraction in her right leg in the picture below.



Fingers crossed. How's it going slim? hope your well pup pal.
;0)