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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Back to swimming

Sierra is back swimming again and has been very perky since her swim yesterday. We just did 5 minutes in the pool as I didn't want to push her too hard the first day. She swam the five minutes with ease and wasn't too tired the rest of the day. I am going to try for 7-10minutes tomorrow or Thursday (depending on the weather).

I am also going to work with the families dog that has been kind enough to share their pool with me as their dog is having some hind end weakness. Hopefully, I will have a video to follow in the upcoming weeks.


I only wish the water was this nice:

The pool water was a chilly 70degrees this week.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Waiting for aquatics

Sierra is having more mobility problems and has lost some muscle mass since she last hurt her foot/nail. I know pool season is just around the corner and I am hoping that will make a difference again in her mobility. Her biggest problem is the back three steps. There are too few for her to walk down carefully, so she tries to jump down her back legs and often looses her balance and falls. I try to cue her to go slowly, but she isn't always careful enough.

We also had some issues with the fabric from the CoolAroo bed. It's a stiff canvas and when Sierra sleeps her legs kick while she dreams. Since she has poor sensation she doesn't wake up while kicking her legs. This was causing rubbing and then bleeding on her legs. It required wrapping and protecting her legs. I am now using pipe insulation on the edges of the beds to protect her legs- it's been working great.

Finally, Sierra cut her leg while getting into the self service tub at the groomer. There was a lot of bleeding, but it healed pretty quickly and didn't have much of an impact on her overall. We are hoping to keep what skills she has until she is able to get back to swimming, then we might get some mobility and endurance back.