Luke the dachshund's water therapy and physical therapy

Luke has progressed since I brought him home on Tuesday. He is certainly in better spirits and doesn't seem to have pain very often. When he does have pain, I give him 1/2 of a Rimadyl and it works right away.

The passive range of motion exercises are pretty dramatically different from the first night. When I first began the exercises, his back legs were really stiff. Now they go all the way around the circle with just a little "pause" for the bending part. I think last night he might have kicked back at me, but it could have been a reflex. The biggest challenge with doing the exercises is that he tries to "wrestle" with my hand while I'm doing them! I try to do both, so he will think the therapy is fun.

We started water therapy on Friday. I filled the sink (I have a great big deep kitchen sink that we chose specifically for dog baths when we remodeled the kitchen 2 years ago) with "luke"warm (ha!) water. I have some non-skid pads to put in the bottom so he doesn't slip. I just have him stand there with the water up to about the level of where his testicles used to be. The water supports him enough that he can stand on his own. I bribe him with pieces of turkey to get him to walk around a little. Craig says we should get a kid's pool and put it in the back yard so he has more room to move around. Maybe that will be our next step.

He is getting better at moving around the house. I wish the wheelchair would arrive.

I am considering asking my vet for a new drug that is out that helps with bladder muscular control. I think it would help him.

Look at this sweet face!