Goodbye my friend

Since my last post Winston continued to have good days and bad days.  Unfortunately the bad days started to outnumber the good days.  We tried to keep his pain under control but he started to have days where he just couldn't cope with it.  He would stand all hunched up with his head down and pant.  He couldn't get comfortable lying down, he couldn't sit, he struggled to walk, but he was in so much pain that when he did walk he'd kind of shuffle along.  The first time this happened, we were able to get the pain under control again, but it got to the point where the relief he got only lasted for an hour or two.

After an especially bad night, I walked out with him to go potty and he told me that he was ready to go.  I sat out in the yard with him for awhile and cried.  We took him to AMVS that morning and we stayed with him to the end.

Doing better than expected

So on Friday we let Winston try the stairs and so far so good.  He's a little limpy when he first gets up but once he walks for a little while he limps less.  Today we did a 5 minute walk and he was so happy to be off our property!    He limped a little more on the way home than he did on the way out, but still... not too bad.

One week since front leg sprain

Winston is walking better and must feel better because today he actually wanted to chew on a chew bone that is down in his pen.  Tonight/tomorrow I might try letting him go upstairs and we'll use a baby gate.  He's still got swelling around the joint, but most of the welling in the leg around the joint has gone down, so it's looking much better.  I think we've got a week to go before I try taking him for a walk down the street though.

It's hard to have only one good leg!

Winston is on three legs again.  Last month he and Josie ran out the door like crazy people (like always) and we didn't realize the back patio was a sheet of ice.  He slipped and landed on his front leg with his foot bent over (normal bend, but put a little too much flex in the joint).  We've been pretty careful with him since then keeping his activity level down and not going for walks with him when he seemed sore.  Everything seemed good and he appeared to be nearly normal again so we've been a little less careful than we apparently should have been.

He played with Josie in the yard a couple of days ago (usually this involves her running around like a wild girl through the whole yard while he spins in small circles egging her on and lunging at her as she goes by).  Apparently he must have re-aggravated the sprain because he's got a little bit of swelling and some warmth in his wrist, and he's been hopping around mostly on three legs when he does get up.

Our vet said we should tack him to the floor for awhile, so he's back in his pen in "his room" with short potty breaks as his only exercise.  So far he's ok with this, so that makes it seem a bit more serious, but at the same time, he refuses to eat meals in bed (he gets up and stands to eat), so it's also not as bad as we've been through in the past.

Running around nearly every day

For the past week or so, we've had pretty decent weather.  Lots of sunshine and a few days in the 60's so I've been opening up the gate between the yards or just letting the pups go out into the southwest side so that they can enjoy the grass and sun.  They've both been playing with the balls out there and Winston has gotten in some running.  Probably helps a little with the muscle atrophy.  So far so good on the pain, I haven't had to increase his dose yet, though I have given him his dose early a few times, and sometimes we shorten the walks if they've been really active in the yard.

Still doing ok -- no more incidents so far

I think I'm being more careful in my monitoring of him and erring on the side of just increasing the frequency of pain pills if I see any behavior that is a little "off".  So far so good; it looks like the plan is working.  Winston hasn't had any more really bad days.  In fact we've had some recent decent sunny days in the high 40s and 50s.  I've let both dogs out into the big yard and they've been running around and having fun.