Today, three weeks after Maya was struck by a car in front of the house and spent the following week in doggie intensive care, she went for a 15-minute walk in the woods—on leash—and was incredible! With her right rear leg tightly bandaged in bright green, she enthusiastically headed out on the trail. I kept an eye on the time, since the hospital vet had said we could start taking her for short walks but not too much.
The Ridge isn't my favorite place to take her because last year when she was still a pup I took her there and she came back covered in ticks—not literally, but far more than I could stomach. The Ridge is off the road that leads to the girls' dance school and since I knew Maya couldn't go for long and had to be leashed I figured not much harm. And there wasn't. Our walks are always discoveries and today I found that leaving her seat belt harness on wasn't a bad idea. She was pulling at her collar, even though I use a training collar with plastic ridges to keep her from hurting herself, and so I clipped her leash to the back loop of her harness. Wonders! She stopped pulling and ambled alongside me rather contentedly. I don't know why, but I'll experiment more with this.
At one point I had to pick her up and carry her across the rocks over a small stream. She might have crossed on the rocks but I certainly didn't want her bandage wet. That would have been a major problem. The plastic bag I had on it to begin with didn't hold up.
The best thing, though, is she was walking on her bandaged rear leg! At first she held it up and only occasionally dropped it. Then when the trail turned uphill, she needed the extra footing and, lo and behold, she started using it with vigor. From then on I was counting two, three and four steps with the bandaged foot to one lifted. Clearly, it has to be hurting her some, but that she's starting to use it is supremely encouraging. Maya is rapidly moving into her physical therapy phase. The vets have recommended working her injured leg by extending and bending it and massaging it when we're sitting around at night. Doing that plus her own willingness to use it is all the right stuff.
By the way, the Ridge has some phenomenal stonework, including an old stone dam some 20 or 30 feet in height, with a small pond behind it and a stone tower or some sort of building alongside the pond. I've looked on the web but haven't found much info on it. I'll check into it more at some time. On an earlier trip, Maya and I explored the dam, so I know it has iron pipes and remnants of barbed wire on top, but I'm not sure that ages it because those could be later additions. It's an awfully high dam for one of stone in a narrow steam channel so I'm thinking it had to have had some commercial use maybe 60 or so years ago. Just guessing though.
After a quarter-hour walk Maya was panting and hanging her tongue out. She was happy to be back in the car. It's like having her as a pup again, though, if truth be told, I pushed her pretty hard when she was but a little bitty thing. She ate ravenously when she got home, which is also a great improvement as her appetite has been a half or three-quarters her usual.
Thinking of her as a pup is a good way to approach this convalescence. She needs babying—and maybe Kevlar booties. A friend and coworker was telling me he uses those on his dog because his pet is always cutting up its paws. When Maya's ready, that might be a good option, maybe sooner.
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