Even BETTER than yesterday!!!

We are OVERJOYED to report Gabby is improving!!! She only had a few pee spots on her pad during the night. When Dick took her outside first thing in the morning, and before he could catch her, she walked down the stairs by herself.  She was able to go poopsie with slight difficulty but nonetheless WENT!! She continued to let the urine just escape her without stopping or squatting in a few areas and as she was going down the stairs.

After our breakfast, we took her on a walk and she was eager to sniff and smell in her old doggy way!!! This is a first in a long while! Again, when she urinates, it just comes out as she is walking.

Again, after lunch she sat at the back door so I let her walk down the stairs and she was able to pee in a few different areas! Still no squatting, but at least controlling it enough to wait until outside!!!!

We asked her to perform her trick of barking on command and her voice sounds like the olden days too! Very strong instead of a whisper or not at all! Yeah!

She is even hanging out with us more instead of just laying in her bed! Huge improvement!! Seriously, we are overjoyed and whistling happy tunes over here. We'll keep her on the double dose of medication and hope for the best.

In reviewing this episode, we tend to think...as she makes her way up our stairs to our room on occasion, she's been slipping sometimes. We think maybe she slipped the wrong way at some point and really inflamed her issues. Just as in humans, we can have a 'grabby back' or sciatica one day and with the right meds and 'cage rest' we can be good to go another 500 miles or so...

Hopefully with each passing day, she's able to gain strength for healthier days to come! Below is a pic I just took! Sitting on the floor by choice, being part of our every day, not cuddled in her bed!

UPDATE!

Well, just when you think we are taking a step forward with each day….we had a little set back….we can add vomiting to her list of ailments….she had a fairly normal day today…she has asked to go down the back to pee a lot more often than normal throughout the day but at least she has been holding it until she walks herself down the stairs! This evening, the diarrhea returned with the vomit, thankfully she was outside at the time. So, not sure where that came from….she ate part of her breakfast, a few treats from going outside but now refuses a treat and won't eat dinner. Oy vey!!

BETTER NEWS TODAY!!

We've been keeping Gabby in her little room at night with the puppy pee pee pads.  We woke up this morning and a normal poopsie was on the pad!!! YEAH!!! Soooooo happy!!! Crazy what makes us happy these days eh?

She appears to be walking better today and a little more like her old self!! We are soooo happy about this change as you can imagine!! Unfortunately, she still has no control over her bladder.  I took her out this morning first thing and she would not squat. Brought her in and her hind was wet. I gave her a bath, dried her off with the blow dryer and we both had 'a moment' together on the bedroom floor where we just laid with each other. We were both quite content for about 20 minutes. I got up and was brushing her and made her stand and her hind was full of pee again! So, into the bath again, another blow dry and cleaned up the pee. 

I put a diaper back on her and she is resting now.  The biggest problem with the diapers is that because of their fur, the only thing the diaper does is keeps the urine from getting on stuff….but it can and does sometimes leak out. 

We think it is a good sign that she is back to one of her old antics of stretching out!! She hasn't done this in weeks!

  

It's a rainy, drizzling kind of day today but we are hope that when it breaks we can take her for a short walk. Since we are doubling the dose of her Rimadyl/Carprofen, hopefully that will get her over this hump.  We'll know the signs to look for in the future and can increase the dosage to even 3 times a day according to her vet. We've just got to get this bladder to connect to her brain!! She's always been sooooo good at holding it so this is all very new.  

We are still trying to keep positive. Our heart goes out to her because we know she just want to be normal too. The more we think about it, the more we really don't want to go the surgery route.  We'll just keep plugging along for now.