Things have been going better today potty-wise. This morning Peter and I got up earlier than yesterday, around 6:30, to take her out. She had woken up but was very calm, not acting like she needed to go out badly or anything, but I wanted to get her outside as early as possible so as to avoid any accidents. I don't mind cleaning up her accidents - of course it's nice to not have to clean up any accidents, but I mostly just want to avoid the accidents for her sake. She doesn't like having them. Who would! So this morning as I was getting her hip sling on, she pooped a little bit. :( When she started to go, it looked almost like she was trying to stand up. I don't know if that was involuntary or on purpose, but both her back legs got tensed up and started shaking/vibrating a bit with the effort, and she actually lifted her rear end a couple centimeters off the ground for a second. I will have to talk to her therapists at TheraVet to see if it is a sign of progress or something - I sure hope it is!!
After the little accident, Peter and I took her right outside. She was still holding her bladder, and had a successful pee once outside. Sometimes she likes to keep walking while she is peeing, hehe! We must look pretty funny stumbling after her, trying to not get hit by the stream and to get her to stop walking at the same time. But hey, if she wants to walk and pee, if that's the way she is going to have successful outside pees, that's fine with me!
On our errands yesterday we went to Wegmans for groceries, and while there we picked up a stuffed bone-shaped toy that had a squeaker in it. We had tried to play with Sydney with a tennis ball, but she wasn't interested in it, so we were hoping to find a toy she might like better. It was a shot in the dark, but boy did she love that toy! I gave it to her while she was lying on her bed, and after a couple sniffs, you could just see her light up with excitement. She squeaked it and squeaked it and squeaked it and chewed it and held it down with her paws and tore at it. She destuffed it and liberated the squeaker in about 5 or 10 minutes. But what a 5 or 10 minutes! She absolutely loved it, and kept playing with it for a while after the squeaker was out. It soon lost its luster in her eyes - without the squeaker I guess it's really just not as interesting - but we leave it by her bed in case she wants it. We are definitely going to get her more of those! It just felt so good to see her really liven up like that. She has been pretty lively on walks, but not like that. It was like she was really having fun and it seemed to me like it was the first time she had kind of let loose since coming to her new surroundings, if you know what I mean. She seems even more comfortable here and with us today. When we sit down with her on the floor and pet her and hug her, she'll roll over a little bit now so we can rub her belly, and I think she is looking at us more directly now.
We didn't go on as long of a walk today as yesterday, but we walked around and she sought out new yards in the neighborhood that she had not yet sniffed. She seems to really like walking in new neighborhoods and even on new sidewalks (walk down a street one way, turn around and cross to the other side of the street for the walk back and it's a totally new experience!). Her legs moved a bit on the walk today, but not quite as much as yesterday. Hopefully that was just because it was a longer walk yesterday. I'm also thinking that it might be best for her little feet to be up on the stirrups only a little bit- have the straps just under her knees- that way, she seems to be able to move her legs more. I think maybe having her feet all the way down and dragging a bit on the sidewalk creates enough resistance that it prevents her from being able to move her legs in a walking motion as much. I'll have to check on that with the therapists at TheraVet as well. I would think it would be better for her to make the motions with less resistance than not make the motions really at all, but we'll see.
Sydney still tries to drag herself around the apartment sometimes when she has been laying down. It's hard to know what to do, because if you put her in her wheelchair when she does that, she then usually wants to get out of it and lay down right away. She wants to be able to lay down, get up and move to another room of her own accord, and lay down again, etc. Yet another question for the therapists.
About 2 or 3 times a day, I do exercises with her hind legs, including stretches, a pinch between the toes (something to do with nerves I think?), and passive movement with her legs (this means moving each leg in a circular walking motion). We start by pinching in between her center toes, then stretch her foot very gently back and forth, holding it in each position, then move up to her hock (that's like the ankle), stretch that joint back and forth, holding in each position, then doing the same thing with her knees and a bit with her hips. Then the passive movement. After that, we massage the muscles in her legs and by her hips, very gently. Sometimes, especially when I'm massaging or pinching in between her toes, Sydney will very jerkily kick her leg out, or she'll tense the muscles and/or bend at the knee. All great things! All of this is supposed to help. I hope it does. I'm looking forward to talking to her therapists so I can understand everything better and maybe learn some other therapy exercises we can do with her at home, if there are any.
She still has not met Shiloh. I'm thinking maybe tomorrow? Shiloh is currently at my parents' house. She was there while we moved earlier this week, and now she is there just to let Sydney (and us) settle in a little before adding another dog to the mix. I'm hoping to take Sydney to my parents house where she can run around freely in her wheelchair in the backyard with Shiloh and my parents' dog Daisy. I think she will love that.
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