"There's hope for this dog"

Friday (3/18) we went to see Dr. DeLucia and his assistant Tracy at the Valley Animal Hospital in Clifton. Dr. DeLucia is a Vet and a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner. We first met him when our regular Vet, Dr. Voynick, referred us to him last year to check Virginia's hips and knees.

Tinker was evaluated as to what physical therapy would help him. DeLucia has some interesting new equipment which can measure a number of things, including what percentage of body weight is being placed on the front and back legs. Normally, a dog distributes the weight 60% to the front, 40% to the back. Tinker measured 76% to the front and 24% to the back. Interestingly, though his back right leg has better neurological function and motor response, he placed more weight on his back left leg. Even Dr. DeLucia wasn't quite sure what the reason for that was.

After taking several other measurements for flexibility, etc., and checking for responsiveness (lightly touching a needle tip to Tinker's feet), Dr. DeLucia gave us even more good news. "There's hope for this dog", he said. C and I had smiles from ear to ear.

So beginning on Tuesday, Tinker will go 3 times a week (hey, can I have a raise?) for PT, which will include a lot of work on an underwater treadmill. They also measured him and ordered a cart for us from Eddie's Wheels . We know he'll love tooling around in the cart. It should arrive in about 2 weeks and I'll post pics at that time. I just know my boy will walk again and romp around with Virginia. He certainly will try.