Take Me To The River

After 9 1/2 months of physical therapy, we finally took a video today of Tinker's underwater treadmill work. His therapist Tracy, whose voice you can hear on the video, used to stand in the tank with Tinker to assist/keep him moving. Now Tinker goes it solo. Enjoy! :)

There's Air Under Those Feet!

Hi everyone. Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and we hope you have a very happy and healthy New Year!

We recently found a movie hosting site - so now you can see a short clip (we'll get a clearer one up there) of Tinker running across the living room and jumping up on the futon. Who would have thought that he would be a) running and b) jumping and c) both together. We love that little feller! :)

A Little Bit of Bragging

Beagle World is a popular Beagle internet message board. Its' webmaster, Joe (who owns Murphy of "Murphy's World" - another Beagle who has recovered from a disk rupture), put together a calendar this year and our Beags were lucky enough to be included. Calendars can be purchased at http://www.cafepress.com/beagleworld.12600584

and here are our pups :)

The Little Engine That Could

Photo courtesy of www.smile4katie.com/

4 months have gone by since our last update and we apologize for the long delay. We recently experienced the death of a very close family member- another unhappy milestone in a very challenging year. We know that many people have an interest in Tinker's recovery, and your support has been wonderful.

The last 4 months have been amazing as Tinker continues to progress. He has pretty much been given free rein in the house. He's not allowed to do steps, but he walks around at will when he is on the middle or upper floors. We have a metal gate in the living room to keep him from using the stairs to the first floor. We also have a wooden gate that we use to prevent him from going upstairs during the day or downstairs at night. We quickly learned that we have to keep him crated when we go out (which he doesn't mind), because Virginia's separation anxiety leads her to knock the gates down if we leave them up. I got a shocking surprise one day when I came home and opened the front door and not one, but two dogs, were there to greet me! "Hmmm", I thought, "What's wrong with this picture?!" (Tinker also managed to go up the stairs one day - which prompted us to immediately block the stairs at all times).

Tinker not only walks in the house, he jumps and runs as well. Yes, you read that right. We would rather he did neither, especially jumping (this usually occurs while he does his happy dance as his food is being prepared), but it is quite an amazing sight to see. He's back to trying to rile Virginia up by dancing around and bumping her, and sometimes he will jump on the futon to follow her (we cringe every time he does it). Recently he has even been doing some mini zoomies. He kind of looks like a miniature horse galloping around, looking like he's going 90 mph- but sideways!

We have also started to take Tinker on walks outside without additional support for his legs, in order to work on his balance and coordination. No rear harness, no cart, just the good old fashioned way - and he's doing remarkably well. His right leg is still noticeably weaker than his left, but he has begun to raise it off the floor, while in a seated position, in an attempt to scratch his right ear. We know one day he will accomplish this. He can already use his left leg to scratch his left ear. We have also noticed in the past month that his tail position is slightly higher- it had basically been at "half mast" since his injury. It is gratifying to see that subtle improvements still occur- maybe not as dramatically as in the first 6 months, but nevertheless he's still improving. We've eased up on the frequency of his physical therapy, but he still goes to hydrotherapy once a week and acupuncture once a month. And Virginia still accompanies him to his sessions and cheers him on (and appreciates the treats at the end of each session).

Most importantly, Tinker just keeps on smiling....our sweet, funny, goofy little boy who has enriched our lives. There's never a dull moment when he's around - and we are all so glad he's around - even Virginia :)

Improvements and New Digs

It's hard to believe, but today marks 19 weeks since Tinker's surgery, and he continues to improve every day. Our initial fears for his well being have been soothed by watching his progress. In addition to weekly acupuncture, he is still going 3 times a week for underwater hydrotherapy, and he is up to a speed of .8 miles per minute for 20 minutes. He doesn't love the water- most Beagles aren't big swimmers like Labs- but he is a trouper, and he tries very hard. It is very rewarding to see how far he has come. After surgery, the muscle mass in his hind end had noticeably atrophied. But, over the past 4 months he has really rebuilt the muscle in his hind end and legs, plus all the hair on his back has grown back in- so he looks really healthy! Despite the fact that his walk is still spastic, we are thrilled that he is walking at all. In the past month he has definitely been "up" more, and we are very, very proud of our little boy.



Since his initial recovery time spent in the porta-crib, he has graduated to an "ex pen" in the living room. He loves his new freedom, and sometimes Virginia will join him for a marathon bone chewing session or to just curl up and keep him company.

Surgeon Follow-Up

On Tuesday, June 21, we took Tinker to his follow-up appointment with Dr. Hunt, his surgeon. This was the first time that Dr. Hunt had seen Tinker in nearly 2 months. When we were there last, Tinker was in his cart for the entire exam. This time we brought him in wearing his sling and took it off in the exam room so he could walk freely. What a difference time and hard work make. We could see the smile creep across Dr. Hunt's face as he entered the exam room. He and his assistant, (Meaghan, Tinker's favorite person at the AERA), were ecstatic to see Tinker's progress.



As you can see in the picture above, over the last month -and especially the past 2 weeks- Tinker has been up on his feet much more. (Also notice how the fur on his back has now completely grown back in.) We have not put gates up yet, but we block off the stairs and allow Tinker to walk around our downstairs while we watch. He's still somewhat awkward in his walk, and his left leg is stronger and more coordinated that the right, but he remains on his feet. His bulked-up front and back legs and hind quarters have really made a difference. We will need to start working on his coordination.

Neurology Check

Today we took Tinker to see Dr. Christiane Massicotte, the new Neurologist/Neurosurgeon at the AERA. We've been seeking answers for such things as, "Is there more we can do to help Tink's progress?", "Should we allow Tinker to move freely about the house (not near the stairs of course)?", "What should we do when his 12 weeks of hydrotherapy are over?” etc... We also wanted to know if there was a reason why Tinker has been urinating less on his own, and why it had been becoming harder for us to express him.

Dr. Massicotte was absolutely wonderful. She patiently answered all of our questions, gave suggestions, and was very accommodating. She feels that Tinker is making good progress and she said that the most significant neurological recovery occurs during the first 6 months after surgery. After that, it is much more gradual and changes are more subtle. We are going to start letting Tinker slowly have the run of the downstairs part of the house (we will be purchasing gates to block off the stairs) so that he gets more of an opportunity to be on his feet. Dr. Massicotte said we may want to consider continuing with the hydrotherapy after the initial 12 week period (maybe it's time to fill up the tub, or maybe they'll let us register for a pass for him at our complex's pool ). She also recommended that we get boots for Tinker's back legs so that when walking outside, we don't have to hold up his back feet up when we are on the sidewalk. This will allow him to walk or drag his feet without getting cut up and enable him to feel the sensation of the ground.

She tested Tinker's reflexes and deep pain sensation and had us take him outside so that she could watch him try to walk in a straight path with no assistance. Tinker was kind of up and down and swayed a bit, but she was quite encouraged by what she saw. Up until today we had thought that dogs did one of two things in recovery, regular walking or 'spinal walking'. (Spinal walking looks like a dog is a little drunk -- it comes from trying to process the thought of walking. It basically bypasses the brain and relies on muscle memory.) As it turns out, Tinker actually is doing a combination of both. There have been studies that suggested that if there is no deep pain sensation, it was spinal walking, and if there is deep pain sensation, then it was regular walking. However, Dr. Massicotte did extensive studies at Penn, and she found that there are many cases, and Tinker is one of them, where the dog does a combination of spinal walking and regular walking.

As for his sudden change in the bladder functions- having difficulty going on his own, Dr. Massicotte put Tinker on a low dose of Valium. It is used to relax the tone of the bladder a little and to try to encourage him to go more on his own. Usually it is not prescribed for more than a few weeks. If it takes longer, maybe we'll start taking it.

All in all, it was a very rewarding day. We got good answers and were reassured that we are going about things the right way for our Little Dude.