gimpy

So the good news for Thirteen is that she's gaining weight at a rapid pace. So much so that we decided we had increased her food too much, and cut her back a bit. She's still getting more nutrition that she was before, what with the senior food instead of diet, and a blob of vitamin goo every morning. We're hoping she continues to gain, but more slowly. It will be great if we can stabilize her weight around 45 pounds.

The bad news is that she's having pretty bad problems with one leg. Her back right leg is turning in while she walks, so much that sometimes it crosses over the left leg. And the bad leg also twists and drags as she walks. When she's walking fast, especially on a smooth surface, she sometimes loses her balance and falls over.

It seems like this problem started suddenly but it must have been developing for a long time. Maybe I just noticed it because I was away for a week. The vet agreed with me that it looked serious, but unfortunately there's not much we can do "at this stage of her life" as Dr. Pagel put it. It's probably something wrong with either her hip or her knee, and either way surgery isn't an option. If she even survived the operation, she'd likely never fully recover. Why put her through that much pain when the risk would be so great, and the gain so little. Dr. Pagel recommended that we not even bother with an X-ray, unless we just want to know the specific problem.

It's sad, but I'm surpisingly not freaked out about it. It's not like I don't know how old Thirteen is. She's at the point of her life where our best approach is to make her more comfortable. To that end, we've put down small rugs along her favorite paths through the house, which does seem to have helped. And this week I'll try my hand at building her a ramp for the front steps. A couple of days ago she fell trying to get up the steps, which has happened before, but this time she gave up and I had to carry her inside. Clearly she needs an easier way to get in and out.

We're going to continue the acupuncture of course, and also Dr. Pagel suggested a referral to an orthopedist for rehab therapy, which we may do, depending on how effective the acupuncture is. Also I've started doing gentle range of motion exercises on Thirteen's bad leg: just extending and bending it as much as she can without straining.

So it's not all bad news. It seems like there are a lot of things we can do to make it easier for her to walk. And apparently it's a good sign that, even though her walk is distorted, she's not limping or showing signs of pain. (Except when she falls of course.)