My dogs Vasco and Hera sitting together in the chair. Hera was a little snippy when Vasco first jumped up in the chair, but quickly settled down and they two of them say together for quite a while.

That’s Akiva towards the end of the video.

Next Monday we see the Neurology Specialist

3-31-2010
11:41 p.m.

Akiva has been doing about the same for the past couple days. The Tramadol that he is on does seem to help him a little bit, making it a little easier for him to move around, but he is still far from normal. He still can’t climb steps, but is walking around a bit more now that he is on the new medicine (Tramadol).

Akiva Goes To Madison

We still need to figure out what is actually wrong with Akiva so we can get him the proper treatment, not just pain management.  There is a doctor in Appleton that I would have taken Akiva to for an consultation, but I called today and found out she is out on maternity leave.

I ended up making an appointment with the neurology department in Madison. His appointment is on Monday.  It is a hour long.  I just plan to have an evaluation / consultation and possibly draw blood for tests.   I hope that the consultation with the Neurologist will give us some more information or at least send us looking in the right direction.

We may end up being told they want a CAT or MRI next, that is basically the only thing the orthopedics doctor in Appleton knows to do at this point.  However there are so many things that could be going on that would not show on a scan, I think it is well worth it to get the consultation with the neurologist before we do more testing.  It is nice they can get him in so quickly.

Send Akiva lots of Love and wish him good luck in Madison!!!

Akiva looks Left - Vasco looks Right

Cute photo of Akiva (chair) and Vasco (ground) out on the patio on a nice spring night. (3-31-21010)

Akiva with his Large Stuffed Dog

Akiva finished up his antibiotics last night.  We very unfortunately did not see any real improvement with the antibiotics.  Akiva is still about the same as he has been for the past 3 weeks.  It was 3 weeks ago today that Akiva first has trouble making it up the steps, I remember watching him come up the steps and realized it was very difficult for him.  The prior day, I had taken him out for a walk, and he was not very interested in walking and had trouble making it on a half mile walk.  At that point, I wasn’t sure anything was wrong, I just thought he was uninterested in walking because it was wet out.  However on Sunday, the 28th once I saw he was having trouble with the steps, I knew something wasn’t right.  I thought it might have been a leg or paw injury, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  After he wasn’t any better with 10 days of pain medicine, we decided to try the antibiotics just in case there was some type of tick born infection that didn’t show up on the tests, that is the antibiotic that we just finished last night.  Akiva can walk around, he is able to go outside, (I carry him down the step), but he can walk around when he is out there, but hesitate to stand for very long before he wants to sit down.  He will walk around the house as needed to get to his water and such.  It is hard to tell is he is in pain, we had him on pain medicine for a week, and he did not seem any better.  He sways his head left and right as he walks around, he never used to do this, at least not to the extent that he does it now..  There are no spots on his back or his legs that seem painful when we touch him.  I had a full series of x rays taken and there is nothing broken, no hip dysplasia or severe arthritis.

Akiva had lost about a pound in the first week after his injury / problem started, but I was able to get him to gain the weight back (and then some) in less than a week.  He will eat, but is much more picky about his food than normal.  He is eating 2 small meals a day which should be more than enough to keep his weight up.  He has been much more interested in cooked food than his raw diet.  He appears to be willing to eat as many liver treats as I will give him, same thing with dried salmon.  However, meat that he would have normally scarfed down, he will leave sitting.  Most of the food we have presented has been soft and has been stuff he could easily swallow, so even if a tooth was bothering him, he could still eat any of the food.

Personality wise / neurologically he appears to be fully functional.  He is completely aware of his environment, his personality is unchanged (other than being less excited about his food).  He has full control of all his muscles, feel in all area of his body(responds to even a light touch on the pad of his feet).  His eyes, tail wagging and barking are all completely normal.     Some days he has seemed a little more interested in walking around than others.  He plays with his toys just about like he always has, and spends long periods sitting (so his front legs don’t appear to bother him at all).  He is his old friendly self, just can’t move around that well.  He still has been going on walks with us, he just gets to ride in a dog stroller.  He does quite well in the stroller, and rarely complains.  He has just sat in there for close to 2 hours while we were walking.

The good news is that over the course of 3 weeks he has not gotten any worse, with something that came on so suddenly, the first worry was that it was something that would get rapidly worse, yet it has held pretty constant.

Tuesday afternoon he has an appointment with a specialist, who hopefully will be able to give us a better idea of what is going on and what the treatment options will be.  He may need to have an MRI before we can pin point the problem.  If we do find it is a back or spine problem, the good news is that the success rate with treatment medical and or surgical is very high.  Most dogs that under go treatment recover and are able to lead full lives.  We don’t know that it is a back problem, that is only one guess, and since he appears to have no back pain, it doesn’t even seem that likely.  We hope to know more after Tuesdays appointment with the specialist in Appleton.

Akiva normally does not get any supplements to his diet, but since he has not been able to eat his regular diet for 3 weeks now, I am going to have to order a couple supplements for him to make sure he is getting a good complete diet.  I am going to include a supplement that include glucosamine and chondroitin, which may help his joints if they are involved in this problem.

I will make a new post after we find out more at Tuesdays appointment.  Please wish Akiva the best, he is working hard to get better.

Akiva will be 7 years old on this Thursday March 25th, 2010.

Vasco and Akiva sitting in Patio Chairs on Pation in our backyard

A view of our picnic area, with a few patio chairs, with Vasco (left) and Akiva (right).  You can see our old patio blocks in this photo.  They are quite worn and have settled in many area leaving area for water to pool and making it a difficult surface to clean off.  We have some very nice decorative patio blocks that we will arrange somewhere back in this area.  It would eventually be nice to have a raised deck just behind the house that extends over to the grill are, than have an area with the decorative patio blocks around the edge of that.  For this year anyway, we will just set the blocks in place.

View of the center of our Backyard from over head (from 2nd floor window)

In this photo you can see the large ring around the Autumn Blaze Maple.  The ring is an elevated area.  There are dozens of Hostas planted in rings around the Maple tree.  It should be a very nice display this spring.

Picnic area under our Norway Maple tree

It is very difficult to grow much anything under a Norway Maple tree due to a substance the tree produces along with the deep shade from the tree.  The solution we came up with was to create a picnic area under the tree and cover the ground with mulch.  It is a very pleasant area in the summer.  We put a swing along with a table and chairs under the tree in the summer.

Rocks for Landscaping in our Back Yard

I the center of the photo, there is about a 8 foot tall Autumn Blaze Maple, that is about 2 years old.  The tree to the right is also a Autumn Blaze Maple, but it is about 4 years old.  The bushes with bright red branches are Dog wood bushes.    The firewood is from our Ash tree that is just to the left of this photo.    The thin tree by the fence in the left of the photo is a Willow that was a variegated willow grafted onto some type of weeping willow root stock.  However, 2 years ago the variegated willow died, but the root stock survived, and the tree now has revered to the variety of the root stock.  When we transplanted it (had to move it for our garden last summer) it looks like it was going to die, but it came back to life about a month later.  It was looking very good as it went into the fall.

Akiva with the Turttle

Akiva with the Turttle

Vasco Da Gamma Dog

Our buddy dog Vasco!

Bae

Bae sitting on the dog bed with a bully stick.

Bae in his crate

Bae playing with his toys in his crate.

Akiva The Dog with new Hedgehog

Last night, Akiva, Karen and I went to Walmart.  Akiva waited in the car while we ran in.  When we came back out, we had 2 new toys, A turtle for Karen (which I think she will give to Hera or Bae) and the Hedgehog.  I gave the hedge hog to Akiva as soon as Karen got it’s tags off.  He started playing with it, and squeaking it right away.  Inside he played with it for a while, then when we went upstairs, I told him to hold onto it, so he grabbed it in his mouth and clamped onto it.  He kept ahold of it while I carried him upstairs and just dropped it by the chair as I set him down.  I gave it to him again and he posed with it in his chair.

Akiva and Puppy -- Only 8 days until Akiva is 7 Years Old

Please visit Akiva’s blog and leave him birthday wishes in the comments section.  Akiva The Dog.