March, 2005 - Green Garlands for Ivan’s Cart, Acupuncture begins
We’re still finding out new things about Ivan’s cart. I don’t know if I mentioned that he sits in his cart (braces the back support of the cart on the ground and then just puts most of his weight in the saddle….his hind legs just kind of shift out in front of his bottom.
He had acupuncture Friday and this treatment is really helping.
His left front elbow had been bothering him a bit more with the cart, I suppose his front legs support more and pull more than they did before, so his elbow dysplasia is “flaring up”. The acupuncture has really reduced the pain, and he has been getting up on all four on his own several times every day since the treatment, even taking a few steps before sort of “falling over”.
Today I had to shave Ivan’s “belly” again. If his coat gets too long under the “saddle” for the cart, he starts to get little sores. He only wears his saddle during the day (I would take the saddle off each time he gets out of his wheelchair, however his size makes getting him “dressed” quite a procedure. It is good he lets me roll him over without a care.) Ivan is out and about in his cart for anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes at a time about 6 to 8 times a day. We even go for 1 mile or longer walks periodically. We don’t have to wait for him on these walks anymore (like we did before the cart…his knees kept him slowed down before). And he isn’t nearly as stiff after these walks as he used to be.
I have some photos of Ivan with green balloons on his cart in honor of St Patrick’s. I’ll send those after we get done doing chores (All the dogs (even Ivan) help bring in Johan (the horse) and howl at the coyotes!
Today we had a woman contact us at our Feed & Pet store…she has a poodle that has a spinal injury. She wanted advice on what she might be able to do for him as a cart is potentially in his future. (She had seen Ivan outside the store with his cart recently and felt I could help her). I gave her your website to check out telling her about how helpful your site is for pets with all sorts of handicaps.
Thanks for putting us on the web. I’ve had several people tell me about seeing Ivan on the web.