Some of you have kindly asked how Simba's doing. Progress report: great! It's been nine months now since his accident, and the vet said that based on his injury and the amount of his spine that was below the injury (about 8 inches) it would be about 8 months before we'd know the full extent of his recovery. So this is probably going to be as good as it gets, and people, neither one of us is complaining. If you didn't live with him, you'd never guess he'd ever been injured. Sure, he slips a little more on the wooden floors, he doesn't jump as well as he used to, and -- I think he would complain about this if he had words -- he can't use his right hind leg to scratch himself. That's about the extent of his limitations. (He's so cute in a frustrated sort of way when he needs to scratch himself. He'll pick up his foot as best he can and then turn around and look at it, sort of sigh, and then give his head a good shake. When I see him do that I try to scratch his head & side as best I can, not knowing exactly where the itch is.)
Did you know that small dogs are prone to back injuries? The hypothesis is that over a lifetime of jumping onto very high objects (relative to their height) like beds and couches, they stress their spines. Now I pick Simba up onto things and don't let him jump off our very high bed by himself. If I ever have a little dog again I'll start these practices when s/he's young.
This pictures were taken under the dining room table, which despite appearances seems to be a very comfy bed for him. The pillow somewhat lacks, in my opinion, but it's his opinion that counts!
I was moved to post this because I'm going to be away off & on for nearly the next two weeks, and I'm missing him already! I can talk to The Huz on the phone, but Simba's only a face-to-face (or hand-to-tummy) relationship. I have a couple of posts queued up, by the way, so you may be hearing from me a little bit during my travels. The first week I'll be in Orlando for a conference (in August! hard on us pasty white Northerners), then back for a long weekend away at a camp with The Huz, then back for a day and off to a cooking gig. So the only options for posting will be from Orlando, the first week.
So, see ya later, and thanks for commenting!
1 comment:
I always enjoy a Simba update! Good to know he's doing well. Sophie's been prone to back problems and an x-ray showed two discs that are a little closer to one another than the rest and can cause her some issues (usually brought on by her throwing herself down the stairs to go after the mailman).
We have doggy stairs for her to use for getting on the couch and an old ottoman next to the bed. She'll use them most of the time and we haven't had too many incidents of her back giving her problems since....except for that mailman/stairs thing.
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