Week 5, Day 1: On Increasing Walks

So last week, I had the biggest scare when Maeby suddenly started holding up her leg. She was walking GREAT before, and then this scary set back happened.

I realize now my mistake was increasing her walk time WAY TOO MUCH AT ONE TIME. So I hope you read this and don't make the same mistake as me! This may seem like common sense, but as this blog may have revealed: I don't really use common sense too much, especially when it comes to Maeby.

The vet said to increase her walks 5 minutes each week. So as soon as Week 4 hit, I jumped us up from 10 minutes to a 15 minute walk in the morning. By that evening, she was 100% gimpy.

I spent the last week slooooooowly increasing her walk times. Minute by minute, each day. And each walk consists of 4 steps:

1) Start each walk by walking very. very. sloooow
2) Speed up a teeny bit in the middle
3) End by walking very. very. slooooooow again
4) Ice for 10 minutes inside, while Maeby chomps on a bully stick

Maeby is now up to slooooooooooooooooow 20 minute walks. Let me tell you, I was very very very scared to increase her walk time. My biggest fear was that once we started going on longer walks, she'd start hobbling again, and we'd end up at the vet.

Actually, the longer, slower walks, have forced her to use her TPLO leg a lot more. She's putting down a lot more weight when she walks, and she's weight bearing a little bit when she stands now.

I have no idea what the "correct protocal" for increasing walks is. And nobody really went into detail explaining this to me. So this is just what I've done and it's been working.

SLOW AND STEADY IS THE KEY, YA HEARD?!!