Friday, October 19, 2012

Underwater Treadmill and Muscle Memory

AP here:
Seems that every Friday night about 5 hours after his underwater treadmill therapy Tonka wants to try and go for a walk. As this is becoming a pattern we are upping his treadmill workouts to twice a week to see what transpires. He sees Chris and Diana on Tuesdays for manual and laser therapy and then Diana works with him in the treadmill usually only on Fridays. The addition of Wednesdays will work as long as he does not getting too fatigued.

This week was our first double session week and he did great. We went on Wednesday afternoon and Chris came by to watch him in the treadmill and analyze his gait in the water. She was pleased with how he was doing and pointed out that each leg is a separate issue and is moving differently. Once I got him home, blew him dry and combed him out he slept most of the afternoon. He didn't try to walk that night but did get himself into a sitting position twice but just could not get his feet right under him. He also slept through the night which he hadn't done in months and  sometime in the night he had rolled himself to his other side .

Thursday he rolled himself over several times during the day and attempted to get up for breakfast and for dinner but again just could not get the feet right to push. Friday though was a different story....
I have set the cameras up to record during the day because he has been wandering out of range of the camera that is setup where his cage used to be. One minute he is there sleeping and the next I cant find him till I switch to a different camera. He could be just scooting along but he could be also getting up and attempting to walk...

This was Friday around 1:30pm and yes he is trying to walk....



After the big attempt to get up and go to the other room I arrived home to take him to his treadmill appointment.


Canine Fitness Center

UGH Water
Keeping his head up
Rest Time

It seems that walking on the treadmill is helping him to:
A. Get Stronger
B. Invoking some muscle memory of what his legs should be doing


Three weeks ago it was thought that he would
never walk again but we are on a mission to
prove that statement completely wrong.

He is getting much stronger and wants to try and pull away from me and walk every time I stand him up. Today his feet were moving as they carried him to get rinsed off after the treadmill and he tried to walk away when he was being toweled off.
Diana and I keep saying we expect him to just get up one day and start trucking on his own - he defiantly has the will to do it.




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