Neck Problems

I have neck problems, but this post isn't about me, it's about my dog.  She had dislocating knee caps when she was a puppy and in her first year, we had to have two patella knee surgeries so that he knee caps would stay in place.  The veterinarian told us at the time that she would have arthritis as she got older, most certainly, but that that was far better than the alternative if we didn't do the surgery.

My dog has lived a relatively normal life, aside from not being the fastest runner or doing much jumping at all.  She's been happy.  As she's gotten older, she's shown signs of her knees bothering her and last year, around the time she turned nine-years-old, we had to put her on anti-inflammatory medication for her knees.

Recently, she was getting worse and a week ago she started doing that dog scream thing they do after eating breakfast and couldn't seem to get down the stairs to go outside.  This was new, I didn't think things had gotten suddenly worse, but we'd been away for ten days, so maybe something happened.  I called and brought her in.

There were X-rays and the two doctors decided it was most likely a problem in her neck area, because her knees seemed to be fine, but she did not want to have he neck bothered.   Their recommendation was pain medication twice each day and crating aside from eating and going outside to see if the condition would get better.

My dog seems okay, but definitely not recovered.  We're not sure what the situation is, and without a two-thousand dollar MRI to see more details, we're not likely to find out.   For now, I hope she recovers on her own and is in less pain soon.   She doesn't like the caging much at all.  She finds it offensive to not be allowed to mingle with the family.  Or, possibly, she's upset she's not following the children around and picking up all the crumbs after them.

The Big Boy Update:  Breaking Boy.   My son has had some really bad bouts of wanting to be in control of everyone and everything around him lately.  It's been very tough because he's also been upset and quite angry several times as well.   I hope it's a short phase, because it's a tough one for all of us to work through.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Backflips.   My daughter is doing so well at swimming.  It's really amazing.  Today she was holding on to the side of the pool, pushing off, dropping down to the bottom and kicking back up to grab on to the side again.  She did this again and again and made her way around the side of the pool doing.   She also learned how to hold on to the railing at the stairs and do back flips.  I thought it was a mistake at first, but then I watched her do it another six times.