If you’ve been following my work for a while, you might remember the giangatic dog I met last year, Rufus. 8 stones of fluff and intelligence. He used to have quite a few behavioural issues, but his owner’s daughter, Anne-Mhairi, put time and effort into training him and he is now a lot better. She’s the one who called me a few weeks ago to book an appointement, as he had been getting weaker and weaker in his back legs.
As expected, he had quite a few strains and twists in his fascia, hips and sacrum, making it difficult for his body to stay even and keep up with balance and muscle strenght. When I left I knew he would need more, so we pre booked him in for a month time.
Unfortunately, even though he is walking a lot better, he had an episode last week that got his owners worried: poor boy tried to get up the stairs and fell over backwards. We have brought his appointement forward and I’m seeing him this week so will keep you guys updated on his improvements/step backs.
For those of you who have worked with me before, you will know that I’m not a big fan of seeing a pet too often. Most of the time I’ll book sessions at least 1 month apart, even for serious cases. This allows time for the body (and especially the central nervous system) to understand what I did and get used to its new functionality. But here’s the thing: if something happens, something like what Rufus did, the main thing I need to make sure of, is that he hasn’t undone anything when he fell. THIS is the most important point, because when a body is on its way to recovery, anything can put a step back.
Things like this are difficult, and can be scary or worrying times for the owners. No one wants to see their pets struggling or suffering, and the feeling of “helplessness” that comes with it is awfull. And when things don’t go according to plan, there’s aways that worry that things won’t get better. I’m hoping that by sharing Rufus’ story, it will give you guys an idea of an ongoing healing process, with all it’s ups and downs, hopefully wtih a lot more ups to come!