Monday, July 2, 2012
It has been about 6 months now that Luna began laser therapy. It started with a program of 3x per week for the first week, 2x per week the 2nd week and the 3rd week was just one day. Then the vet recommended we continue the program at 1x every 3 weeks. The laser treatment was for her neck and back. A while back (seems like a year ago or more...I have zero concept of time, so sorry) we discovered that Luna has several slipped discs in her back and neck. It is not operable and she frequently "shivers" in her rear legs. It is like a tremble or a twitch where one or both of her rear legs just shake as though she was cold or really afraid of something.
Well, the specialist doctors said that surgery would not help to correct but maybe acupuncture or laser therapy may be of help. Not being a fan of needles myself and knowing how wiggly Luna can be, we opted to try the laser therapy over the acupuncture. It seems to help her. I think she would probably do even better if we moved it to every 2 weeks instead of every 3 weeks and my goal is to do just that but that is a very big commitment and leaving an hour and a half early every other week seems like asking a lot of the workplace. Nonetheless we are making it work for now.
For those of you curious about what exactly the laser therapy is, I will describe. It is a sort of like a heated wand that they rub up and down the affected area (in Luna's case her neck and spine). The whole appointment only lasts about 10-15 minutes where they continually massage her neck & back with the laser wand. If they don't keep it moving it could burn which is why it is important for Luna to stay still and for the tech to keep a steady but busy hand. They will concentrate for 2-3 minutes on her neck then restart the timer and focus the next 2-3 minutes on her spine then back to her neck and this will go on a few times back and forth. If I had to compare the tool to something familiar to women, I would say it looks like what they use to sonogram a pregnant woman. But the wand is warm. (Never having had a baby I don't know if the sonogram wand is warm or not.)
Anyway, Luna seems to be responding well and the price seems reasonable ($200 for 6 sessions). It is not cheap but compared to some of the other stuff we've been through it seems cheaper than most other procedures.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Not only is Luna a strong swimmer, she is also a very good life guard. Whenever, the pool is in use, you are sure to find Luna patrolling around the deck. She keeps a close eye on everyone and is ready to sound the alarm if she thinks anything is amiss. And she does sound the alarm quite frequently. Like whenever anyone splashes or goes underwater.
Have a good weekend!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
After we wrapped up Swim Camp this weekend, Henry decided that he wanted to take one more lap. At this point, we had taken the pugs out of their life jackets to keep them cool. (No sense wearing the jackets on land). So, when Henry jumped into the pool, he was in for quite a surprise. Swimming sure is a lot harder without his vest. He made it to the step as he usually does, but he pace was much slower and he had to work a lot harder for it.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
After Benny finishes a lap in the pool, he always hops out out and does a few extra land laps around the table. While it is usually very hot out, the pool cools him off enough to let him run wild. See Benny, the pool is good for something.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Looking forward to your captions in the comments.
Monday, June 25, 2012
I haven't talked about Swim Camp much this year, but Swim Camp is well underway. The pugs have been getting some pool time in pretty much every weekend. Because of the heat, our walks have been short, hot and to the point.
This year's swim camp is highly specialized for each pug. Henry plays his normal game of fetch, which pretty much gets him a full lap in. Between laps, he hops out of the pool and takes a little break. Then he comes back to the pool step when he is ready to do another lap.
Benny, hates to swim in the middle of the pool. He likes to stay near the edge of the pool. So, Benny, swims around the edge of the pool with a human in tow.
Luna likes to be near people in the pool, so she swims from person to person. When she reaches a person, they scoop her up and hold her for a bit until she is ready to swim again. Then she heads on over to the next person.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Luna loves to chew. You can usually find her chewing while we make dinner and sometimes during dinner depending on what we are having. She usually takes a little break after we wrap up dinner and then resumes chewing just before we go to bed.
If Henry or Benny chewed as much as Luna does, we would have to stock up on bones a lot more often. But, Luna can chew for hours on end and she barely puts a dent in a bone. She can chew a bone all night and you would never know that she spent hours working on it.
When the boys chew, we frequently take pieces away because they are choking hazards. However, we can give those pieces to Luna and she can chew them for days.
For a little girl that never really gets much out of a bone she sure does love to chew.
Have a great weekend!
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