Bad Times and Better Days

I actually took these pictures a few weeks ago, and just hadn't gotten around to posting them. I was undecided about whether to post them now or not, in light of the latest developments. You see, Z has taken a sudden turn for the worse. He had been doing so well for so long... then Friday night he looked like he was having a little trouble with his back legs. By Saturday morning, he could barely walk. We suspect that he injured his back - probably the same thing he did last fall when he had similar issues and was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy.

I'm not sure how to feel, looking at these pictures from just a few weeks back, when he could hike for miles without trouble. I wonder if he will ever get to hike these trails again, and it makes me sad. But, they are pictures of good times that I will always treasure, and so they also make me happy. So, in the end I decided to go ahead and post them.

It took a long time to convince B to get her feet wet in the creek, but now she happily follows her brothers into the water. Here, Z shows her the best flopping spot for cooling off during a hike.


And L shows her how to get the creek crazies.

We found raccoon tracks in the mud all up and down the beaver pond trail. I was excited to see so many tracks with good detail, including a really nice back foot impression. I felt like I hit the raccoon track jackpot - I just kept finding more and more of them.

While I was engrossed in photographing the tracks, Z took the opportunity to cool off in a mud puddle on the trail. He loves to lay in the creek, or puddles, or any body of water, on hot days.

Later, we found still more raccoon tracks in Squirrel Holler, where I have never seen any signs of raccoons before. I wondered what had brought the raccoons so far from the creek...

...until I noticed that the little puddles along the side of the trail were filled with tadpoles and edged with raccoon tracks. Clearly some raccoon had been enjoying an easy meal. There are days when I would have scooped out the remaining tadpoles and grown them up in one of our fish tanks, but I was so busy getting ready for the 4th of July party that I left them to fend for themselves.

As for Z, he is currently on rimadyl, tramadol, a muscle relaxant, and strict rest. He has improved a little bit since Saturday, so hopefully he will continue to recover. We think that this is due to a back injury rather than degenerative myelopathy. For one thing, his symptoms from last fall improved significantly, which wouldn't have happened with DM. The usual time course for DM is about 8 months from onset of symptoms to complete paralysis in the rear. It has been about 11 months since Z was first diagnosed, and about 8 months since his symptoms gradually disappeared. And the acute onset of his symptoms this time around doesn't match the normal course of DM, either. It took several months for him to get better last fall, but then we were treating as though it was DM, which meant keeping him as active as possible. Hopefully he will improve more quickly on strict rest. Keep your fingers crossed for my sweet dog, who doesn't understand why his legs aren't working the way they are supposed to, and why he's being kept locked up in the house.