28 Days After Stem Cell Therapy

Hard to imagine that it's been 28 days since Madison underwent Stem Cell Therapy at Union Hill Animal Hospital in Canton, Georgia.  Here are a few videos to capture her improvement since.

This was before treatment and is a good example of how she used to dig at the surface with her front feet to get traction and pull herself up.

This was taken today.  One of her back legs was stuck under the scrunched up crate pad, but she managed to get up without effort.

The best demonstration of how much improved she is; she's lying on our slick tile floor and looks effortless as she gets up and moves away.  Taken today.

She is a sweet agility training "Supervisor" for Stetson.

For the next few days we are managing both dogs on the ice.  In our yard, there are two areas of concern for them.  First is the patio.  It is ice covered.  Dave and I debated this morning about shoveling the slushy stuff off, but decided the remaining surface would probably end up slicker than the crunchy ice so we left it.  It is a sheet of ice.  Since she launches over the threshold to go out, her footing is worrisome.  We are putting her "Help'Em Up" harness from Blue Dog Designs on her so we can support her entry onto the ice.  Once she's outside, her Siberian instincts and feet take over and she actually moves really well.  Typical of a herding dog without much regard to their body, Stetson is less sure footed, but he gets the hang of it quickly.

Looks like snow, but it's ice

Secondly, there is a river of standing water leftover from the rain yesterday.  It is a few inches deep in parts and I am certain that the ground underneath is not going to get cold enough for the ice on top to freeze it entirely through.  Neither dog needs to get onto that and break through to that freezing water so we are supervising them and keeping them to the right of the patio when they go out.  I would hate for Madison's old bones to be exposed to that extreme.

The area that looks like it is shaded, is actually standing water beneath ice; it runs from the outside of the fence down to the treeline and widens out once it gets past the patio edge.

We had no way of knowing when her surgery was scheduled that Atlanta would endure two significant winter storms this year.  Honestly, we can say that had she not received the therapy and been so responsive to it, managing her and making her comfortable in these conditions would have been difficult at best.  

Thankfully our little trooper is just plugging along and keeping Stetson and the rest of us in check.