Help me up Harness

[Bailey's Mom]

One thing I have noticed. Using the harness is hard work for Gavin. He is panting pretty hard after a short walk. He needs to rest for a few minutes before he can do his business or make the return trip. The wheelchair isn't nearly as taxing. it's all weather dependent, obviously. a hot day is tough either way, but still even more hard on him with the harness. We avoid afternoons as much as possible

For the most part Katy needs the harness to get up from the floor and for challenges like going down the ramp or up the stairs. She alternates between wanting to go up the stairs or the ramp. Once up on her feet she is stable enough to walk without support so far. The vet doesn't encourage it but she still occasionally will chase something if not supervised. Mostly she follows Annie to a shady spot and gets down to rest. For the most part she has been able to get up off the grass. I suspect it doesn't move the way the floor does under her feet inside. I've only had to go outside to help her off the ground once. I do have to meet her at the bottom of the stairs and with the help of the harness she will climb up the stairs or ramp depending on her mood.

I'm hoping with the Cushing's treatment perhaps she will get some of her rear leg strength back. The vet thinks its possible. If not we will continue to work with her PT and use the harness until she requires something else.

 

[Cindy]

Gavin does better on grass than dirt. linoleum and hardwood and stone flooring are awful. throw rugs everywhere!
Back when Gavin started his 'issues', he was fairly stable for 3 + years. We did short hill walks a few times a week, which is supposed to be good for muscles. It does require constant PT though. If I am honest, I shifted away from the heavier PT exercises and to what made him happy about 18 months ago which did correlate with his decline. I figured that at 15 our time was getting limited and not to waste it on boring stuff....if I had known he would keep going I would have done things differently.

 

[Chris]

OK, competition on the PT exercises gave me a good laugh! Gotta love our Shelties. Someone else here had this kind of harness - maybe Chris? It sounds super helpful. My friend's 13 year old retired agility Sheltie has been having PT and it has helped her mobility a lot. I hope Katy gets some improvement as well.

Yes, Beckon had a harness that really helped! I'm so glad Gavin has some help -- even if he hates it!!

 

[Bailey's Mom]

We've had this for about a month now and I have to say it has been a great investment. While Katy's back legs are weak her front legs are still fairly strong so when you can get the back legs stabilized her front legs are fine. However, if her back legs don't get stabilized they will drag her whole body down. It also prevents her from using her back legs to push off the ground successfully getting up off the ground or pushing off the stairs. The harness supports the back legs allowing the front legs to operate as normal for our needs. You can provide full body support but it is more taxing on the human.

That's the other thing that has been helpful for all. The harness provides us with less stress in helping her as we have specific hand holds to grab and utilize and she has limited ability to squirm and run thus less strain of back and other extremities. (Run is an exaggeration but moving away at a crucial moment can be painful if you are not fully balanced or holding a pose not natural for your body.) For her the pressure is spread out across the areas of the harness reducing the pressure on sensitive areas.

Thankfully, the Cushing meds do seem to be having an effect on her limb strength as she's taking the stairs better going up and more controlled on the ramp going down outside. Food is still a huge challenge which is so hard to watch in a dog that used to be a doggy vaccuum cleaner. We used to have to prevent her from eating stuff. Now it is really hard watching her not want food. The doctor is convinced this too will come back so we live and hope.

 

[Sharon7]

I really hope you continue to see improvement both with her eating and her mobility and strength. Having been through 2 dogs with kidney issues I can so relate to the stress of seeing them not want to eat, when before as you say, they were vacuum cleaners.