It's now nearly a year since I've posted an update on Darwin and in August it'll be 2 and 1/2 years since his spinal op. Doesn't time fly!
We're just back from my first holiday since Darwin has been ill, earlier this year we realised that since Darwin had been ill I hadn't had a single night away from home, so we treated ourselves to 5 nights at a luxury resort in Sardinia ( absolutely bliss) and Darwin enjoyed an eight day break in kennels
During the autum/winter he seemed to struggle but part of that was he was really missing my son, whose just finishing his first year at Uni. If you ask Darwin where is my son, he'll go and sit at the bottom of the stairs and look upstairs.
Since the start of the year we've been slowly building up on Darwin's stays at kennels, which have enabled us to have a few day trips ( and also gave me a rest after a serious hand injury). Darwin has always loved our local kennels. Also as the weather has improved he's been much happier. All he really wants to do is spend his time sunbathing and taking the contents of his toy box outside
We still stick to a very rigid routine of 3 ten mins pavement walks, at set times, which seems to work and helps us mange his bowels, as he's got little control due to nerve damage. He's not particularly good when he meets other dogs, but that is only to be expected as for over 2 years he's not had the opportunity to socialise with any dogs.
We recently had our first vet visit in 10months, our vet was very impressed with Darwin, he hadn't expected him to be doing do so well, Yes his posture isn't good( he has a curve to his back ) and at times he will bunny hop. But most importantly his foot placement is good and we're successful managing his pain.
I'll post a couple of photos of Darwin later
