Critters & CarolC.,
You both are so encouraging and helpful, I can't say thank you enough.
Yes, definitely a typo!! Hopefully, Kujo is apart of the bigger percentages when we look back at his recovery over the next couple of months.
We usually do therapy with his rehab team on Thursdays. Sadly, we got the call Wednesday that his entire rehab team had come in contact with COVID & we would have to take the week off. His vet advised us to use the pool as frequently as he seemed up for it. (nothing crazy, obviously.)
We did just that & burned so much energy. He slept through the night, only waking up to potty once at 5 a.m.! We both have off of work tomorrow & plan to go swimming again!
We did run into a problem yesterday at the pool. Kujo has never had his nails trimmed. He has always kept them short by running/playing on concrete. His primary vet said that isn't uncommon and that he doesn't see harm in it. Until recently, since he's unable to run normally, his back toenails are a little longer than they should be. He was actually scheduled to get them trimmed down with his appt. that got cancelled.
After Kujo finished his swimming session, we loaded up the car & that's when we noticed a small trail of blood. Of course- my stomach dropped into my butt. First thought was a broken foot, except in the worst way- where the bone breaks the surface, y'know. We traced the bleeding back to (one of) his middle toenails. Two or three of the other toenails were noticeably shorter than the pool trip. The main concern is the nail that was cut too short. The bleeding stopped shortly after he was out of the pool & he hasn't seemed like he was in any pain. Even once we got him calmed down at home. Regardless, I called the vet and she said that he should be okay but if he seemed like he was in unbearable pain, we could bring him in to the emergency clinic.
He really likes using the underwater steps to jump off of when playing fetch in the pool. I didn't even think that it could possibly be a liability. Of course, we are cautious with every activity. We make sure his toes are correctly placed when his feet are on the steps & all those small things.
My boss mentioned a powder or gel (?) that would harden after drying and creates a protective layer for the quick of the nail. I just can't remember the name of what it's called.
Today has been relatively normal. We are seeing leg kicks when we scratch a good spot & like you guys said, recovery is usually 2 steps forward & 1 step back. Perfect words for the toenail.
As soon as I got my break, we took him out in the sling & he laid in the grass and started rolling around, stretching out his legs & enjoying the grass. His personality hasn't taken a hit and for that, I'm fur-ever thankful!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnDGlN3ycqo
Please ignore our dead grass. It hasn't been recently sprayed- it just has a hard time in this heat. LOL