She follows me around the house, well, like a puppy dog, never wanting to be more than a few feet away from me. She's getting love from Gemma like she did before Gemma started school. Kyran and Karyssa are also spending more time with her.
But our sweet girl is getting older. She just turned 13 in March and is having some major arthritis issues. I can't remember if I ever wrote about the first night we thought she was dying. It was about 8 years ago and she just stopped being able to move well. She wouldn't eat, which is always the first sign there's something wrong with her. She couldn't jump on the couch or climb stairs, and quickly stopped moving at all. I slept on the floor next to her until we couldn't take it anymore, so Jason called the emergency vet and took her in at 3:00 a.m. After some testing, it was revealed that she had some terrible inflammation in her back from arthritis. They gave her some medicine, and she was fine...for years.
Fast forward to about six months ago and we noticed that her back right leg was twisting when she walked on it. We took her to the vet, suspecting a torn ligament or something similar, but were told that the inflammation in her back was causing neuropathy in her back leg. She could no longer feel when she stepped on the top or bottom of her foot, and was starting to drag her foot occasionally, causing sores that she also couldn't feel.
We got her on some medicine immediately and that seemed to help for a while. Soon, though, her foot started sliding behind her when she tried to walk. We got her socks with grips and took her back into the vet, where two recommendations were made. 1. CBD oil and 2. Acupuncture. We started with the CBD oil, but didn't see any results after the first month, so we moved on to acupuncture.
Two weeks ago, Jason brought her to a different vet to start acupuncture. The first week was just needles, but this week they also started some electrical charges through the needles. The vet saw Bella's X-rays this week and was shocked. She said to Jason, "I'm betting Bella was once a very fast dog who could jump very high. The dogs we see with this type of inflammation were all very athletic at one point."
That is definitely true. Bella once jumped clear over a 5" fence. Another time, out running with my dad, he let her off the leash and she outran a rabbit. We said often that we should have made her an agility dog. She would run back and forth several times between the dining room and living room, with both kids and all of their toys and never touch a thing. She was certainly an athlete in her day, and I think that's helping her now.
We haven't seen much difference from the acupuncture yet, but they said to give it four sessions. If this doesn't work, I'm not sure there is a next step. Eventually she will lose all the feeling in her back legs. This is progressing much more slowly than the vet normally sees, so we are praying that the acupuncture helps and that she can manage to stay on her feet for quite a while longer.
In her brain, she still thinks she's a puppy. She loves to play with us, taking turns "chasing" each other with her bone. She has compensated for her legs going up and down the stairs (although up is harder and Jason is carrying her up at night) and laying down. But she seems so confused when she can't lay properly, or when she can't get her grip and her legs slip out from under her, or when sometimes they just give out. She used to follow me upstairs every time I went up, and I would have to tell her to stay if I was coming right back down.
Once, she was halfway up when I started coming back down and she gave me an exasperated look that made me giggle and feel terrible for her at the same time. She had to go all the way up and then come back down. This is the dog who we used to throw the ball down the stairs and she navigated them perfectly, sometimes even leaping to catch the ball in her mouth. But this week, she's not as quick to follow me up.
She loves her comfortable beds, but she also loves being near me. Since her bed is on Jason's side of our bed, this presents a problem. She usually falls asleep next to me, then moves to her bed. Two mornings ago, we had a pretty bad storm. She has never liked thunder, and this time I heard her wake up, struggle a little to get up, and then come over to my side of the bed. She nosed around until she found my hand, and then stood there with me just touching her for a while. When the storm got further away, I took my hand back and she finally laid down right there.
Jason is the one who feeds her, gives her medicine, bathes her, etc., but I'm the one who has been home almost every day for the past 11 years. I'm her mommy, and she's my baby girl. I love her so much and pray that she can fight this and stay with us for as long as possible.
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