Winston Improves Little By Little

The rains disappeared late Monday afternoon. The winds picked up and the temperatures dropped a little ... but it's great that Winston can go outside without standing in the blowing rain. He went from searching for "that spot" in the yard to walking straight out into the gravel driveway to pee. It was quick and to the point.

Even with the storms stopping here and moving east, the field across the street started filling up like a ground level swimming pool. It might look bad but I have seen it much much worse that that, still it shows we have had a lot of rain the past few days.

Even after my announcement last night that Winston rolled on his left side for the first time since December 19, he continued to show small improvements. More flexibility. More moving around. Right after I posted that 'breaking news' last night, he later got up, moved to the wall and laid down again on his left side and went to sleep.

I tried taking away the barricade, took the bloodhounds outside, came back to see Winston standing in front of his seat on the couch ... the brain wanted to crawl up the side of it to lay down, the body said no way.

Since I was going to be on the couch for a while, I lifted him up and placed him next to a sleeping Stella. He moved around to get comfortable and then laid on his left side again, next to me. He slept like that for hours. Later he woke up and then curled to the right into a tight sleeping ball. All seemed normal.

A more scheduled day has helped him. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner but it just happened. I was taking him outside after he would wake up but the other times I would wait for him to whine, to let me know. I started treating him like a 8 week old puppy I guess. I started taking him out every time he woke up and after drinking his water. That has worked out well.

The important thing now will be to keep him in the sleep mode as he feels better because he wants to do more. Depends on how much he tries to 'walk' inside the house will determine if I need to gate his area to keep him confined.

Last night we went back to the camping equipment on the floor and I got the first wake up call at 2:26 am. Of course by turning on the lights, propping the door open with the wind howling through the trees, and getting him ready to 'walk' with the t-shirt harness ... Stella and Sadie woke up and were ready to escort us outside and watch. Heidi was well aware it was not time to wake up so she stayed asleep. The winds were really strong but it wasn't really cold.

I decided we would pile into the bed, hoping to sleep until 7:30 am or so. He moved to his favorite sleeping position and later I caught him sleeping on his RIGHT SIDE ... a first since December 19. I was awaken around 5:26 am by a commotion of hounds moving around the bedroom. Sadie had stepped in the bedroom and thought it might be time to wake everyone up.

By the time I came to my senses Winston was looking over the edge of the bed, searching for his landing spot. See, he must be feeling better already today. I yelled 'stay', he stopped and we did the prep routine to walk him outside. I was still going to get a couple of more hours sleep, so the day officially started at 7:10 am this morning.

After breakfast, a couple of tablets of Prednisone, some water ... a trip outside ... he was back to sleeping on his blanket at the corner of the living room.

Stella came over to me this morning around 8:00 am and started that soft short howl. It was WAY too early to be fed lunch so I assumed she need to go outside although she had already been outside. They charged out the door and by the time I could grab the camera, Stella had bowled over Sadie and sent her rolling into the driveway with a body blow.

They didn't play long before Stella became more interested in a scent the western winds were blowing toward her. For her protection we headed back inside the house. Sadie wanted to play and couldn't understand why she had to remain quiet for Winston to continue his morning therapy of sleeping.

Since Winston had been doing so much better the past 24 hours, I decided late morning I'd head out to get some groceries and stop by recycling to drop off my stuff. It's so much easier to recycle now because I don't have to sort it. Under their new business structure las fall, you dump it all in the same container. They compress the containers, ship to Indianapolis where all the recyclables are sorted there as the container is broke open. Consequently I have canceled my trash pickup at $20 per month, recycling almost everything but food scraps and coffee grounds, which I can drop off a 39 gallon plastic bag of trash for $2 at the recycle center.

To protect Winston from himself and make sure he did not hurt himself while I was away, I set up the gated area. I moved Heidi into the living room letting her roam free and away from Stella. I suspected from evidence the past few times I've left them together while I have been gone ... they fight ... I suspect that Heidi is the aggressor and Stella is just wanting to play.

What a surprise when I got home about an hour later. Glancing through the door window there was Heidi laying next to Winston in the gated area. She left by moving under the coffee table when I opened the door. All was good. No separation anxiety from Stella, Winston had been sleeping and Heidi took care of him.

After a trip outside, while putting away groceries Winston scooted to the next room where the 'basset water bowl' is, drank some water, scooted back to the folded sleeping bag and went back to sleep. He has really improved the past 24 hours. I think I probably need to change "walk" to "scooted" when he travels inside the house.

When taking him outside after I returned home, his rear paws are so close to be pointing forward on their own. About half way there. Once again I flipped both paws into the correct position, lowered his hips slightly just to put a little weight on his rear legs. He stood just a short time before sitting down ... but he legs did not collapse like they did last week.

While Winston gets in some early afternoon rest, Stella stands guard with a bone chewing break fit in her schedule.

Some time around 3:30 pm, Winston decided he had enough of being on "bed rest". Every time I turned my back he was walking (scooting) somewhere. The last instance I caught him in front of the couch with one front paw lifted on the side of it, ready to make an attempt to crawl up onto the couch using his front legs like a pull-up. So ... I made it easy for him, by lifting him onto the couch and prevent his escape with the baby gate in front of it.

He has to be feeling better from all of the traveling I have caught him doing today. It looks like I am going to have to confine him with the set up I had before.

On our trip outside later, it sure did look like he was ALMOST trying to use his back legs. They were not just dangling but a LITTLE movement into position. It was so little though I can't really say if that was what he was trying to do or not but there was something there.

Both bloodhounds were after me all day to do something. This is their way of applying pressure to me to get what they want, whether that be food, a walk, more food or a game of indoor fetch.

Stella has been pretty restless today after being pinned up inside for the past three days due to constant rain. Her and Sadie went outside for some intense play, only to be asleep within minutes after.

I think that last photo could be going into the "all-time classics" folder, it's one of my favorites.

By 4:00 pm most of them were in for an afternoon nap. Once Winston was on the couch, Sadie had moved back to her normal spot of relaxation. Heidi? ... she had been in that position for most of the afternoon. She even tried to fight/wrestle with me when I picked her up just to move her to a different room. As you see after her paws hit the floor of that other room she sprinted back to bed ... I had no other option but to make her comfortable.

Sorry for the blurriness - that's my hand holding the camera .. not your eyes

Winston did it again. All the hounds wake up when they hear me making noise in the kitchen. They suspect food is involved so everyone except Winston comes running. He wakes up on the couch, so I know I have a small window of time to get him off the couch, fed some water and then help him walk outside.

All of that happened okay. I sit him on the blanket on the corner with Sadie. I glance over and Winston is gone again. I hear a dog lapping water. He had 'scooted' to the next room where the basset hound water bowl is. He then made it back almost to the corner blanket area. I waited a few minutes to see what he would do .. he sat for a while and then headed back to the blanket next to Sadie.

That wasn't good enough. It's not two minutes later where he leaves and is back in front of the couch, wanting up there. Not going to happen this time, especially with all the H2O he has injested in the past 10 minutes. So ... I have no choice but to set up the barricade so he can get some rest.

He was asleep within 5 minutes.

Winston is not standing on his rear legs yet, but he continues to improve with more tail wagging and he had another good day here in the "tropics" of Southern Indiana.

Bloodhound Property Laws

I thought it might be a good time to change the medical tone of the blog today with some mid-day humor and a reminder for those that are considering a bloodhound as a pet ... plus new information about the breed for new and old readers alike.

The Bloodhound Property Laws

  1. If I like it, it's mine

  2. If it's in my mouth, it's mine

  3. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine

  4. If I can take it from you, it's mine

  5. If it looks like mine, it's mine

  6. If I saw it first, it's mine

  7. If you are playing with something and put it down, it's mine

  8. If I am chewing something up, all the pieces are mine

  9. If it's mine it must never be yours

10. If it was yours, get over it, it's mine

11. If it's broken, it's your fault, but it's still mine

Breaking Good News - Winston

Believe it or not, I do have a drainage system that runs the full length of the house and about 3' away from the house. Besides all the rain we have been having for the past few days, non-stop, I also have the underwater drainage from that 10 acre field behind my house that all ends up over on the south edge of the bank.

Consequently at times like these the drain system cannot keep up. I guess that is similar to Winston's bladder right now while he takes double doses of Prednisone the past 5 days.

Yet by 4:15 pm today we had our last down pour, the sun even popped out of the clouds for just a few seconds before they returned to the gray and ugly storm clouds we have been living with recently.

Overall though, Monday continued to be a pretty good day for Winston and the other hounds.


Let me break into this blog with some great news about Winston

He had been sleeping on his stomach since his accident December 19. I don't know what that accident was just that is the morning his back quit working and his legs collapsed. Anyway about 15 minutes ago, he wakes up ROLLS ON HIS LEFT SIDE and goes back to sleep. He has not been able to sit on his left or right sides, nor sleep anywhere but on his stomach .. photo below:

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I learned two new things in this journey with Winston today.

• Take him outside after every drink of water or waking up from nap - Don't wait for him to tell me
• Use the rolled t-shirt to pull up slightly as he is urinating, release for more urination to flow (help him)
• There just isn't a lot of ground clearance for him, if you know what I mean

I know those are not earth shattering ideas but they are two things I found out today and the second one I found out by mistake. It has worked out well for him.

Anyway it's been a very relaxing day for him. He got a lot of sleeping in which for him is good. He never whined nor cried in pain (no signs of pain for many days), Stella and Sadie were never excited and Heidi 'photo bombed' one of the photos of Winston. (excuse the dust)

Even with the dark and dreary skies, temps in the low 40's and some level of rain this afternoon at all times ... things never looked better since this is the tail end of all the storms. I have adjusted to the new routines and challenges, knowing nothing is promised in the future with Winston but he is giving it his best shot to get well.

Also today is the last day of double doses of Prednisone. That has to be good for him. Plus on a day like this, the coffee is tasting a little bit better so I had a 3rd and 4th cup for the day. 

Heidi seems to be looking better after the Epsom Salt soak on Saturday. Still for YEARS, she still chews and itches her skin ... maybe not as much but still does that and I have come to the conclusion she probably always will.

Stella and Sadie went outside after lunch at my urging. But with the light cold rain they were not enthused and probably a little upset that I even drug them outside in that kind of weather. As soon as they were back inside, Sadie jumped on the big chair and Stella stretched out on the couch and both were snoring within minutes.

Soon after returning from outside where Winston dumped both of his tanks, had some water ... he was feeling an afternoon nap might be good. In this photo he is almost on the last stage of lowering himself into the position to sleep on his stomach.

He heard the flash click open on the camera when I pressed the button and that turned out to be a pretty good shot of him looking good, even with his wet mustache. It might be just me but you really can't tell he is injured.

Here is our water system. The glass is for me, water only. I used the smaller bowl for him in hopes of keeping his ears out of the water as he drank. It does that most of the time but he has a tendency of drinking from the 2 o'clock position of the bowl and that gives him enough room to drop his left ear tip into the water ... it must taste better that way.

After the water and a change of some new warm blankets right out of the dryer Winston is in the afternoon sleep mode ... but not for long.

I knew when I glanced at him to see if he was still sleeping that this pose of him looking back at me ... he was getting reading to explore. I had seen it before. If he is elevated somewhere he will give me that look before he jumps but being on the floor at the time ... it just means he is getting ready to 'walk' somewhere without me knowing.

Stella thought she had him blocked but Winston scooted right around her, hips and legs dragging as his strong shoulders and two front legs had him moving faster than he should have been going. I caught him red-handed and he knows it.

I did give him one more chance of not leaving a free and open area - He took off again!!! So I had no choice but to roll the mini heater over, my box and the baby gate to barricade him in the blanketed area. He immediately started scoping out the area for an escape route and a plan.

He tried to make me feel guilty for putting him back in 'jail' but he was feeling so good today I knew he would take off again if he was not contained. He seemed to be wanting on the couch. With the deep soft leather cushions, it's hard for him to walk or move in his condition and probably not really good for his bad back, so I am not going to give in.

He finally gave up, called it quits and has been sleeping every since. As I write this that has been a little over an hour.

I don't have photos because both of my hands were holding each end of the taped rolled t-shirt at the time, but while we were walking around the backyard today I could swear he was trying to stand on his back legs. He was walking through the wet very saturated yard, I had his hips lifted with the t-shirt in hopes we were looking for a place to poop. That is the way he acted.

While I am looking at his tail, he right rear paw moved to the normal position. I reached down to place his left rear paw in the correct position  and lowered his hips a little bit to see if he could handle any weight. It was less than a minute, but fairly long, before he sat back down.

To me that is a great sign and we will work a little more on that as time goes on.

With cooler temps but dry weather tomorrow and sunshine soon after, things are looking up here in the tropics of Southern Indiana. Winston feels it ... he just needs to be loose to show me. 

Winston Having A Great Monday So Far

I decided Sunday while Winston slept in the afternoon that if I was going to be able to keep up with him not knowing how long this might take ... along with taking care of my other hounds ... then I was going to have to remain healthy. I was going to have to take time to buy good food like I had been but more importantly I was going to have to have good quality sleep.

Even with my reputation of being able to sleep anywhere with any amount of noise around, I need to sleep in bed instead of my floor next to him. So to do that I need to wake up Winston when I go to bed and move him to the bed I had made in the corner of my closet with the same square feet as the area he lays on in the living room. I'll have to gate that at night so he doesn't wander off, plus eliminate the chance of one of the bloodhounds accidentally stepping on him if they hear him moving.

Or, I would have to move him there earlier in the evening before he settled down to sleep. He doesn't want that from what I saw and heard a few days ago after sitting up the closet floor area. He likes being with everyone and he should be out with us even when he is sleeping. So, I woke him up last night and he was back to sleep about two minutes after I sat him down in the closet area. I was able to sleep solid until I heard him moving around at the new normal time of 3:06 am.

He waited while I put my jeans and shoes on. He waited until I went and opened the storm door. He waited until I put the taped rolled t-shirt under him ... and then, he went charging off wagging his tail, walking on his two front feet with me keeping his back legs off the ground ... barely able to keep up with his pace. Luckily for him and me, in this time of continuous rain, he as been going straight out into the gravel driveway and dumping his tanks pretty quickly.

So I sit here in the middle of the night, wide awake as he is back to sleep under my sleeping bag at the corner of the living room. Is it coffee time or do I go back and try to get some sleep? At 4:27 am, I am beginning  to think it's time to make coffee and start the day.

After 7:30 pm last night Winston started getting pretty feisty. He was starting to be his old self so to speak. When I say the word "walking", I mean until further notice, walking while dragging his back two legs unless I have the t-shirt under him to lift his hips.

Well last night after a good afternoon of sleep, and obviously feeling better, that he would start walking anywhere he wanted around the house. After the first attempt to move to the bloodhound's bowl of water I moved him back and gave him water. It wasn't 5 minutes later he took off toward the living room.

I moved him back to his blanketed area and explained to him the importance of keeping still. I put the barricades and the baby gate back up. I thought he was about to go back to sleep when I hear the baby gate being knocked over and he was trying to get out. Stella decided to come over and lay on the opposite side of him, with the wall and her on each side of Winston ... maybe she thought she could keep him from walking off.

I think Winston is feeling better.

Yesterday my Britta Filter Pitchers were on overdrive. Stella has decided to make it a "drinking game" and she is consuming water just as fast as Winston is, although in much larger quantities. Winston has his excuse of "but I'm on Prednisone" while Stella is just Stella. With that large consumption of water, Winston peed more than I could ever imagine yesterday. Sometimes it was 2-3 times in an hour, with him letting me know he needed to go out.

Toward the end of the day he just started peeing on his blankets with the 6mil plastic sheet between the blankets and the carpet. He had not done that since he was a 8 week old puppy. He seemed not only a little confused about it but he looked and acted embarrassed. He would try hiding it by licking the blankets dry. Here he attempted to hid around the corner from me.

A little embarrassed

Finally decides it's okay and lays on the clean dry blankets

After reassuring him it was okay, the wet blankets were pulled up and thrown into the wash machine and a new set of dry clean blankets were laid down. Today is his last day of Prednisone being given twice per day, so I am hoping as the doses decrease that his water consumption decreases also.

As a side note to this, I looked at the times on my spreadsheet for the times he peed and really they were about his normal frequency, except for just a couple of hours. Before he was hurt he always went to the door for me to let him out anytime after he woke up from his many naps. This time seemed like more since I have had to help him walk outside and then carry him back inside.

I saw a little reflexive motion last night as I rubbed and massaged his right rear hip. His rear leg flexed a little more than Sunday morning but not without help and not anywhere near a full range of motion. He will lay on his left rear leg when sitting and when he is sleeping. He never sleeps with his rear legs stretched out behind him. Although he will drag his legs like that in the yard when looking for his 'spot' to pee.

One more day of rain today. There will be colder temperatures but sunshine starting on Tuesday ... I'll take that over rainy days any day of the week.

The other dogs are holding up during all this chaos. Of course Winston is receiving the most attention but I am keeping the routines pretty much the same for the other hounds. They know something is up and not right with Winston, so they move fairly quiet around him but are curious about what is going on with him.

About the time I decided to fix coffee, a little after 7:30 am, I decided sleeping was better. I threw my sleeping bag down on the floor next to Winston and we slept until 10:15. I did catch him a few times kind of rolling on his left side next to me to sleep and not just sleeping on his stomach all the time. When I opened my eyes he was sitting straight and staring at me with the "I want water" look. After a trip outside where he wagged his tail while walking to the door, we were both back to sleep until 11:35am.

The next time was a little different when waking up. Stella had decided to take over nursing duties and was laying right next to Winston but across the bottom of my legs - I couldn't move until she did.

So to say the least, it's been a quiet morning of recovery for him. He has peed on schedule, all outside. He had a great breakfast with a couple of tablets of Prednisone added to his kibble and has had all the water he has wanted. He has been sleeping while I've been wondering around the house, outside with the bloodhounds and on the computer editing photos. Once he wakes up I'll take him outside then came back inside for lunch, although Stella has been begging to eat since I got up.

We have about other hour before the rains finally blow out of the area. Windchill is down to 30° but I'll take that instead of pouring rain. Sadie and Stella have not stayed out long and did nothing more than this photo. Heidi ran outside for a 'pit stop" but was back inside before I could turn and grab my camera. She has been joining Stella today in the fight to have lunch, their last meal of the day, to be served at earlier time. By that I mean she barks while Stella howls.

Sorry that this is all there is to blog about now, but currently it is the life with the hounds in the tropics of Southern Indiana.

Winston Is Following The Rules With Sadie's Help

One thing all this rain has done for me is find me a better spot to photograph the field/horizon across the highway. I don't always post them but I have been taking a photo of that field across the highway every day. Until today I had been standing in my driveway. Then I go to the corner of my house and shoot back across the field.

It's just interesting to see the daily weather changes after you put all of those photos in sequence. So with the rain I started taking the photo just beside the steps to go into the house. That turned out to be even a better angle, capturing what I wanted in that photograph.

Things seemed to change for the better after the mid-day meal was fed to all the hounds. I guess if they don't mind eating 5-1/2 hours after breakfast and then not again for 18 or 19 hours until the next morning ... I won't either. Stella did her daily begging for food at that time so I fed all of them.

Winston was excited enough that he decided he was going to scoot across the floor from his blanket to the location his food dish use to be when he was healthy. To keep Sadie or Stella from backing into him and stepping on him due to their excitement, I stretched the gate across the blanket area and fed him on the other side of that baby gate.

Normally he likes to go outside right after he eats. So we did that today. With the t-shirt under him, and his tail wagging, he walked really fast toward the yard and peed even with his hips elevate. I picked him up to carry him back inside and he fell asleep within 5 minutes ... as long as I covered him with the hound sleeping bag ... a cheap Coleman.

I also changed the 18/55 lens on the D3200 and attached the 55/200. I could then take photos of his blanket area without leaving my desk chair in another room. It wasn't that I didn't want to get up, but the other way the hounds would either stop what they were doing or Winston would wake up, stand up or whatever and ruin the shot.

So here is a sequence of Winston this afternoon. All the movement of the sleeping bag are made by Winston moving around.

Stella wanting to play with Heidi but she is barking at him - 'big deal' she says

Sadie moves in closer to watch over him

I hear a dog shaking, the sound of ears flapping. I look up and Winston has escaped the sleeping bag and has that look of needing some water. He drank a lot of water, I moved him back on the blanket and he was back to sleep within 10 minutes.

He is following the rules today -- LOTS of sleeping. He did get up a few hours later for some water, went outside and emptied his tanks. One thing I have noticed today, he knows when I am putting on the rolled towel under him that he is going to get to 'go' ... so he leaves before I can get the t-shirt in the proper position.

Water - Water - Water - I need Water!

Late in the afternoon, with a light rain that just never let up, Sadie and Stella were getting a little bit of 'cabin fever'. They finally decided they needed a little play and I made sure they didn't get near Winston's non-gated area. All worked out well - take a look.

I didn't see it happen but right after we finished going outside before it got dark, Sadie decided to slide around Winston and sneak in between Winston and the wall. It's almost 6:30pm and they are both now asleep.

It's been a long slow day here in the tropics of Southern Indiana ... but a quiet one.