Staples are out!

On Monday, Justin and I took Boomer to NCState for his follow up visit and to get his staples out.  We dropped him off at 8 AM and picked him up at 4 PM.  He was there all day to get his staples out and do the testing for the study.  Kim brought him out to us in the afternoon and said that he walked on the two different treadmills and when they brought him in to do the sensory study where he lays on his back and he fell asleep.  Guess he was comfortable there!

His back looks much better without the staples:

The fur is also starting to grow back and look much better.  Boomer is going on Saturday to the groomer (I'm going with to make sure that he's okay) and they're just going to do a trim up so his fur growing in doesn't look as funny.  I think he'll be happy though to get more of a summer cut on the rest of his body too-- it's hot here in North Carolina.  Been in the 90s all week.

Also for going through all of his pains, Boomer got a new summer bowtie.  He hasn't been too keen on showing it off lately.  He won't let me take a good picture to show.  But, he's doing well with his walking. 

He really wants to do more and more, but knows that he can't.  So, he's getting a bit frustrated.  Everyday when I get home and let him out of his crate he's standing up and putting his front paws up on the crate and bouncing with his back legs until I make him sit and wait to get out of the crate.  

His balance is getting much better, but it's still not there 100%.  We could try the aqua therapy now that his staples are out now. Who knows if we will. He's not too much of a water dog, but it'd get those legs moving!

Speaking of getting legs moving-- he's trying to get them moving up the stairs. 

You can see in the video he tries really hard to get up the steps.  We were told on Monday that it's better for him to go up on things instead of down because of how it compresses his back.  So, we're letting him try to go up the front three steps with assistance.  He's gotten better at it since I took this video earlier in the week.
His walking has also gotten much better:

You can tell he is a bit more stable but he still wobbles towards the end or when he's getting tired.

And, I think one of the favorite things that he can now do again is roll.  When he had his staples in he wanted to roll so bad on the grass and on the carpet but we wouldn't let him.  So, I think on Tuesday when he realized that he was allowed to roll, he went for it! He rolled for about 10 minutes on the carpet.  I'm sure where his staples were and with his fur growing back in it must be itchy. I guess we just don't scratch it enough; but, we don't want to mess with his scar.

So, we're making progress.  I'm so happy that he's able to walk and able to be more of himself again. He still doesn't have it in his back legs to jump up on the couch or to look out his front window, but that's okay.  I don't think we're wanting him to jump at all.  In fact, if we can just master the stairs again I'll be happy because we bought him stairs so he could walk up and down on the bed.  They key will be to get him to walk on the stairs to get up and down.  I know he'll just want to jump off the bed, so we'll have to train him.  He's a smart cookie, so I think he'll pick up on it.

But for now, that's all. Hopefully we'll post more progress soon-- but those legs are working and getting stronger and that's all we can ask for!