PHYSICAL THERAPY FOR ME, TOO! by Gabe

Well, guess what!  I get to do physical therapy, too, and I started doing it yesterday.  Piper and I both went there together, and I think I do it better than she does.  So there!  Plus I even liked the swimming part!  Piper thinks I'm crazy, but I think she's crazy, too, so it's kind of mutual.

Anyway, Mom put my basket muzzle on me so that I couldn't bite Dr. Connie or Nurse Katie.  I did kind of snark at Dr. Connie one time, but mostly I was very, very good.  Dr. Connie was pleased about how cooperative I was and how I did all the stuff they wanted me to do, and I didn't balk like Piper, and I didn't bite them, either.  But they kept the muzzle on me, just to be safe.

Dr. Connie told Mom that she thinks my problem is that my muscles and stuff are hurting me, and not so much my back.  This stuff that hurts is called the "soft tissue."  So one thing they did to me was massage my neck and my thighs, and I liked that, and Mom is going to do that to me, too.  And Dr. Connie measured my thighs, and she said I have a little atrophy in my right thigh, just like Piper does.

Another thing they did with me was they stretched me over this great big ball.  That felt pretty good, too.  And then I got in the pool, and I did a little bit of swimming, and Nurse Katie was there to make sure I didn't drown.  Which just goes to prove that not all basenjis hate water all the time, in spite of what Piper might tell you.

So anyway, everything went fine, and then Mom came to the therapy room, and Dr. Connie told her about all the things I did and what a good boy I was.  And she also told Mom about the exercises they did with Piper that Mom should try to do with her at home.  I say "try" to do because Piper doesn't always do what she is supposed to, even with a treat to convince her.

And after that, they were trying to get me to do "down" and then lie on my side, so they could show Mom how to stretch out my back leg and scrunch it up again, which they had done with me earlier.  But I started getting scared with 3 people all pushing at me and trying to make me lie down, so I had to start snarling and snapping at them to tell them to back off.  And I would have gladly bitten someone if I hadn't been wearing that dumb muzzle.

So Mom said not to mess with me anymore because once I got like that, I would just stay like that for a while.  Mom knows these things from prior experience!  So Dr. Connie had to demonstrate the leg stretching thing on Piper, except that Piper was all squirmy and uncooperative, so it was a little hard to do.  But Dr. Connie also gave Mom some photos of how to do it, so Mom thinks she can figure it out.

Then after that, Mom paid the bill, and she asked Dr. Keil's nurse about my eye goopy, which keeps coming back.  And the nurse said I need to go see Dr. Keil again, so Mom will have to make an appointment.

Oh, and speaking of doctors, Piper and I went to see Dr. Patricia last week to get our check-ups and also some shots and stuff.  And Mom told Dr. Patricia that I was licking myself a lot on my legs and tummy and thighs and places like that, which drives Mom nuts when I do that.  So Dr. Patricia looked at some of the places I have been licking, and she said she would take a skin scraping to see if I have mites.  And also she thought we should do a test for fungus, which we have never done before.  What happens in the fungus test is they send a little bit of my hair to the lab, and then they put it in a special dish and try to make the fungus grow, which takes about a month.

And Piper also has this place in her armpit that she keeps licking and scratching, so she got a skin scraping and a fungus test, too.  And meanwhile, we have to take antihistamines, plus I am already taking prednisone and a bunch of other stuff.  So with all the things that got done at Dr. Patricia's office, the bill was over $600, which did not make Mom very happy.

Mel is also due for some shots and stuff, but Mom hasn't made an appointment for him yet.  Mom says that we dogs are very expensive to have around, and it's a good thing she loves us or else she would throw us out in the snow.  Ha!  Mom thinks she is soooooo funny sometimes!