#addy pup

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Zoooooom

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Honestly Librela is a miracle drug. It's 35F out, Addy got her shot 6 days ago & she swung her ass into me for butt scratches, then took off chasing Emma. We thought this might be her last winter - we weren't even sure if she'd get through winter. And instead this is the best winter she's had in 5 years.

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Prepped all of our lick mats & some puzzle feeders for enrichment for the next week or two! Meant to do it last week, but oh well.

There's various mixes of beef broth, chicken baby food, kibble, watermelon, banana, peanut butter, plain yogurt, and some plain boiled chicken. The girls enjoyed taste testing & helping clean the spoons. 😂

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No pics this time, but we did a second outing with Addy's stroller tonight, to a nearby park. We're trying to show her that the stroller is there for breaks when she gets tired, but she can get out again when she's ready. She did 2 rounds in the stroller between walking & seemed to do really well on a moderately long walk!!! The only issue was the muggy weather. We're really excited & happy it's working so well. 🥰

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I got a stand for Addy's food bowl, and have one coming tomorrow for the water bowl. I thought it might be easier on her arthritic elbows not to lean down so far for them. She was slightly confused at first, but didn't seem to mind!

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Lots of outside time lately, they've been loving it! Wish it wasn't starting to get hot though....

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There were 4 humans in the room. Where did 4 of the 5 upstairs big kids need to be?

On mom, of course.

(Emma is barely visible, just next to my hand on the left, behind Addy)

I have never felt more like Daine from Tamora Pierce's Tortall books.

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So a few weeks ago, we started Addy on a new arthritis med! Librela is a once a month injection, it's been approved & used in Europe for a while now, and just got approved recently in the US. I had read a bit about it after a mention in one of my dog health groups, and Jack asked the vet about it during a discussion about managing Addy's pain. We've been having more trouble with it over this winter, and she was on the highest dose of her pain med we could do. It was really starting to stress me & Jack out over how much time we might still get with her.

After some bloodwork & confirmation that Addy's issues are all physical (old car strike injuries + age), no neurological symptoms, we did the first injection. She kept getting pain meds for the first 2 weeks, then we stopped last Monday. We've all been watching her closely to see how she did.

And!!! She's been doing great!! A 20 degree temp drop last week? No big deal. She didn't start limping or hobbling at all. She went on a 2 block walk on Sunday night, then spent 2 hours at the dog park yesterday. And today when I got home, she was still bouncing, barreling into my legs for pets, and grabbed a toy for tug.

We're really excited that it's already doing so well for her! I'm really grateful that it got approved when it did, and that we have the vet rehab center so close to us to do the injections.