Hi Tripawds community!

I'm having a bit of trouble finding resources, and would love any direction (or just support!).

Our now 12-year-old rear tripawd, Loki, has had a rough few months. He joined the Tripawd community March 2023 due to a Mast Cell Tumor on his back right leg. In April, he and I fell going up the stairs, so he had a somewhat acute injury, though even before that we noticed his mobility was declining a little bit. So we were eager to get back to physical therapy for him, since his previous physical therapist's office sadly closed in January.

We started working with a new physical therapist who's also a veterinarian. She didn't identify any specific injury/strain/sprain, but he had, unlike many pups she'd work with previously, tended to overexert himself. She noticed he often overcompensated carrying himself on his beefy front legs, so we were going to work on strengthening that back leg. However, he also ended up with a paw pad injury on his remaining back foot (was dragging that foot at times at the time), so we had him essentially on bed rest for a few weeks to prevent re-injurying that foot.

Once that healed in mid-May (yay!), as we tried to do gradual, gentle exercise, he hasn't really been up for it, and it's felt like two steps forward two steps back in recent weeks. He's more flexible now than he's ever been -- at physical therapy, he does a handful of very mild core exercises, but mostly passive range of motion and myofascial massage. And we try to do no more than 4 minute walks twice a day, plus passive range of motion/massage, a few just bathroom breaks, and the smallest bit of at-home physical therapy exercises. But even the little bit often seems too much, and his muscles are so tight. (He got stuck behind a chair two nights ago -- still don't know how he ended up there! But I wonder if getting stuck somewhere is making the past two days even worse than usual.) He needs help getting up, and isn't able to move much at all without support. We support him on his brief walks somewhere between 30% - 75%, try to gently challenge him, but it's been tough. 

It feels so hard to know whether it's arthritis and age catching up with him, overexertion from a few months ago still lingering, the humidity (which has been tough lately!), injury, overcompensating with his front legs so much catching up with him, or all of it and more. We're actually going to see if some physical therapy swimming could be a helpful addition, even just therapeutically to move in warm water for a little bit with another physical therapist office that does have a therapy pool, and we've ordered him some custom wheels in hopes that can be a rehabilitation tool (and if not, then at least he can enjoy a little independence again!).

He's still a hungry, social, even happy boy as much as he can be with super limited mobility. He enjoys porch sitting, and wagon rides. He takes pain medication (Carprofen, Gabapentin, Amantadine, Librela), and in March/early April had typical independence on leash walks, and was taking a K9 Nosework course he was enjoying. We had to sadly cancel the course, and hope maybe he'll be able to rejoin one sometime in the future if he's able to regain some mobility. But woof, it's been tough!

We're going to patiently keep at it all, whether or not he regains mobility, but would love any input anyone has to share.