Update on Choya - March 31

Choya has been improving dramatically. It’s wonderful!

He’s had his 3rd acupuncture session and has been improving day by day. He has now started going up and down the stairs to the second floor. He has gone down to the basement a few times to visit me in my office. At the park, he now walks a little faster, trotting at times. It’s great to see his smiles.

The Latest on Choya - March 19

Choya had his second session of acupuncture today. We have never seen him smile so much as we did today.

I visited a friend of mine a couple of days ago and while visiting I saw Choya standing at the bottom of the carpeted stairs leading to the second floor. He walked away and came back, looking up. He did this 3 times.

Just before we left, I had my friend go upstairs and call Choya. I have never seen him move so fast as he ran up the stairs to the second floor. He was walked slowly down the stairs to the main floor. It was amazing!!

We are getting a carpet estimate for our oak stairs.

Update 0n Choya - March 15

Choya’s vet made a referral to a vet/acupuncturist and on Thursday, we took Choya to see him for a one-hour consultation and treatment.


The vet inserted a number of needles into Choya from his head to his tail on either side of his spine and they remained inserted for 20 minutes.

We started to notice a change in Choya around 8 PM. He became more active and when he was let outside with the other “kids”, he raced them to the back fence. He had not run that fast for a couple of months.

When he returned inside, he looked longingly at the stairs and went up two steps. He started to go up the next step, but changed his mind and came back down to the hallway.

Choya goes back for another treatment next week. It was wonderful to see him a little more like himself.

Update on Choya - March 03

The old boy is doing the best he can.

He now receives Prednisone every other day and we can unfortunately tell the difference when he doesn’t get it. He is still on the Tramadol every 12 hours. Over the next week we will arrange to try acupuncture. Apparently this can be a hit or miss venture but it certainly is worth a try as it is one of the least invasive treatments recommended. Choya is in good spirits with a willing heart and a healthy appetite. Choya enjoys a short, slow walk at Conroy Park most days, weather and temperature permitting. The down side of this is that Choya must be lifted into the van as he is unable to jump or step up into the van or even put his front paws up to help. It was quite cute this morning to find one of our other Goldens sleeping with Choya in the living room on a cozy makeshift bed we’d organized for Choya. Sometimes the other Goldens will remain behind downstairs in the evening to keep Choya company for a bit after we have retired for the night. We were up at 3 am to let Choya outside. A few hours later at 6 am our daily routine started once again. The old boy needs to go out to relieve himself about every 3 to 4 hours, sometimes he can go a bit longer to 4 or 5 hours. In addition to his daily rations of J/D we feed Choya extra organic apples, cooked green beans and squash to help offset the increased appetite from the Prednisone. Sometimes we also give Choya his favorite as a treat which is simply a slice of bread. We weigh Choya every week because in the beginning of all of this he started losing weight. His weight now is stable. The vet gave us guidelines of what to look for to monitor Choya for pain and so far he’s doing pretty good overall. We can see some discomfort but his spirit has not thrown in the towel and there is no indication he’s had enough of it all.