16.5 weeks - Smiles all round

Last night Kenz had a bit of a disaster of an evening - we trained and the consequence was right hind end lameness at bedtime and refusing to come up the stairs.

Today she had otherwise been fine - we had our normal morning walk at the park and she was bouncing like a lunatic.

This afternoon she had her regular dog pool session. She was a little indifferent to swimming laps and I couldn't put my finger on it.

Tonight come 6pm she was absolutely FERAL. Into everything and I went enough is enough - Emma had already said to me we didn't need to be that conservative anymore so with that we headed out to club for an obedience session.

I did play it safe in that we opted to leave out the ROH because the grounds were slippery and she hasn't done any jumping yet. I did however allow her to complete two retrieves on the flat. Her work was something very very special. Her heelwork was beautiful - there was none of the crabbing or crowding and the only small amount of forging was on the outside post of the figure 8. Her SFE was done to the usual standard. Her DOR and ROF were nice. Her biggest issue tonight was anticipation and doing things on the "judges" command rather than waiting for me. I had some really lovely fronts and finishes and I would bottle her enthusiasm if I could.

Even when I took her out and we worked on some short sits and drops she was full of confidence - not stressed by classes of dogs working and seemed very relaxed. She has certainly come a VERY long way from the dog who could barely perform without shutting down.

It was certainly a night to remember and one I have been waiting for in what seems like an eternity.

Now I hope she pulls up fine and we have plenty more such nights not to far around the corner. 

15 weeks down .....things might be looking up

So we are at the start of week 16 post-op and Kenz has now had an entire week minimum of nothing which looks like her patella slipping and certainly no 3 legging episodes - yee har - certainly cause for celebration.

Today was also her third trip to the dog pool. She loves going and happily swims laps for her entire 30 min session with relatively few breaks. I was impressed today as there was a person cleaning out the hydro tank and coming and going and she wasn't rattled and continued to swim happily.

The good news is that since she has started swimming she has also been much happier to come up and down the stair case at home. She is still having a few issues with coming up stairs later in the day and will stand with her front feet on the bottom stair carrying on. We are still making time for regular daily Peanut sessions and she is now fitting in twice weekly swimming and heading out for lots of variable terrain off-lead time.

Emma has said there is no reason why Kenz can't now go back to full training (although she agrees thats not a particularly conservative suggestion). Considering its only a few weeks before Kenz's return trip to John and the fact the weather isn't super conducive to training sessions I am still holding off at this stage.

I may reassess that in a week or so but I would like a decent run of non 3-legging before I consider training her again. I don't want to have to explain to John any circumstances which may surround a possible 3 legging event which is anything out of the ordinary. Baring in mind that this time last year, her patella issue wasn't noticeably apparent and yet when I tried to jump her she came up on three legs.

So we might just be looking at a much more positive scenario with no repeat surgery on the horizon - fingers firmly crossed. Its certainly looking slightly less gloomy then it was in the last fortnight. 

Kenz's first trip back to the dog pool

Having decided we may need to go a different tact with rebuilding the remainder of her muscle wastage I was tossing up the thought of taking her for a return trip to the dog pool. We haven't been there in years however I decided swimming would probably give her the best chance at getting back to competing and with the weather making the alternative swimming options (beach or creek) a little counter productive to much swimming I figured I'd take her and see how she got on.

I wasn't sure how she would cope as there was no way I could afford to take both dogs so Kenz would have to go without Ness. Kenz started off a little unsure but once she got over that she had a blast.

I was hoping to get more lap swimming and less retrieving but all she seemed to want to do was swim in circles in the middle which I felt was counter productive to the goal. I ended up mixing up swimming laps with having her swim straight retrieves.

She was starting to show a bit of fatigue towards the end but still managed to swim for most of the 30 min session.

So now its fingers crossed and hoping she pulls up 100% sound later this evening. She seemed sound enough when we left the pool and on the way back to the car so hoping everything is ok.

The only disappointment for me was I thought I might have a BC with flat batteries at least for a little while. No such luck though we returned home and she was raring to go and could have gone another round.

Back again next week. Will try and take her a couple of times a week for the next month and see if it helps.

ETA. Well its now 9:30pm and bed time and while she is looking slightly sore and stiff she is doing so much better then I might have expected. She waited for me to put her back on track coat on and then promptly jumped up on my bed. A first since she had surgery. Normally she waits to be lifted up.  Small steps forward :).

Monthly Follow Up with John

After a few days of 3 legged episodes I decided to contact John who said he was happy to reassess Kenz this week so we could make decisions sooner rather than wait till next week.

Kenz got a pretty thorough going over this morning. She is moving well and using the leg well. Nothing out of the ordinary to be found anywhere. She has regained most of the wasted muscle in her LH but there is still a slight difference between her LH and her RH so still room for improvement. Her patella stability has improved from her last appointment. John could still get it to pop out but it goes back in almost spontaneously. He isn't entirely sure what is causing the problem at this stage and has suggested videoing a 3 legged episode if I can. He couldn't find anything the matter with her spine.

He went over with what he found in surgery again and said he still felt her groove was sufficient and that her tibial tuberosity was in good alignment. He explained that if he went in to do further surgery he would probably over correct her tibial tuberosity and tighten things up still further and would reassess the groove.

She currently weighs around 13.7kg which John felt was a good weight for her.

He wants me to keep doing as I am with her in relation to her rehab and he will see her back in another month when she should be back to 100% unless the leg still keeps bothering her.

13 Weeks Down

So we are at the start of week 14 and this last week hasn't been totally "good" news. A couple more 3 legging incidents earlier in the week and a quite bad one on Monday evening means that the discussion is very much as to whether Kenz will need a second operation. At this stage while John (and I) are both keen to avoid a second operation if her knee is what is causing the 3 legging episodes then there is more that can be done and the verdict seems to be we should do it.

Another 10 days until her next appointment with John.

The rest of the week she hasn't been to bad. I have let her go a bit and we are trying to just increase her overall fitness and hopefully the muscle support. I have taken advantage of some decent weather and she has had a couple of trips to the beach where I have just let her go and she has been back to her old mad midget ways. We have tried to fit in at least two decent sized hikes with some off-lead time over variable terrain as well as a bit of FitPaws Peanut work.

Fingers firmly crossed that the situation may still improve enough to avoid another surgery. Although its not looking that way as no sooner then I posted this we headed out for a 20 min leash walk around the local streets and yep it slipped again. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

ETA. A video of her afternoon FitPaws Peanut session

Nearly 3 months post-op

And the news just sucks - things had been going ok but now I am not so sure. The weather was glorious today so I packed the girls in the car and we drove for a walk at the beach. Kenz had come up really sore yesterday after her day at home but seemed ok on this mornings 30 min leash walk. We did another 30 minutes at the beach and she seemed ok.

I decided to take them both out for another spin around the block tonight just a 20 min walk and within 15 min she was back 3 legged lame and without a doubt the patella slipping was what was bothering her.

Sigh somehow further surgery is looking somewhat inevitable and I am not sure how to explain that to my parents nor how I am going to find the money for it to happen :(.

Very very frustrating.

Another day, maybe some more forward progress

After the "news" Matthew presented to me yesterday I was a little shattered still I sat down took stock of things and decided to make no rush decisions until she has been back to John. We need to rebuild muscle so we have an accurate assessment of where things are at so today we pushed boundaries.

Kenz managed 3 solid walks all of greater then 25 min :). She seemed ok and even managed some off-leash time on one of those walks. While she lagged a little on the middle walk I decided we would just push through it.

I also made the decision to give her a little go on the FitBall Peanut and see how she did. She was so excited to be getting a turn of something and seemed ok on it and doesn't appear sore as a result.

Any way here is the video of Kenz on the Peanut.