A dog attack Sunday night by that frigging weim - the consequence hmmm Kenz by Monday night was struggling so badly on a walk around the block she required carrying home. She was still having issues with her hind end on Tuesday morning.
I came home and contacted Matthew and had a chat to him. He felt she needed to see John. Well rang to speak with John and he is away till the 14th of November.
Tuesday lunchtime we were training in the back yard and just messing around and she came up badly lame on her RH. So off to the local vet on Tuesday afternoon.
Nick checked her patella, her cruciate and her hip extension and thought it all seemed fine. That is interesting in itself because he didn't think the LH patella was a problem anymore. None the less she was given a 7 day course of anti-inflams.
Matthew suggested now was a good time to get more video for John so I held off the anti-inflams today and have been busy stalking her with a video camera.
I did manage to capture one RH episode of the three that she had today and given she has had problems now on each walk I felt enough was enough and started her on the anti-inflams tonight.
I guess we will see how she gets on over the next 7 days of pain killer and taking it relatively easy.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Into week 25......
Hmmmm its been one of those very mixed fortnights.
After her jump grid experiment she seems to start having issues again with her front right shoulder. Fairly marked lameness almost as bad as it had ever been BUT it was the following evening when it started bothering her. I took it easy with her for a few days and it seemed to settle again.
Last Friday I thought it was about time she could have a swim at the pool again. She had a good time as usual and swam plenty. Later that evening she started having a huge number of problems with her LH. The patella appeared to keep slipping and it was really bothering her and she was shutting down totally.
Saturday we went out for a walk and the RH random lameness which seemed to have disappeared had returned. One walk she completely picked up the back leg and the second incident was just non-weight bearing when she was stationary.
Nothing overly significant just non-weight bearing when she was stationary on a couple of occasions.
A little confused and unsure about things at the moment.
After her jump grid experiment she seems to start having issues again with her front right shoulder. Fairly marked lameness almost as bad as it had ever been BUT it was the following evening when it started bothering her. I took it easy with her for a few days and it seemed to settle again.
Last Friday I thought it was about time she could have a swim at the pool again. She had a good time as usual and swam plenty. Later that evening she started having a huge number of problems with her LH. The patella appeared to keep slipping and it was really bothering her and she was shutting down totally.
Saturday we went out for a walk and the RH random lameness which seemed to have disappeared had returned. One walk she completely picked up the back leg and the second incident was just non-weight bearing when she was stationary.
Nothing overly significant just non-weight bearing when she was stationary on a couple of occasions.
A little confused and unsure about things at the moment.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
24 weeks post-op
Kenz is almost at the start of 24 weeks post-op. I have decided to hold off on the xrays/EMG for the moment and we are continuing to monitor the situation. Unfortunately this past week has not been good.
Towards the end of last week she started having very regular episodes of 3 legging behavior with the patella locking up. This continued over the weekend and into the early part of this week. I am not sure what to make of things at the moment.
Her training round at club on Tuesday night was a disaster. She was going through the motions and even her usual DB and retrieve over the jump which she is normally mega enthusiastic for was just going through the motions.
In the perfect world with unlimited resources I would go ahead with the joint taps/EMG/x-rays but we don't live in the perfect world and with limited resources to put towards diagnostics which are purely a "fishing trip" we are playing the wait and see game.
Any way tonight I decided I would conduct an experiment and set up a jump grid and see how she did. Well I think to me its proving that its the patella bothering her more then anything as she seems to have very little trouble with jumping. She lacks a little power in her hind end still but on the all I don't have to much to complain about as far as jumping is concerned.
Not sure where to go with things at the moment but I guess we take it a day at a time and see how things continue to pan out.
Towards the end of last week she started having very regular episodes of 3 legging behavior with the patella locking up. This continued over the weekend and into the early part of this week. I am not sure what to make of things at the moment.
Her training round at club on Tuesday night was a disaster. She was going through the motions and even her usual DB and retrieve over the jump which she is normally mega enthusiastic for was just going through the motions.
In the perfect world with unlimited resources I would go ahead with the joint taps/EMG/x-rays but we don't live in the perfect world and with limited resources to put towards diagnostics which are purely a "fishing trip" we are playing the wait and see game.
Any way tonight I decided I would conduct an experiment and set up a jump grid and see how she did. Well I think to me its proving that its the patella bothering her more then anything as she seems to have very little trouble with jumping. She lacks a little power in her hind end still but on the all I don't have to much to complain about as far as jumping is concerned.
Not sure where to go with things at the moment but I guess we take it a day at a time and see how things continue to pan out.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The long awaited (and dreaded email)
This afternoon I got the long awaited and dreaded email from John - with much trepidation I opened it to see what the verdict was.
Its not great news. What Ian didn't mention at her appointment last Wednesday was questionable pain from her hocks with manipulation. The suggestion being if she does have discomfort in her lower joints (hocks, carpi, toes) then there are a range of autoimmune diseases of the joints that can occur in these regions.
Some suggestions included: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and autoimmune polyarthropathy.
This is apparently consistent with the shifting lameness and breed. Although apparently according to John polyarthropathies typically cause more lameness and discomfort than what Kenz is showing and that normally its possible to feel effusion in the affected joints which he couldn't with Kenz.
The suggested plan of attack would be radiographs of Kenz's hocks to toes and carpi to toes as well as joint taps to look for white blood cells.
Ian is somewhat keen to do an EMG on Kenz.
Not sure what I am thinking at present - its a lot to take in and my immediate concern is the cost involved and the benefit of subjecting her to further testing.
Lots of thinking ahead of me.
Its not great news. What Ian didn't mention at her appointment last Wednesday was questionable pain from her hocks with manipulation. The suggestion being if she does have discomfort in her lower joints (hocks, carpi, toes) then there are a range of autoimmune diseases of the joints that can occur in these regions.
Some suggestions included: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and autoimmune polyarthropathy.
This is apparently consistent with the shifting lameness and breed. Although apparently according to John polyarthropathies typically cause more lameness and discomfort than what Kenz is showing and that normally its possible to feel effusion in the affected joints which he couldn't with Kenz.
The suggested plan of attack would be radiographs of Kenz's hocks to toes and carpi to toes as well as joint taps to look for white blood cells.
Ian is somewhat keen to do an EMG on Kenz.
Not sure what I am thinking at present - its a lot to take in and my immediate concern is the cost involved and the benefit of subjecting her to further testing.
Lots of thinking ahead of me.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Kenz Rally-Novice title
Wahoo Kenz managed to finish off the two passes needed for her Rally Novice title at the Dover Gardens double Rally-O trial today.
Well done Kenz better known as Winpara Dream Chaser CD DWDF.S JD RN.
Onwards and upwards to advance where we can finally get rid of that bloody lead again.
Well done Kenz better known as Winpara Dream Chaser CD DWDF.S JD RN.
Onwards and upwards to advance where we can finally get rid of that bloody lead again.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
21 weeks post-op - still having issues
Sigh after nearly 21 weeks post-op you would ideally like to think Kenz's life was pretty much back to normal with no more lameness episodes. This last week has unfortunately seen an increase in LH lameness.
A trip to the beach this morning and after 30 minutes she was holding her surgery leg off the ground non-weight bearing while stationary. When on the move she had a seriously noticeable choppy hind end gait.
Poor girl seems to have everybody a little stumped.
A trip to the beach this morning and after 30 minutes she was holding her surgery leg off the ground non-weight bearing while stationary. When on the move she had a seriously noticeable choppy hind end gait.
Poor girl seems to have everybody a little stumped.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Appointment with Ian
Just back from Kenz's appointment with Ian the neurospecialist. It was an interesting appointment but I guess it seemed to be more of a ruling out exercise. It was also as I expected in that the mention of exercise induced collapse was what sparked a little more interest in her case.
Poor Kenz was subjected to a full neurological exam. Apparently there wasn't to much out of the ordinary other than a slightly weakened patella reflex on her surgery leg. Ian also commented about her heightened sensitivity to her feet and toes. He said to be more certain it wasn't neurological he would ideally like to have admitted her and performed the neuro exam a few times over the course of the day because these things can change (especially in cases where there is intermittent issues) but given he didn't find anything of much significance the first time I didn't think it was worth leaving Kenz there at the current time.
He did comment that she had fairly even muscle across her hind end and was a little surprised given John's notes re muscle wastage at her last appointment. I guess that is helpful to me in saying she is doing somewhat ok if not for the random lameness episodes.
At the moment she weighs 13.9 kg and poor girl seemed to have a slightly raised temperature apparently (39 degrees).
So where we have got to as a result of the appointment - well not much has changed. Keep being relatively careful and seeing how she gets on. Ian said he would have a chat to John and if I haven't heard anything by Friday to maybe call and have a chat to John.
Poor Kenz was subjected to a full neurological exam. Apparently there wasn't to much out of the ordinary other than a slightly weakened patella reflex on her surgery leg. Ian also commented about her heightened sensitivity to her feet and toes. He said to be more certain it wasn't neurological he would ideally like to have admitted her and performed the neuro exam a few times over the course of the day because these things can change (especially in cases where there is intermittent issues) but given he didn't find anything of much significance the first time I didn't think it was worth leaving Kenz there at the current time.
He did comment that she had fairly even muscle across her hind end and was a little surprised given John's notes re muscle wastage at her last appointment. I guess that is helpful to me in saying she is doing somewhat ok if not for the random lameness episodes.
At the moment she weighs 13.9 kg and poor girl seemed to have a slightly raised temperature apparently (39 degrees).
So where we have got to as a result of the appointment - well not much has changed. Keep being relatively careful and seeing how she gets on. Ian said he would have a chat to John and if I haven't heard anything by Friday to maybe call and have a chat to John.
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