The 4 day anti-inflam experiment

After some discussion John and I agreed it was worth putting Kenz on pain relief and seeing how she did.

She was to try 30mg carprofen twice a day for 4 days and to see how she got on.

Well after nearly 4 days on anti-inflams the observations I have for Kenz seem to mirror those from last time when she ended up on anti-inflams at the end of last year.

The improvements generally:

• Within 24 hours the stair issue in the evening had resolved;
• Increased willingness to use the stairs of her own free will across the remainder of the day with no apparent hesitation;
• Generally seems much happier and more enthusiastic;
• Coping with more free running exercise eg managing more time at the beach/oval and not increasingly sore either during exercise or post-rest;
• Less struggle pushing off with her LH while training; and
• Not quite as lame or sore or struggling on every leash walk.

So things have definitely improved over the 4 days. She had a couple of hind end lameness issues (in both the LH and RH) on Thursday but since then she has only seemed to improve still further. She did need carrying up the stairs on night 3 but I appreciate there may also be a mental component in that behaviour (although incidentally it was the same the first time she was on anti-inflams) and I also did swim her rather than just walk her that day so she did more.

What is still a problem for her:

• There is still issues with reluctance to place full weight on the LH – more noticeably when she is standing and more an issue when she is being leash walked compared to free running. While she is tolerating more exercise I am still having issues with leash walks greater then 10-15 min. Whatever is bothering her is not a problem that seems to resolve within a few steps so not sure that would fit with it being the residual luxation; and 
• When working on obedience there is some definite shifting weight off that LH when asked to sit. She usually sits very balanced but isn't these days.

So that is where we are at based on the addition of anti-inflams. John also prescribed tramadol to have when she got really bad but so far I haven't resorted to needing that.

She had an absolute blast this morning at the beach and managed a more then respectable 50 min trip before I took her home again. At no stage was she standing on the shore waiting to go home.

When I ran all this past Matthew he still felt the plan should be to go in and remove that suture as its obviously causing discomfort. I am waiting to see what John has to say before I make any further decisions about what I do.

In the meantime here is a short clip of Kenz doing some training in the yard yesterday afternoon.