Poorly Puppy

[jacey]

Poorly puppy.

After nearly a year of trips to the vet, anti inflammatories and a regime of low exercise on vet's instructions it turns out that Diezel's occasional limp is not his leg and 'growing pains' as first diagnosed, but rather his shoulders. Bad shoulders. Bad tendons, unstable shoulder joints. Not good in a big, heavyweight, galumphing, energetic puppydog.

I've been a bit worried about his development for a while. He looks great from the side, but he's narrow across the chest and his front legs are quite close together at the top when you look directly from the front. We've kept saying 'He'll fill out yet,' but it may be the shoulder problem and just plain bad conformation. (Good breeder, good parents, just uinlucky I guess. He looked fine as a pup.) Once Arnie the vet had him knocked out for the X-ray today he was able to manipulate both shoulder joints. The left one is a bit clicky, but the right one's a LOT clicky.

Arnie has x-rayed the leg before, when Diezel was about 8 months old, but not the shoulders. He thought it was just the cartilege/bone fusing thing that dogs go through, particularly as he sometimes holds himself as if the trouble is in the knee/paw area. Diezel's so oversized that we all just thought he was outgrowing himself and he'd get over it. Can't really blame Arnie. Diezel's getting much better with accepting new people politely, but he's a monster at the vet's. Doesn't have any truck with the man who sticks needles in him and shows his displeasure mightily. For everyone's peace of mind he has a muzzle for vet visits.

Next step. Referral to a specialist, but it may be a condition that can only be managed not cured. He's feeling sorry for himself this evening, wobbly from the x-ray and has shaved patches on his front legs. Good job we got the full deal on the pet insurance. This could cost thousands. £4k if surgery is needed. But it could lead to an early onset of arthritis as he gets older. He's only 18 months and it doesn't seem to seriously inconvenience him at the moment, though he does limp from time to time. Anti-inflammatories help. More reason to be thankful for pet insurance. That stuff's £35 a bottle and might be a permanent feature.

You can see how narrow he is across the chest (the dog not the man!) in this pic taken last autumn with our friend Thandanani (one of the Zulu dancers). Diezel was about a year old then. He's a pretty boy (again the dog, not Thanda) and he's doing really well with his training classes, though while he's been on light work BB's been doing a lot of down and stay type training and scent work and keeping his brain active by expanding his vocabulary. No he doesn't talk, but he knows the difference between 'red ball' and 'rubber ring' and he's just grasped, 'Speak,' as well as all the usual sit, stay, down, come, leave, yours, away, wait etc. And he can even do sit, down comeand stay in Zulu, thanks to Thanda,