Quick update on Mika's lameness

So Mika's had several chiropractic appointments now. She's still very slightly lame, off-and-on, but there's been a gradual steady improvement. Her chiropractor told us that his job is mostly done (except for occasional adjustments, but not every two weeks anymore). What needs to done now is muscle work, according to him. So I've reinstigated daily massage for Mika, focusing on her shoulder muscles. I've also been doing FitPaws egg ball work with her almost every day, and have been taking her on regular walks. (Mika is one of those dogs who doesn't really enjoy walks, but I've been making them enjoyable for her by playing find-the-treats-on-the-ground games with her.)

So she's doing pretty well :)

Mika’s first chiro adjustment

On Wednesday Mika had her first chiropractic adjustment (as recommended by our regular vet when I brought her in for very slight lameness).

I literally just copied/pasted these rough notes I made on a word document on my computer, so they're just random/unedited jot notes:

-          Muscle spasms on left side (shoulder area and rear leg area)

-          Out of 32 possible adjustments, did 18, had 8 concerned about

-          Right pelvis higher than left

-          Above caused pelvis (?) to rotate/tilt toward the left (left is tilted more forward)

-          This caused the front to tilt/rotate toward the right (left is tilted more forward) to compensate

-          This caused everything in between to be affected

-          Compensating with left side for the right side (where lameness was initially noticed)

-          Main area of concern is middle/back (more middle)

-          This is where she appeared most uncomfortable (especially back-middle – more back)

-          Recommended aspirin

-          Give Traumeel right after we get home, then before we go to bed, then in the middle of the night

Her body's been doing a lot of compensating, and rearranging as a result of compensating. The chiropractor adjusted 18 different areas, and he said eight of these areas are of concern. We'll be back in two weeks and see how it goes from there; she'll probably need 4-6 regular appointments over the coming weeks. The vet is great, though. Lol, I took to him right away when we walked into the exam room and he'd just finished loading an assortment of treats onto the exam table :) Next step for me is to research Robaxacet (the muscle relaxant he wants me to give her before our next appointment, because Mika had a couple areas of muscle spasms).

Oh, he also doesn't think Mika has any problems in her joints that I should be concerned about, unlike our regular vet who suspected possible minor arthritis. I didn't mention about Mika's joints cracking when she changes positions though (this is why our regular vet suspected arthritis). I myself am not sure that cracking is a sign of arthritis, as I've read articles that say it's something normal that can happen with aging but doesn't necessary mean that the individual is experiencing discomfort. I'll discuss this with our chiro vet next time though.

Yesterday Mika experienced a short period where she showed no lameness at all in her front legs. Woot! She went back to a very slight limp later, though (like she had before the adjustment).

And yesterday I brought Wall-e in to get his B12 injection (like I mentioned in a previous post, our regular vet thinks he has low B12). He'll be getting this 4 times a year.

Products we've been using/going to use

Excuse my lame title, I'm not feeling very creative today :)

So Mika and Wall-e have been getting a new joint supplement since April 30. It's called Lakota Canine Joint Care Formula. Wall-e has been on other joint supplements in the past for his old knee injury (Glyco-Flex I and Dr. Maggie's), but I have never put Mika on a joint supplement regularly. (I slipped her the occasional supplement as a treat when there were no other rewards around, but that's it.) I can't say if this supplement has been helping or not (and it's just a preventative for Wall-e anyway), but time will tell. It's meant for arthritis, but mainly because of it's anti-inflammatory properties, which works for Mika's sore shoulder anyway; and there's a good chance Wall-e could develop arthritis as he ages because of his old knee injury, so this supplement could prevent that.

I also need to get a harness for Wall-e; he's been coughing more often. Sometimes during training (not too often -- maybe once every couple of weeks -- but more than he used to), and after lunging at cars on walks. I'm currently walking him on a collar. I posted on a Facebook group asking for recommendations on harnesses for Wall-e, and these are the ones I'm now considering:

ComfortFlex 
Walkeez  
CTC Shoulder Harness  (couldn't find it on the web site, but found a picture of the harness on the Facebook page)

I need a harness that won't break, won't restrict his movement, and will encourage him to continue pulling for conditioning :)

Mika's vet appointment

Mika had a routine vet appointment today. It was actually the first vet appointment I've had with Mika, over the past couple of years, that didn't make me leave the hospital worried about Mika's health! It was an odd feeling to be leaving with somewhat of a sense of calm....

Mika knew where we were going right after we got out of the car. I was carrying her, and as we started walking in the direction of the vet hospital, she started screaming/barking. Poor girl wouldn't take treats and I didn't know what to do. I regret not spraying her collar with DAP; I don't know if it would have helped, but it would have been worth a try.

Then I weighed her on the scale; 13.6 pounds. She weighed 12.4 pounds at our last exam; she has gained more muscle mass since then, but I think she also needs to lose a bit of extra "flabby weight" as well! She's not overweight at all, but I like to keep my dogs very slim for agility.

Mika finally took a few treats as we were waiting for the vet. She was shaking, though.

Then our vet arrived, and we went into the exam room. She checked Mika over and had no concerns at all. Then I mentioned how I've noticed that Mika's fur has been thinning (all over her body, not in patches), and that I'd like to have her thyroid tested. (Hypothyroidism is a hugely underdiagnosed problem, and thinning fur is one of the symptoms of it.) Our vet wasn't too concerned about her thyroid, but agreed to start with a free T4 test, which can also be included in a huge collection of tests including tests for the liver, kidneys, pancreas, etc. I kind of wanted the full thyroid panel, but agreed to go along with her suggestion because it included a lot of other tests that are very important for aging Miniature Schnauzers.

Mika was taken in the back to have her blood drawn, and I felt just terrible; she must have bee so stressed and wondering what was going on, why these "strange people" were taking her away. I'm sure she was extremely cooperative -- she always is -- but I couldn't help worrying. Of course, in a few minutes she was brought back, and all was well again. The vet told us that we'll be called about the test results in around two days.

Then our exam was done. Our vet let us know that there was a German Shepherd outside in the waiting room, and so I was prepared as I walked out of the exam room with Mika in my arms, turning my body to block her view of the other dog; but then I saw that it was a big BLACK German Shepherd, ugh oh. But Mika didn't see the GSD right away, until the owner walked into the exam room with it, and then she was just so eager and relieved to be leaving the vet that she didn't care at all.

*****

I'm resting Wall-e for two weeks because a few days ago, on Sunday, I noticed that he was slightly lame in his front right leg (was limping a bit). He's not limping at all anymore, but I'll still continue resting him, just in case. I'm glad that it's not his rear leg again, although I'd been hoping that he could go the full year without any lameness, no matter how slight, but at least it's nothing big. I find it's ironic that Wall-e's been lame three times in the past year because he is SO fit and slim, and has awesome muscle mass...I guess it's just his hard-driving way of living that he chooses that makes him more likely to be injured. Especially running along the fence in the backyard chasing cars, which I've been limiting, but he's so crazy about doing it that I suspect it's caused two of the three lamenesses he's experienced (one was caused by agility for sure, but the other two are unknown).

Balance Disc or Harness?

I'm thinking of ordering a couple of things from Clean Run. Coincidentally, they're all things for Wall-e. The little man needs a lot of stuff :)

Indoor Agility Trial Sounds CD
This will be to help Wall-e overcome his fears of indoor trials. I'm definitely buying this.

There are two other things I want too, but I'm making myself only get one of them ($$!).

FitPAWS Balance Disc
This would be to strengthen Wall-e's knees. I already have an exercise ball, but it's too small for Wall-e, so if I had a disc I could put it on the couch, and have Wall-e stand with two feet on the disc and two feet on the ball.

ComfortFlex Sport Harness
And this would be for Mr. Leash-Puller (a.k.a. Wall-e). I've been trying to train him to keep a loose leash this month, but he really just enjoys his walks more when he pulls. (Even though he pulls, he does still have focus on me during walks; he looks back at me all the time.) He's not a crazy puller, but he often keeps a constant tension on the leash during walks, so I'm a bit concerned about his trachea...that's why a sport harness would be good for him.

So which will it be, the balance disc or the harness? I'm having a tough time deciding.

Fun Match Oct. 9, 2010

Both dogs had a great time at the fun match yesterday. I ran Mika in two Masters Standard runs and one Steeplechase, and Wall-e in one Steeplechase.

Mika had some great independence in our first run, the Standard; I accidentally sent her to an off-course tunnel that was 20 feet away! My handling of this course wasn't the greatest, though. There was a section of the course where I had to RC over the first jump of a 180. The first time we tried it, I pulled her towards me instead of pushing her away over the jump. The second time, I managed to push her away, but she didn't know where she was going after the jump and knocked the bar. But oh well, we had fun and I rewarded Mika a lot during the run.

My rear cross at that 180 was much better in our second run (same course as our first run). She jumped the apex of the AF in this run! We haven't trained the AF in about a month, so I doubted that she would jump it.

Next was Wall-e's turn at Steeplechase; "finally," he says! He'd been waiting hours to run and by the time it was his turn, he was ready to burst.

I ran Wall-e at 6". He had tons of fun careening around the little jump/tunnel sequences (we couldn't run the full course because the AF and weaves are too stressful on the rear legs). I rewarded him with a nice "party mix" of Polish sausage, cheese, and sweet potato.

Last run of the day was Steeplechase with Mika. She had a beautiful AF, jumping the apex again, but much less awkwardly this time! At the end of the run I started sending Mika over the wrong jumps, haha, but she went and started taking the right ones, which made me realize my mistake. If this were a trial, she would have saved the day!

Having fun with my crazy dogs

At Week 5 of room rest/rehabilitation, Wall-e is still looking sound. We haven't started getting back to agility yet, but I'm slowly starting to introduce him to short spans of running again with lunging. As soon as I got home today I took Wall-e in the backyard with some cheese to do a bit of lunging. Lunging, which originated from the horse world, is where the dog runs in a wide circle around the handler. For Wall-e, I use four pylons for him to circle around. Today was only our second session of lunging, so the "circle" isn't very big (maybe five feet across in diameter), but it still allows Wall-e to have some fun running around it. The look on his face is just great; he's super happy to be allowed to run again, even if it's just running around some pylons a few times! Next week I'll let him start running through straight tunnels (just one tunnel per session).

Later, I practiced retrieving with Mika with a toy that I've just recently found out she's totally bonkers for. I braided this toy out of a felt-like material for Wall-e when he first came home, but he's never liked it that much, so now it's Mika's. I want to start using it in her weave training. (I've been helping her with her footwork in 24" weaves by using four slanted poles). Anyways, we went in the backyard to do a bit of retrieving. The first rep was so cool that we didn't do any more reps. I threw the toy and Mika zoomed ahead to get it, grabbing it and racing back to me...but she was having so much fun that she just barreled on past me! As soon as she realized this, she turned around to bring me her toy and we had lots of fun tugging. The way she growled sounded like she was killing something. She always sounds like that when she's tugging, but today she was seriously crazy.

Continuing with our work on Wall-e's fears

This should be my last "catch-up" post from the 2 weeks that I didn't blog!

Wall-e didn't run in class on Monday this week either because of his injury, so we used class time to work on his fears again. We walked into the building with no problem at all. We even walked almost directly under where the fan was blaring. After 30 minutes of hanging around and doing a bit more fear training, we went home.

The way it's going now, I think Wall-e would definitely be able to do agility in the building. I won't trial him there this fall, but next spring he can probably do some indoor mini-trials, which are less chaotic than regular trials.

A big step for Wall-e and his fears!

Wall-e's classes are held at an indoor/outdoor venue. Although we've dealt with his fears of the indoor arena where his bad experience happened, he was still terrified of the arena/building at this venue. Well, he wasn't really scared of the building, more the commotion and noise made by other dogs inside the building, as well as the sound of the fan.

So before our class last week, I rented the building for 30 minutes. I'd planned to first train Mika inside the building, with Wall-e watching by the door, so that Wall-e could see that being in the building can be really fun. Then, I'd planned to slowly shape Wall-e to step inside the building.

The beginning of our rental went as planned. I just did simple stuff with Mika; running through a tunnel for a game of tug, doing the teeter a couple of times for freeze-dried liver. She was great. Then it was Wall-e's turn. It turns out that since the fan was off during our rental, Wall-e didn't have a problem with going inside at all. He just walked right in! Later, when the fan was turned on for the classes (which were held inside that day), I saw that Wall-e was very hesitant to go inside, so we shaped it. He wasn't as scared as he used to be -- going inside without the fan in our rental had helped that -- and within 5 minutes, he was able to step all the way inside. Within 10 minutes, he was trotting around inside the building with his tail up. Wow!! He wasn't even too nervous when the other dogs made a noise. He flicked his ears back for a second, but soon recovered and went back to being happy. Go Mister Meister!! (I don't even know why I call him that.)

I didn't run him in class that week because of his injury. He wasn't showing lameness when we arrived at the venue, but when it was time to go home, I saw that he was slightly limping again. Too much trotting? He'd also bounced in the air a few times during training, although I tried to prevent him from doing that by rewarding him close to the ground (I don't want to correct his enthusiasm that he shows through bouncing). Bouncing definitely isn't good for his knee!

I checked out what Kathy had written about Breeze's partial CCL tear a couple years ago. It was really informative! It also made me realize that if Wall-e does have a CCL injury (I really don't know if he does, but all of the signs are pointing to it), it's a bit more serious than I was treating it. When I posted about it in the middle of August, I said that I planned to have him back doing simple agility exercises in just 2 weeks. I realize now that 2 weeks is too soon for this kind of injury. After doing lots more reading from lots of different sources, I think that Wall-e can *gradually* get back to doing a bit of agility after a month of room rest, which will be 2 weeks from now. He'll just do one obstacle per session; not a lot of running at all. After 6 weeks of room rest (4 weeks from now), he can start doing sequencing again.

I'm following a home rehabilitation program that I found in the September 2007 issue of Clean Run Magazine. The program is meant for dogs recovering from surgery complete ruptures, so I'm modifying it a bit for Wall-e, since his injury isn't as serious; I'm dividing the days in half. For example, instead of waiting 30 days to do the second set of exercises, I waited 15 days.

I probably made it sound complicated, but basically, right now Wall-e is doing room rest, 10-20 minute walks, and the home rehabilitation program. I don't know if he does have a CCL injury, but I'm playing it safe, just in case.

Mika Trial Aug. 29, 2010

Whew, it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged!

Sunday was Mika's first time successfully running at a trial in almost 2 months (at our last trial, we had those *incidents* with the other dogs). I've been working very hard on her reactivity since then. We've always worked at it, but for the past several weeks we've been doing as much as we can to get exposure to as many dogs as possible to work on reactivity. For the rest of this year I've only entered Mika in trials that have fenced rings, for the sake of safety, in case she does react to another dog.

She did have a reaction at this trial, but it wasn't in the ring. I can't remember the dog because it happened right before our first run, but I was preparing to cue Mika into a sit-stay close to a few other dogs when one of the dogs approached her and she lunged. Nothing else happened and I moved Mika farther away from the other dogs.

It was hot throughout the whole day, but Mika ran at a good speed considering that. (She has been getting slower these past few months, but we're getting her speed back.) When it was time to do our gamble, Mika read my (wrong) cues, saw the last jump in the gamble, and started running towards it. I called her, but as we approached the first jump of the gamble we were already at a bad angle, so I couldn't send her out to the intended second jump. Off-course to another jump, NQ. Doesn't matter, I'm just happy that she's getting her drive back!

A knocked bar caused our NQ in our Masters Jumpers run. Yes, Mika knocked a bar! She occasionally will knock a 6" bar in training, when she doesn't lift her feet up enough to go over the tiny jump, but she's only ever knocked 2 bars at trials; once at Nationals (last year) and once in a Gamblers run. I don't think she would have knocked the bar at this trial if I had led out. I started with her in this run because she broke her stay in the Gamblers run and, since she's been breaking stays a lot this year, I don't want her to rehearse that. Anyway, it's too bad it was so hot for this run because the course was super flowing. Other than that knocked bar, we ran it clean, except for an off-course to a tunnel (she only put a paw in it, but it was still an off-course). She wasn't fast, but that was to be expected in the heat.

No reactions to other dogs in the ring...things are looking up for us!

I'll talk about Wall-e in a later post, but he isn't showing any signs of lameness at the moment.

Not again...

The beginning of Wall-e's class yesterday was amazing. We ran the first exercise beautifully. He ran hard through his weaves and watched my signals perfectly. (I ran him at 10" because we were at a fun match on Sunday.)

But the next exercise involved an angled approach to the teeter. I didn't think it would be a problem. I pushed into his path a bit to help him get on straight. He got on at just a bit of an angle, but not too bad, and then slipped off halfway across. I brought him around in a loop to take a couple of jumps and try the teeter again, which he did fine. He ran the rest of the exercise great.

The last exercise started with the dog walk, then went into a curved tunnel, and then finished from the tunnel to a table. I started Wall-e from the jump before the DW, so that he could get some speed onto the DW. I knew that something was up when he cantered slowly up the DW, then trotted across the horizontal and down planks. He *never* trots across the horizontal plank! I rewarded him and stopped running. My first thought was: knee. Wall-e was lame in his rear left leg back in April.

Sure enough, when I got home, I saw that Wall-e was limping, favouring one of his rear legs. It was hard to tell which one it was while he was walking, but when I did a soundness test I saw that he was putting more weight on his right rear leg than his left, and when I picked up his rear legs his right leg felt heavier. That could only mean that something was up with his left rear leg....

Not again!

I watched the video clip of the spill off the teeter and he definitely hyper-extended his left rear leg. Though it's hard to see, it looks like he might have banged his left knee against the teeter base as he slipped off. The left rear leg was the one that stayed on the teeter the longest. From what I've read, cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tears often happen on teeter or dog walk spills with the rear leg that stays on the obstacle the longest.

I'm pretty sure this time that it's his CCL (which is part of the knee/patella) that's the problem. With Ashley's help, I've been thinking up a plan for his recovery. It's a lot like what I did last time, but this time I'm going to include swimming (Ashley's idea) in the plan. This week will be rest, with daily massage. Next week will be very short walks and swimming sessions.

Week 3 will be 15 minute walks, conditioning exercises focused on strengthening the rear legs (using Dr. Chris Zink's recommendations from her book The Agility Advantage). Also, short daily agility sessions with no turns involved and only straight tunnels, 6" jumps, and tables (another one of Chris Zink's suggestions). We'll see about swimming. By then it'll be September and it could be too chilly. Week 4 will be 30 minute walks, continuing conditioning exercises (I'll hopefully do these for the rest of his life). And short daily agility sessions with slight turns, and all obstacles except the A-frame and weaves. (At least 50% of jumps at 6" and no more than 50% at 10".) Week 5 will be up to 45 minute walks, conditioning exercises, and agility sessions with all obstacles. (But still 50%-50% of 6" and 10" jumps. I think that's a good idea anyway, for any dog.) Finally, Week 6 will be the same except with 60 minute walks.

I entered Wall-e in two Starters Jumpers runs on September 12. I was going to start running him in 16" at this trial, but entered him in 10" again instead because of this. I'm not sure if he'll be good to run by then. Starters courses don't involve sharp turns (or at least, they shouldn't) and are only 15-17 obstacles. I'll see how he is. We might not be able to finish our set of classes, though, because they end on September 6. Maybe we'll be able to do the last one, but we'd skip the AF and weaves and I would run him at 6".

I think Wall-e's knee (or whatever it is) will always be weak, but considering that he is still putting weight on it, I really don't think the situation is right now. The vet didn't even see a problem when I brought him in in April, 3 weeks after he started showing lameness. Anyway, we'll take it as it goes.

What Mika's been doing

(Trying out this template. I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not yet.)

Mika is still on a break from agility because of her shoulder. She's not showing lameness anymore, but I'm still resting her just in case. We've been getting back to tricks, which we haven't trained for a while.

We did a couple sessions of backing up today. It's a trick that I've been training on and off for years, but we just never completed it. She's always had a bit of a tough time with it. The traditional way of teaching it -- stepping towards the dog to get them to take a step back -- never worked. If I try that, Mika just sits down. I've tried luring her backwards with a treat, but it's just awkward and she isn't thinking about what she's doing. I've tried shaping; not much luck with that either, as the most I could get was a tiny step backward with one back paw, and it didn't seem like she was doing it intentionally. What has worked best for us so far as been using a low platform for her to target with her back paws (as explained in Sassie Joiris' "Tricks: Backing Up" article in the October 2009 issue of Clean Run). I started using this method last October, after being inspired by the article. When I wrote about Mika's progress with the method in October, I said:

"Mika actually did incredible with shaping this trick. She's not a thinker and gets "stuck" easily (when she doesn't know what to do she'll lie down or sit and stare at me). But she only got stuck ONCE in this 5-minute session! By the end of the 5 minutes she was backing up onto the book every time. She barked through the entire 5 minutes, hahaha!"

Well, one thing hasn't changed; Mika still barks the entire (I repeat: ENTIRE) time when we shape the back up trick! But she's also improved; we did 2 very short sessions today and she never got stuck at all!

Instead of using a book, I used a low block of wood that worked just as well. In our first session, she didn't really know what she was supposed to be doing and jumped over my legs a couple of times (I had my legs in a "V" channel the help her stay in a straight line). She soon remembered, though. Our second session was only one rep; she backed up onto the block of wood perfectly the first time, so I gave her a mini jackpot and ended the session. Yay Mika!! I'm only requiring her to back up one step right now, so she's just taking a backward step onto the block. When she gets more consistent, I'll increase the distance very gradually.

Dog walk/agility update

Yay Wall-e! Today we back-chained from the part of the dog walk where the horizontal plank connects with the down plank. He had better speed than yesterday!

After that, we ran a flowing sequence and then trained more tunnel sends, and also a bit of jump wrapping. Like the DW, he had better speed today than yesterday.

Mika's shoulder seems to be much better; yesterday, while dinner was being made and she was waiting around for food to drop, she lifted up her front right paw a couple times, like a pointer. (She often does that when she's eagerly waiting for something.) That meant that she was voluntarily putting weight on her left shoulder...a good sign! Today at the field I let her chase her food tube around. She had fun; I could tell because of all the barking!!

Mika's shoulder and Wall-e's training

Mika was popping out of 12 weaves consistently in training last week, so on Sunday I did the soundness test and discovered that she was limping very slightly, putting more weight on her front right leg than her left. Later that day I massaged her left side and found that when I massaged her left shoulder, near the elbow, she tensed up and lifted her head to look at me. "Ouch!" She also didn't want to go up the stairs that evening; she started walking up them (instead of running up like she usually does) and then stopped when she got in the middle and looked at me.

She'll be getting a complete break from agility for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping that it's just a little problem that'll go away after rest and more massage. I'm not going to overreact and think the worst like I did with Wall-e's lameness :) She did seem a bit better yesterday and today.

Today, a couple hours ago, I went to the field to work on Wall-e's dog walk. We're concentrating on the DW now instead of the A-frame because of the easier angle. Last week I back-chained the 2-foot high DW -- he was amazing! -- and today we started back-chaining the full-height DW. I'm using a food-loaded target at the end to build his independence. All 3 reps were great! He's giving as much speed as he's able; hard to get lots of speed when you're just using the down plank.

Then we ran a sequence to practice rear crosses. The first rep went well, but I slipped and fell in the middle of the sequence, haha, so we tried again. The second rep was good too. I just wasn't running fast enough and he didn't know where to go a couple of times.

Afterward, we trained sends to the tunnel. I should have accelerated more, which would have cued him to extend better. Oh well, I'm learning!

I might post a video of Wall-e's training on the weekend, we'll see :)

Wall-e is finally back (mostly)!

I've been giving Wall-e a semi-rest ever since I discovered his injury on April 3. When he stopped showing signs of lameness, I started to do agility again, but very low-key. Only straight lines and only using jumps at 6", the plank raised at a 1-foot-high angle, and weaves set in a channel wide enough for him to run through without bending. We've had less than 10 sessions this month (and each session was short). I wanted to give his body (whatever it was) time to heal, and I didn't want something like quick turns to cause him to become lame again.

Well, today I finally let him train on an exercise with a TURN! It was a 4-jump exercise from the 2009 FCI Worlds Individual Medium Jumping course. It involved a threadle and an almost-270 degree turn (Wall-e hasn't seen a lot of these yet). I set the jumps at 6" because I didn't want to add too much at once (I didn't want to add height in the same session that I added turns). Was this boy ever fast.

Awesome vet appointment

Wall-e had his vet appointment (routine exam) on Wednesday this week. I thought it was last week, but turns out that I was thinking a week early.

Every time I go with either Mika or Wall-e, I appreciate what a great vet we have! We're lucky to have a vet who really takes the time to explain things. We always have interesting discussions. Our vet has mostly a holistic approach; not fully holistic, but mostly. Being a holistic fan and follower myself, I think that's great.

The vet felt Wall-e's knees and hips and didn't see a problem; she said that they felt great, actually. He hasn't been limping or showing any other signs of lameness since I posted last week saying that he was sound again.

We had a long discussion on whether or not to give him a parvovirus vaccine. I take a more-is-not-always-better approach to vaccinations and am constantly reading about the alternatives, short-term and long-terms side effects, and pros and cons of vaccines. In the end, I was convinced that the vaccine would do more good than harm in the long run, so Wall-e was given a modified live parvo vaccine and received a dosage of a homeopathic detox afterward. I gave it to him again yesterday and he'll be getting more today, and then he's done. (Luckily for him! He hates the taste and makes a big face after it goes in his mouth!)

Finally, he got his heartworm test, which was definitely negative. He has the yellow wrap (with a heart on it!) around his leg because that's where they took the blood.


I wanted to say thanks to everyone for your encouragement when Wall-e was lame! I was really worried at the time. I'm so glad that it looks like it was only a soft-tissue injury and nothing serious!

A lame Wall-e update

Wall-e is no longer lame; woohoo! As of Saturday, he is no longer putting his weight on his right leg, and yesterday he wasn't limping either. We have a vet appointment on Wednesday, so we'll see if our veterinarian sees anything. I've increased his exercise to a daily 30-minute walk.

I've also started training him regularly again. This morning we worked on lefts and rights. He always gets his lefts, but his rights are still at about 50%. Still, he was really enthusiastic, spinning like a top!

Soundess test

This is the soundness test I do with my dogs. After reading articles about different soundness tests, I came up with this little routine. I never really planned it out and I don't do the steps in a certain order; when I first started checking my dogs I just did one of these steps at a time, but then eventually found myself doing all these steps in one check.

1. Stand your dog in front of you -- you don't have to formally stack him -- and lift up each of his legs. Note if one leg is harder to pick up than the other. Go to the other side of the dog and repeat because many dogs lean away from you as you enter their space. (Just realized this today, actually.) This is the step that led me to discovering Wall-e's lameness.
If one leg is harder to pick up than the adjoining leg (in Wall-e's example, the right rear leg felt heavier than the left rear leg), then pay close attention to the leg that feels lighter for the rest of the test.

2. Look at how your dog is placing his weight; look at his front feet and his rear feet and notice if he's shifting his weight to any of them. Also notice if he's placing one feet behind or ahead of the other one (for example, if he's putting one rear foot ahead of the other rear foot). If he is, remember it for Step 4.
If your dog is putting more of his weight on one leg than the adjoining leg (Wall-e was shifting his weight to his right rear leg and putting less weight on his left rear leg), pay special attention to the adjoining leg.

3. Gently flex each leg through its natural range of motion. Make sure not to stretch past what the dog could do himself.
If your dog is showing any signs of resistance or pain in a leg, pay attention to that one.

4. Release your dog and then reset him after a few moments. If he was placing a foot behind or ahead of the other one in Step 2, notice if he is doing it again.
If your dog is always putting one leg ahead of its opposite/adjoining leg, that could be a sign of lameness in that leg. You can't really use this step without using the other steps, but it can help clarify lameness if you weren't quite sure before.

5. Walk and trot your dog down a hallway. (Don't formally heel the dog.)
I find that taking a video of this really helps (well, video helps with everything!). Note if there's any abnormality in your dog's gait; limping, carrying the head too high or too low.

*****

Wall-e is still lame, unfortunately.

Wall-e is lame

I try to do occasional soundness tests on my dogs, so I can catch anything before it gets bigger. Until this past weekend, I never caught anything, but on Saturday as I was picking up each of Wall-e's feet, I noticed that it was harder to pick up his right hind leg than his left hind leg. I looked at his back legs while he was standing and yep, he was putting less weight on his LH and more on his RH...so something was up with the LH. He was also slightly limping, so slight that I definitely would not have noticed it if I hadn't noticed his offset weight transfer.

Hm. Well. I really really hope it's not something to do with his CCL (cranial cruciate ligament). I know it could be anything really, but he's been lame in that left rear leg since Saturday and reading the CCL articles in The Agility Advantage by Chris Zink, I don't think that's a good sign. He has gotten better and is placing his weight a bit more evenly, but I can still see him putting more weight on his other rear leg. He has to have an annual vet check-up soon anyway, so while we're there, I'll mention it. We have a good vet who has a holistic approach and she tends to notice things really well, so I'm sure she'll be able to see if it's anything we should worry about.

I'm giving him low activity for a week and moderate activity for the rest of the month.

Ignorance is bliss. If I had never known that it's good to do soundness tests on agility dogs, I would never have started worrying and wondering if Wall-e has a partially or fully ruptured CCL! Then again, if he does, we can catch it and take the necessary actions before it turns into arthritis.

I always make too big of a deal out of everything, hahaha.