Chandler update

Chandler is REALLY not having a good summer.

The good news:
His hot spot is better, and we're almost through with the antibiotics.
His lame leg seems to have cleared up, we went to the dog park for the first time in a month yesterday, and there was no yelping or limping.

The bad news:
He ripped up his pads zooming at the dog park yesterday.
I guess they've lost their toughness after a month of rest.
There's no sign of blood, but he has only a single paw that doesn't have some kind of scrape or a flap hanging off it.
Needless to say he's a bit sore, and we're resting.
(I'm also glad he's still on antibiotics)
I'm probably heading out later to look for some sort of dog booties for him to wear to keep the scrapes clean for a few days.

dog is better, fish is not...

Chan seems to be doing fine during his convalescence.
He's trotting around, and doing his best to bounce while I'm doing my best to stop him.
The cats are being driven crazy, because he wants to play.

So the dog is better, but my betta Snark is looking a bit ill.
He's all washed out and was sitting on the bottom of his little hex tank.
I've changed his water, and I hope that will perk him up.

well...

...the fish didn't make it, despite administration of medication. *sigh*
I'm bleaching his tank to make sure bacteria and viruses are dead before I try to put another fish in there.

Chandler is just not having a good summer.
I discovered a large hot spot with painful scabs on him.
So, after another trip to the vet, he's got antibiotics for two weeks,
and I'm trying to keep him from licking at the spot.
I may need to borrow an Elizabethan collar from a friend,
and I'm sure he won't like that.

In the meantime I'm trying some green tea compresses on the hot spot,
as I've heard these can help dry them up and stop the itching.

At least the weather is going to be beautiful this weekend. :)

The results of today’s visit to the veterinarian.

Although Chandler is favoring the leg, his limp is not pronounced, so they knocked him out to do x-rays and manipulate his leg.
There is no laxity in the right knee-so if there is a cruciate tear, it is tiny.
They also said xrays showed nothing abnormal.
(Plus his hips look good (informally); Yeah!)
Diagnosis was either a soft tissue injury or panosteitis, which I guess translates into he did something to a muscle or has growing pains.
The bottom line is that he is supposed to rest for another month, although he can go on leash walks and do other easy exercises like swimming. No bouncing or running allowed.

Chandler rant...I need to vent worries.

This first showed up on the 14th, when a dog collided with him in the dog park, but he had been playing very roughly with another dog two days beforehand so I can't rule out anything. Anyway, he yelped at the collision, yipped once again when he flopped down on his side, and yelped coming up the riverbank during his last "you just yelped; we are going home" rinse. And complaned a bit while settling into the back seat. He seemed fine the next day, so on the day after that we went out on a play date with a friend's ES dogs. He then yelped a few times that day, but nobody could pin anything down by looking at him. (There was no obvious limp and there never has been)

Rested him for a week, he seemed ok, so we went to one of his Akita friend's birthday parties. He won best swimmer, and only yelped once while playing-but I thought his Akita friend stepped on him. So we went hiking with my friend and her ES the next day, whereupon he hurled himself over a fallen sapling-and yelped. This time my friend could definitely see his limp, so we went into the vet on Tuesday.

The vet felt his hind legs, and watched him walk. She declared he had a stiff right knee, and proclaimed it either a sprain, strain, or a stretched or partially torn ligament. She then gave us anti-inflammatories until Friday, and orders to rest in the apartment for a week. After that, we were supposed to "take it easy". I was and still am not pleased with the vagueness.

We've mostly rested for a week-keeping a 9-10 month old ES from galloping around the house is not easy. We went to his class last night and his trainer said his right heel was wobbling a bit, and it was messing up his gait. It also looks like he's not putting all his weight on the leg-it has a tendency to toe-out.

I took Chandler out for a swim today.He seemed rather quiet for his first time off leash.
On land, it looked like his right leg was moving out to the side a bit when he walked, or something.
The fact that it's not easy to see is driving me crazy.

So we're back to the vet on Friday, because he's not quite right. This time we're seeing the head vet of the practice, so its sort of like having a second opinion.

It's just frusterating because his limp is so subtle, and they're being very vague. Plus I have other opinions ranging from "did you check for lyme?" to "it could be growing pains"...none of which have been ruled out as far as I know.

*FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

Anyway, here's a view of Chandler's valiant defense of the mud puddle, before all this happened.
Yes, he soaked up most of it into his fur.