Danger-prone dog.

A thing I have recently learned:

If somebody exclaims "Wow! Chandler is fast!" I need to stop him. NOW.

I am NOT a happy puppy.

It turns out that Chan had too much fun last Sunday. He overexerted and really messed up his "rear end suspension", as I often call it. In practical terms, this means that he is very sore in his right hind leg, is having trouble bearing weight on it, and can't handle stairs or steep inclines at the moment. This is a bit of a problem, as there is no way to get into and out of the house without encountering at least two stairs.

Right hind leg. Ouchy.

Of course, he didn't stiffen up until after the car ride home. The only indication he gave that something might be wrong was a slight yelp as he inspected Karen's car before we left. I personally suspect the cause was chasing after the ultraballs from the ball launcher. He'll run flat out and full of drive to beat another dog to the ball. In addition, he also did some extreme twists and turns while grabbing the ball.

But fetch is fun!

Unfortunately, while the spirit is willing, his flesh isn't quite up to the task. Chandler has slightly loose hips; .61 / .57 PennHIP. Thankfully there's no degenerative joint disease. He got the bad luck of the litter. His dam has .30 / .30 PennHIP, his sire was OFA good. Oddly, I know of other dogs of his breed with similar hip ratings to Chan that show no symptoms. As near as I can figure out, his loose hips in combination with his shorter legs/longer back make him very prone to over-stressing the muscles in his hindquarters.

You said I have a rectangular build?

For the first part of the week I minimized Chan's exposure to stairs and cut his exercise down to potty walks, as I knew he needed to rest. However, he seemed to get more uncomfortable as time went by. He didn't wander the house. He yelped when ascending the two steps to get through the sliding glass door into the house. When he was standing, his tail hung strait down, and it was obvious he was favoring his right hind leg. I loaded him into the car for a trip to the veterinarian on Thursday.

Poor Chandler; he's seen too much of the interior of various veterinary offices between his multiple accidents and his anaplasmosis issues. All he did was cry and shake while waiting for the veterinarian. I can't say I blame him that much, since having his injured leg manipulated was obviously painful. The "good" news from the visit was that Chandler's knee did not seem to be involved, so I did not have to worry about a cruciate ligament tear. The veterinarian concluded that Chandler's hip muscles that extend the leg backward were the problem, as I had suspected. We left with some Deramaxx for his pain, and I took a side trip to Petsmart to get a dog ramp. Chan isn't quite so sure about the ramp, because he associates the sliding glass door and its two steps with pain in his hips. But if I tap the ramp in front of him, he'll scoot up and down it.

I don't like it, but if you insist I'll go up the ramp.

Chan seems to have improved a bit, between the rest and the Deramaxx. Today, he's wagging more, moving around the house more, and trying to hold out for longer potty walks. It is probably going to be another extended recovery, but I am relieved that it wasn't his cruciate ligament. He will recover from a muscle injury given rest, care, and time.

Rear end suspension...again.

Chan did something to his hips running away from a doodle on August 8th.
He hasn't been getting much better so I took him to a canine physical therapist yesterday.

She was quite nice about my tale of woe, although there was a miscommunication with my vet, and she was a bit surprised that Chandler was not an Old English Sheepdog. *long suffering sigh*

So far, she is the only person who has been able to lay hands on Chandler and say which muscles are bothering him. Apparently his pectineus, iliopsoas, and lower back muscles in the lumbosacral area are all really owtchy.

We've got homework to try to get his muscles back in working order.

1. Steep hill walking. Go up and down a steep hill 3-4 times, every other day.

2.Exercise ball work, and not of the kind Chan likes. This is going to take some +R training. He put his front paws on the ball a few times, and then decided we were totally bonkers! I'm going to be borrowing one of the "eggs" from a friend, so he's got a delay before we try it again.

3. Daily leash walks, and I'm supposed to apply an ice pack to his hips for 10-15 minutes after we get home.

4. Backwards walking. Whee! More R+. Chan will at least be liking the treats. His "back" command is all rusty since my Mom uses it all the time without making sure he actually backs up. She's fine as long as he gets out of her way.

5. Absolutely no playing fetch, fence running, quick turns etc.
(Urgh...managing him in NC is going to be FUN!)

6. Come back in about 3 weeks for a recheck.

Chandler hip update

I got Chandler rechecked by the orthopedic specialist last week, and did a PennHIP at the same time. PennHIP is a measure of joint laxity that is done by the University of Pennsylvania Vet School. (http://www.pennhip.org/) As it uses three x-rays in different positions, many dog people think it is more reliable than OFA screening. Chandler's results just came back yesterday.

As usual for Chandler, it's not that great, but it could have been worse. DI 0.61/0.57, putting him in the 30th percentile, with no sign of Degenerative Joint Disease (yet) This translates to is left hip can come 61% out of joint and his right 57%. This puts him in the lowest 30% of the English Shepherds that they have on record, and the laxness means that he has a greater chance of developing degenerative joint disease later in life.

However, the specialists thought there were some small changes occurring on the right side.
There's no signs of changes in the neck yet, but they thought the ball may have started being remodeled a bit.
Their orthopedic specialist found no problems in Chandler's knees, but was able to pop both hips out of socket fairly easily.
(After which they slid back in.) Both left and right thighs are evenly muscled.
Both specialists that I talked to at the clinic say he has hip dysplasia, as the joint is not "normal".
His right side only has about 40% of the "ball" in its "cup".

I suspect when Chandler is having a major problem, one of his hips has popped out and back in.
So far that's only twice this year. Once when saving his sheltie buddy from another dog, and once when I think he got stuck in the mud in a pond.

So...no over exercising, no agility, no flyball. *sigh* Herding might be ok, and swimming would be great.

I need to win the lottery, buy a farm, and stick a swimming pool in the back yard. ;)