Freak Accident

I have a GOOD dog.
I also have one of the luckiest unlucky dogs in the world.

Yesterday Chandler was zooming through the woods and somehow managed to impale himself upon a stick. Getting him to the vet when he screamed whenever I picked him up or the car went over a bump was an ordeal in itself. Unfortunately, I didn't know what had happened since the stick had broken off inside, and there was no blood, so apparently they didn't find it until they did x-rays.

It turns out the stick was over 7 inches long, an inch wide, and had passed right between his jugular vein and thoracic artery to become embedded in his lower neck. The entire staff of the vet's was impressed, to say the least. (I'm thinking I need to find his guardian angel and send cookies or something.)

And during all this, he never tried to bite ANYBODY. Not me when I had to pick him up, and not any of the vet's staff. (I have a VERY good dog.)

He's home today, stuffed with antibiotics and painkiller. I'm amazed he's limping around. I'm just glad he's here.

If anyone has any suggestions about what I can do to make him more comfortable while he's recovering, I'd appreciate it. The vet was decent about "here's the pills" but less so on the other stuff. I may be mounding up the cats' blankets for him...

Interceptor aftermath

Morning, and Chandler is fine.
One of the going theories is that the cats tried to assassinate him by knocking the box off the entertainment center.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Bad Puppy! (and we saw the orthopedic specialist)

I have been told a theory that we get good dogs for our first dogs, and thereafter are sent more challenging ones. By and large, this has been true of Chandler, and perhaps it has made me a bit too complacent.

He's never snuck anything off of counters, but today he apparently decided a new six month supply of heartworm meds would make a great snack. Fortunately, after two frantic calls to emergency clinics, and another two to different animal poison control hotlines, I found out that he should be ok. Thankfully, he does not have the MDR1 mutation that would make him more vulnerable to such a dosage. Thankfully, I had got him tested for it, and was able to tell the vet on the poison control line that it was not a factor.

So I'm keeping an eye on him for 24 hours, and he's been acting like his usual active self. Now, if I could just get my jangling nerves to settle down...

Otherwise...

Chandler had his visit with the specialist Thursday. It's mixed news.

From the xrays taken in August, his right hip is dysplastic although the left is pretty good.
His left has about 75% of the ball in the socket, but the right only has about 55%.
(At his guess that would probably get a good OFA on the left and a fair to poor on the right.)
There may have been some degenerative joint disease starting on the right.

He said it is possible that he had some loose joints that might have tightened up as he aged, but the right got injured when that other dog slammed into him in July.

He suggested that doing and OFA or PENNhip would mostly be a waste of money for me, and instead suggested that I should just consider getting some more diagnostic x-rays and palpitations of his hips done if he gets worse or if we already have him knocked out for a dental or something.

In the meantime, as he's mostly fine 99% of the time, I've been told I can give him some aspirin if he overdoes it. His gait is a little "off" and he puts more weight on the left side, but we can live with that as long as he's not in great amounts of pain. I just have to try to make sure he doesn't get slammed around too much-which will take a bit of planning with his Akita friend.

Technically the vet said he should have more on leash exercise, but that sort of thing actually made him worse over the summer, so I think I'm going to stick to letting him run on the hiking trails. Swimming was also recommended, which should not be a problem. (Keeping him out of water would be much more difficult.)

So, it's sort of a "wait and see" situation. I'm happy I at least got some straight answers from SOMEBODY.

Whee!

Two of Chandler's pictures made it into the 2007 English Shepherd calendar!
(Ok, so they're just little adjunct pics and not the main monthly ones, but I'm still happy.)
Now I have to figure out how many to order...already have one request from one of Chan's fan club.

The results.

I'm trying to decide if this is better or worse than a torn cruciate.

The new vet at the practice finally managed to track down the source of Chandler's mysterious appearing and disappearing lameness. It wasn't his knee as we had feared; unfortunately it's not panosteitis either. His right hip is not very solid. The vet said he didn't have any problems repeatedly popping it out of socket while Chandler was anesthetized. I'll have to decide if I want to get him OFA'd or PennHIPed to get a better idea of what is going on. It actually doesn't seem to bother him unless he really jars it, and he's been put on joint supplements in hopes that they will help.

I'm not sure why this wasn't caught when the x-rays were first taken. This whole fiasco caused me to rest him and now he's lost much of his supportive muscle.


At least his MDR1 just came back as normal/normal. He should be ivermectin etc safe.

Upsetting end to a good weekend

Well, Friday night went very well at the Modernmyths party.
I took Chandler out for a great run in a local park beforehand,
he was quite happy to get petted by all the Smith girls, and didn't freak out at any of the men.
He actually stopped a car in the parking lot by being criminally cute while doing a high-5.

And then this morning happened...

I went out to the park today early when there was only three other dogs there.
Chandler was doing figure 8's around a friendly lab when he suddenly did a slight twist at low speed and yelped. He held up his right hind leg for about half a minute after that, and then started using it again.
Of course, now he seems to be putting weight on it, but I think that doesn't mean anything...
I'm calling the vet Monday to check for laxity and a cruciate tear.

He was zooming around hiking trails offleash Friday with no problems.
He just started agility class.
The MA English Shepherd meet is 3 weeks away.
*cry*

Minor update

I had a great trip to Ikea with friends last weekend. (You know who you are.) Amazingly, the cinnamon buns lasted until Thursday. I'm hoping everyone is enjoying their little globe lights, unfortunately I haven't had time to find a spot for my two lanterns yet. And yes, Chandler ADORES his dragon.



Lyssa and Tlttlotd- I am blaming my betta obsession on you. :)
I picked up Jabberwock, a white betta with blue wash and reddish fin tips soon after visiting, and have just gotten a blue crowntail as of yesterday. He doesn't have a name yet. (Name suggestions solicited!) I'm still searching for the perfect Boojum to replace my deceased Snark on my desk at work-none of the bettas at Petsmart last night seemed quite right.

Tomorrow Chan and I will hopefully be off to the birthday party of his cousin, Nixie. I'm expecting him to become a happy, muddy, tired mess.