I Lost My Running Buddy
We All Have One =
A Million Dollar Dog.
At 9 Months hold he’s already labeled our Million Dollar Dog.
Sir Pepe- a-lot
He was also supposed to be my running partner. About 3 months ago on a hike he came up lame, and has been limping ever since.
The 1st trip to the Vet had him Dx with inflamed growth plates = Rest
After having to carry him home from the park one day a few weeks ago, 2nd trip to the Vet, she thought he had bilateral subluxation of the carpels = Referral to Orthopedic.
This is a 9 month old puppy, and we’re going to an orthopedic.
Since the 1st Dx, I had been busy on Google. Google’N this and Google’N that.
The Ortho didn’t think it was his wrists at all, but rather his elbows. I had read a lot about things that go wrong in the elbows.
Poor Guy in for surgery.
Bilateral Elbow Dysplasia with Fragmented ___________ and a very mild case of incongruence. I had already become fluid in all of these things. I do this for my own health, the health of my family, the health of my clients, and well, the health of my pets.
So here are the fragments, or ‘bone chips’ they took out of Pepe’s elbow joints.
The one on top is his left elbow, about 6 bone chips.
The one on the bottom is his right elbow; just a few chips.
Nothing had to be done with the fact that the bones didn’t match up.
I think, the Ortho said, he shaved off some soft bone. So sweet little Pepe, my running partner, is sidelined for months.
He’s so sweet! Here he is, it’s pretty funny he got PrP in both his elbow joints. If you don’t know what that is you should check it out, they started doing it to humans a few years ago, and having great results. He has a morphine patch, and 2 different kinds of pain killers. We splurged for a “Comfy Cone”. The plastic one, was noisy, and hurt us when he side swiped us with it. So I can only imagine what it was like inside the cone.
So he’s handling it fairly well right now.
The Ortho said he was amazed at how well his cartilage looked when he went in there, that is a good thing. He was active enough that the symptoms came out early enough, that we were able to remedy the situation before any damage had occurred.
Sir Pepe-a-lot has his 2 week follow up, no activity but light walks for 4 weeks (sounds familiar to most of us doesn’t it)
It’s genetic, and mostly breed specific. They ‘say’ he will never be an agility dog, he may never be able to run the 9 to 12 miles with me I was hoping (we all know that sometimes DRs’ give horrible advice) but he’s going to be OK, and back before you know it.
Any ideas on how to keep a Blue Heeler X from: jumping, sliding and running….?
HAHA!