It's not his leg...

I finally had Dylan in to have his leg checked for the second time. Turns out it is not his leg; but rather his right side of his body. Thermal imaging showed he has hot spots on his right shoulder and right hip. The Chiropractic treatment showed his sternum is pulling to one side. My vet said the muscles are tight and inflamed. Hopefully getting his spine back into alignment will help and I'll also be doing some new stretches with him to stretch out his spine. I love having a vet who is in tune with this stuff and understands the needs of a flyball dog! A regular vet was crazy if I had gone in and said I think there is something wrong with his leg but I'm not really sure!

He's been having a few issues with his box turn at practice. My new flyball club has a new and different training prop than he is used to. He's been turning really wide and doing some funky stuff when he gets up on that box. So my vet ordered that he not use it for a while - at least until we see if that helps him get better. He is fine without the training prop and does a great box turn consistently when it's not there so we might as well not use it. We can't race with a prop there anyway!

Time to see the vet!

I'm happy to say that we made it through the whole month of September without going to the vet! It's a miracle and I am nearly positive it's the first month this year that I have not been in a vets office with one of my dogs!

We are going in this afternoon though but at least it's October now. Dylan's going for a Chiropractic. They are having a special today and I have been wanting to take him in because he has been limping a little bit off and on.

So I get to take off from work early and take Dylan in to see the vet. I'm happy he is going in even though it's been a week and a half or so since I have noticed him limping!

Dylan's Leg

Something is still going on with Dylan's leg. I'm not sure what it is but when my vet looked at it a month or so ago she couldn't see anything either. She treats a lot of working dogs so she pays close attention to soft tissue injuries. So if she couldn't find anything, I'm pretty sure another vet wouldn't either. I may have to try to get him back in sometime in the near future for a more thorough exam.

He seems to be standing off balance sometimes and very bull-legged at others. Then there are days that he seems okay and acts like nothing is wrong? I need to start journaling everyday so that if and when we do go back to the vet, I have clear records of what is wrong.

Dylan is supposed to be running in a Flyball demo this weekend. I don't know if he will be able to. I don't want to allow him to push himself and make things worse. He's one of those crazy dogs that would keep going and going and going until he drops. He just doesn't know to stop when he feels pain!

Sometimes I think life would be a whole lot easier if dogs could talk! Then they could tell us what is wrong with them so we could take care of it!

Is he injured?

This is the second time in about a month that I have had to pull Dylan out of Flyball Practice. I'm not sure what is going on.

A month ago Dylan started limping during practice. I pulled him out and rubbed him down and stretched him out. I gave him some Arnica and by morning he seemed okay. We were headed to the holistic vet the next morning with Leon so I brought Dylan along and she checked him and watched his gate. She couldn't see a limp so we figured he must have just twisted something and seemed to be feeling better.

Last night, he was messing up on his box turn. He's been turning wide sometimes and I think it's because of the training prop. I asked them to move it out. I don't want him learning to turn too wide because of the prop. First turn without he prop was totally messed up. Then I noticed that he was favoring one leg. He won't put near as much weight on his right leg. He's spending a lot of time standing a little bull legged. I pulled him out, rubbed him down and stretched him good. Gave him some Arnica last night but this morning he was still favoring that left leg.

I can't remember if the first time it was the right leg that he was having an issue with. I need to call the vet today and see if they have it in their records.

I hope we can figure out what it is. I don't want my little boy hurting. Paul believes it's just a stubbed toe but I am not sure if that is the case. I have a feeling he's twisted or tweaked something in that leg that needs some time to heal.

Marley's recovery!

Marley is still recovering from the dog bites in May. She's been doing well but had an allergic reaction to the sutures. She's limping a bit but that's normal for her. She's never really walked completely straight.

She's now developing some new little seroma's in the main incision from the first surgery. The incision is all lumpy. My vet said they may open up on the skin level and we may have to cut them out. Poor little girl has already been through so much.

We are hot packing the incision for now to see if the lumps go down. I forgot to do it until today but she was a good girl to lay on the warm rice bag for me. I took this pic to show what a patient girl she is. Of course I was right there with her to give her some cheese for saying cheese!! She still has her therapy bandana on but our visit tonight was cancelled (even though we got dressed and showed up - the rec therapist apparently did not).

She's had vitamin b12 shots in her incision to break up the scar tissue. As well as another chiropractic treatment and acupuncture session last week.

I'm just so grateful this little girl survived this whole mess. I can't imagine life without her! Her darling little face lights up my life in ways I never knew possible. We'll continue to do whatever necessary to help her heal from these terrible injuries. She's just too precious of a princess not too.

Did I mention before I never understood how some people NEVER go to the vet? I am not keeping an exact count and I have been in a vets office at least 18 times this year (that I can count). I only have two dogs now!! That doesn't include the stops in to buy all her dietary supplements either!

There may be hope after all....

Good news came from Colorado yesterday. The Vet staff that is taking care of Nietzsche thinks there is a possibility that an auto immune disease could be causing his issues. They are running more and more tests. More results will come back tomorrow. An auto immune disease may have some treatment options so they want to rule it out before they decide that it is time to put him down.

He's supposed to be coming home today as well. I think it will be good for him and his family to be able to spend some time together today.

Still keeping our fingers crossed...We know however that this may be Nietzsche's time. We hope that the veterinarians will help our friends make the best decision for him once they determine a more definite diagnosis.

Good Thoughts for Nietzsche!

Nietzsche is a long time dog friend of ours. His owner is my good friend. I have known Nietzsche since before I got my boy Dylan. He was one of the first dogs that Dylan met when I brought him home.

He's now a spry young 12 year old dog. Still full of life and energy! He's been in Northern Cali for two years but recently moved to Boulder, Colorado.

I got a message earlier that he's believed to have a neurological injury. He tripped last weekend camping and had a slight limp the last few days. Now he seems to have lost balance and control of his urinary and bowel movements. A veterinarian today wasn't sure what was causing the issue but said it could have been a stroke or some kind of neurological problem.

Luckily, Colorado State University is close by and they have some Veterinary Neurologists there. So Nietzsche has been transferred and was having a CT scan and whatever else he may need. I haven't got an update in a few hours now but last I heard they were waiting on test results.

I am sure it's nice to a veterinary school close by! I don't know if we have one here in Utah but in cases like this it would sure be nice to have a team of specialists. I know some people think that 12 is old for a dog but so many dogs I know are still full of life at that age.

Keep sending good thoughts to our good black lab friend! We're worried and want him to be able to recover.

We have a new friend...

This is Seki. He is our new Border Collie Buddy. My friend from Four Legged Scholars just adopted him a few weeks ago. She lost her 14 year old Border Collie to old age a few months back. She's excited to have a new dog to train and a new potential athlete.

Seki is doing very well for being a 1 year old dog without much training. I'm jealous of his recall (compared to Dylan he's a saint) and he's focused and responsive. He's been too excited in the car though but his new guardian is the perfect person to work with him to modify undesirable behaviors.

We have high hopes that he and Dylan will one day be friends. I thought today might be the day since Dylan was stalking him and wanting to play when he was on leash. Off leash, I just don't think they are quite ready. They were doing quite well but Dylan got grumpy over a treat I was giving him when Seki ran up from behind. One of these days they will get used to being around each other though. Dylan just requires a bit of time to get used to new dog friends.

Seki hopes to one day be a flyball dog and do some agility and herding and who knows what else. Oh and freestyle is on the list too. He should have a fun life in his new home with a professional clicker trainer. Unfortunately, the last few weeks have shown a potential problem in one of his back legs. A vet on friday said his patella is popping out of place but he may grow out of it because he is still young. He'll see a better vet Monday and we are hoping it's something minor because this dog would be a wonderful athlete if given the opportunity. Only time and a better vet will be able to tell if the problem is something that can easily be fixed (and hopefully without surgery). Good thing we have that new big Pet Center here that has rehab, Physical Therapy, and acupuncture and all that. Seki may just be a dog that needs it! We are crossing our fingers he doesn't though.

Poor dog with a limp!

It's Dylan this time not Marley! That's actually pretty unusual. Marley is a constant limper.

I came home from work and Dylan is limping all over the place. He won't put any weight on his front right paw. I am not sure what happened but I am guessing he twisted it or something when he was jumping off the bed. When I first got home he was licking and licking and licking. It's not his pad and the foot looks okay to me. He does have Monster long nails but other than that things look okay.

I put him up on the bed and laid down with him a bit. Now he's lounging comfortable in a king size bed he has all to himself. I'm hoping he will stay there and lay still most the evening to give that paw a rest. If it's not better by morning, we will see about getting into a vet's office. My regular vet is open Saturday mornings but I usually have to schedule with them a few days in advance. The vet that did Marley's surgeries is open tomorrow and Sunday and they take walk ins for a few extra dollars. I could possibly get an appointment tomorrow or Sunday as well.

I gave him some Arnica. My holistic vet (yes I have lots of vets!) gave it to me after Marley's surgeries. She said I should have given it to Marley right after the dog fight (even before rushing to the vet). Live and learn I guess. It's supposed to be good for muscle and soft tissue injuries. Hopefully, Dylan will benefit and be bouncing off the walls very soon. I'm thinking he will have to stay home from Flyball regardless. I don't know what's wrong and even if he starts walking around like normal, I wouldn't be positive that everything is all better. It's probably best to give him some time to heal before making him jump on that flyball box. I'm bummed because we haven't had practice in a few weeks and I was getting really excited to go out and play! It's more important to make sure that he doesn't cause further injury to whatever it is that he's done to himself.

It seems my dogs are accident prone. I will never understand the people who don't even make to the vet once a year. I've been in every month this year except January. I have multiple vets who now know me and my dogs by name and I spend more money on veterinary care than I do on anything else.

Marley is making progress!

We've been back to the vet for a follow up today. It's been almost 2 months since the dog fight where she got injured. She's making progress and healing well. The strained muscle in her leg is lots better and her lower back is healing well. There are still some tight and tense muscles in her mid back and neck. Time will help them heal and I think the accupucture and chiropractice help.

She's had some sort of reaction to the sutures. Her insicision from the first surgery is now lumpy. Our wonderful vet said it was probably the die that caused the reaction so I've called to have them add notes to her files at her other vet's offices (she now has 3 vets!) not to use those same kind of sutures if she needs stitches in the future. She got some Vitamin B12 shots in the scar tissue that will help break it up so we don't have problems in the future with her stomach being too tight.

Marley is still nervous about being in the vets office but she did a lot better today than last time. I think this whole thing has been a bit traumatizing. The moment we walk into Willow Creek she has her tail tucked and acts terrified. Luckily our holistic vet is wonderful to work with her and reward her for being a good girl while she is working on her.

Marley has been approved to go back to work as a therapy dog! I have called to try to get a date and time set up. She's still not allowed to do any agility or flyball but I'm not working her there anyway so it really doesn't matter. Mostly the vet wants me to try to limit her jumping as much as possible while her back continues to heal.

We will go in again next month for some more chiropratic and accupuncture. She'll also have a thermal scan and maybe some more B12 shots in the scar tissue. With time, she will heal and keep feeling better and better. I'm just so grateful my baby girl has made it through all this. Her injuries were potentially life threatening but she's a trooper and has done well throughout the many vet visits and having people poke and prod her all the time.

Her hair still isn't grown back all the way but it's coming back. It's funny that she still seems to have a ring around one leg where she had the IV. Soon you won't be able to tell though that there was ever an IV there!!

Life changes so fast.

I keep thinking I am at the end of the streak of what seems to be one major issue after another. Yet then I get surprised by yet another. Life seems to change so fast when you aren't expecting it.

My mother had a heart attack today. I guess there's been some ongoing issues the last week that she hadn't told any of us kids about. I knew she was sick over the weekend but Monday she emailed and said she was feeling much better. Today I got the call that they were on the way to the E.R. because she was having chest pain and had been having high blood pressure every time she checked it the last week. Over the weekend, her blood pressure was so high that they said she was at high risk for a stroke.

She is doing well and says she is feeling fine. They will do an angiogram tomorrow and hopefully fix any blockages. With luck, she will be able to come home Friday.

On a lighter note, Togepi is home from the vet. She has a bladder infection and an ulcer on her eye. They also did some x rays and found she has hip dysplasia in one of her hips. Nothing life threatening. Hip Dysplasia obviously won't be able to be healed but at least they can now manage the issue. . Hopefully she will get feeling better soon.

My New Favorite Place To Hang Out

I've decided that Willow Creek must be my new favorite place to hang out. I'm going back again today but not with Miss Marley this time.


Togepi is my god-pug. I'm her god mother. She's the first dog I ever fell in love with. She's the reason that I have dogs of my own. I used to dog sit her all the time but I don't get to have her over very often these days because Dylan is a stinker.

She's been staying with a friend while her guardian is out of town. She's gotten very sick and is peeing constantly and can't wait until she gets outside. I'm taking her in this afternoon to get her checked. Her guardian is on her way home to take care of her.

I hope it's something simple. I just feel bad that she isn't feeling well.

The limp...

Miss Marley often has a slight limp in her back right leg. She's got a shallow hip joint in that back leg. The last month she has been limping more and more often and when she runs she kicks that right leg out. This is one of the ways I keep track of her pain level.

Tonight she has a very definite limp in her bad leg. I feel awful that she is in that much pain. She's got a strained muscle back there and I wonder if the treatment yesterday has made her sore today. That's happened in the past where she will be sore for a day or two and then I see a lot of improvement after a couple of days.

They say that most dogs innately hide their pain. I know this to be true of Dylan. He only shows he is in pain when it's really bad!! I'm not sure if Marley has come to accept her structural issues as a part of life and so therefore she displays signs of being in pain easier. Or if she's in A LOT of pain and needs to be taking pain medication. I wonder if I could just notice smaller variances of normal behavior with her because I know she has issues. So I see her signs of pain when they are more mild than other dogs because I pay very close attention to her regular movements. On the other hand, she could be hiding her pain so by the time I am able to see it, it could be severe.

I know that if it were me, I'd want pain meds at some point. I was taking them over the weekend because of my damned knee. In my opinion, once pain passes a certain level, some pain medication is totally appropriate. I just don't know where that line is for Marley. It's times like these that I wish she were human, at least just for a moment. Just long enough to tell me exactly how she feels and what she wants me to do about it.

All I really know is that the road to healing is going to be longer than I wished it would be. I was hoping that things were getting back to normal. I forgot that a major trauma can cause damage to your entire body. Up until now, I'd mostly worried about the injuries to her abdomen. I now know I need to focus on doing what I can to help heal her body as a whole.

Raw food on a budget.

I loved feeding my dogs a raw diet. Well, it was a modified raw diet (part kibble, veggies, raw meat, organs, and bones). I got a little out of control though and was spending WAY too much to feed my dogs. I ended up going back to kibble almost a year ago just because of the expense.

After discussion with my vet today, I decided I really need to be giving my dogs some meat! She recommended mostly beef in the summer. She says Chicken is a warming meat so it's best not to feed it during the warm months of summer. She really recommends a "mostly" moist food diet.

So the plan is, a little meat, some veggies, raw eggs, a bone here and there (or meat on the bone when I can afford it!) and some kibble of course. I gotta be careful about meat. I need to make sure I am budgeting for it and weighing it so I am not feeding too much and keeping within my budget. I need to look into feeding ground game meats because I know I can get them really cheap. I forgot to ask my vet when I was there today but I will definitely be asking her next time I am there.

I feel silly working for a pet food company and feeling like I still need to supplement but I don't buy into the idea that a single kibble can give your dog everything they need for life. I just have to stay focused at work that the people that switch to my food - are making a HUGE step up from what they are feeding. The company I work for makes a great product and I don't mind telling people that.

I bought some beef this evening for $1.98 a lb. I really would like to make the daily diet less than $2.00 a lb though. I think I am going to try to give Marley 1/4 lb a day and Dylan 1/2 lb. I am not sure I can afford that so I need to sit down and figure out how much meat is affordable once I figure out what I can feed. These rump roasts were on sale and the price is good for a big old hunk of meat.

I know I felt a lot better about the dogs health when they were on raw. I worry a lot about their teeth these days because I don't brush them as much as I should and they are starting to turn yellow. I didn't have those worries with a raw diet. My biggest concern on raw was their weight because I was feeding them way too much. That's why a scale is an absolute must for me!! I wonder if I can get a cheap one on eBay!

I really hate feeding organs. It makes me gag and I can't handle cutting them up either. I'll feed chicken livers and hearts though because they are cheap and I can Stick them with a fork and feed them whole.

I'm excited to get back into the raw feeding. I just need to be more careful about sticking to a budget while feeding it. The kibble I buy will last a lot longer and I think that Dylan could go back to a food with grains in it if I were supplementing with raw food. That would make buying dog food a lot cheaper as well (plus with employee coupons, I'd be set for a cheap kibble budget).

I spend my life at the vet!

Marley went in for a visit with our holistic vet today. Her body has been really out of alignment since even before the dog fight.

We went over her x rays and the vet says she has some arthritis developing on one of the vertebrae that already causes her problems. She's gonna have problems for life but we are doing everything we can to prevent further issues and manage the issues she already has.

She had some major chiropractic adjustments. Her neck was all out of alignment. Her hips were out of place. She also has a pulled muscle in her leg. The vet says it's probably from being spread out and tied down on an operating table. Tied down under anesthetic, she wasn't able to let the vet techs know that she was being pulled too far. That's already her bad leg with a bad hip on that right side. Now with a strained muscle, she is standing with her leg out turned. A bit of massage and mild stretching should hopefully help over the next several weeks.

She's got some scar tissue building up. This could be problematic if we don't take care of it early. I am going to start massaging the area daily and then in a few weeks we will do some acupuncture in the area and vitamin b12 injections.

She got some acupuncture today and I am starting her on some homeopathic's to help her abdomen healing. Arnica and Silicea should hopefully be helpful in this healing process.

I didn't realize she needed to stay on probiotics for so long after the antibiotics. I guess we will be doing that for another month or so. She also wants her to have some limited activity for another 10 days. We just want to prevent potential issues in her abdomen where she has had so much trauma in that area the last month.

I also got some aconitum for Dylan. It's supposed to help calm him during this horrible firework season. I am not sure why everyone insists on lighting of shooting flames in a desert in the middle of summer. Dylan doesn't think it's the best idea either. It's an extremely scary month for Dylan in July but hopeful the aconitum will be helpful.

Craziness is never ending!

The knee is getting better. No more stabbing pains but it's definitely sore and stiff. One more follow up with the chirporactor and hopefully that will be it.

Now Miss Marley has had an upset tummy. She was having diarreah yesterday. Last night I woke up to a poor wimpering girl. I sat up and asked her if she wanted to go potty. She ran right to the door. I let her out and she couldn't get out to the lawn fast enough. I'm sad my poor baby girl wasn't feeling well. Before I went back to bed, I noticed she had an accident on the kitchen floor. Poor girl never has accidents but it was clear she couldn't hold it in any longer. I'm just glad she chose to go on the kitchen floor and not the carpet. At least it was easy for me to clean up.

I think she just ate too much raw bone the other day. I gave both dogs a raw bone on saturday and then passed out. I'd been taking pain meds for my knee. When I woke up and Marley's bone was gone and she had stolen Dylan's. I'm hoping the tummy upset will pass with another day or two. She actually is supposed to see my holistic vet tomorrow morning though.

Marley is locked up in the house all day. Paul will come by to let her out and take one of the dogs on a walk. Hope she doesn't have any accidents before he comes over there!! He's so wonderful to help with the dogs. They are a bit exercise deprived since I have been trying to take it easy on my sore knee.

Stitches Out!!

Marley's stitches are out! I am so happy that we can now hope things are behind us.

She does have some lumps on her belly now that I am unsure about. I will be watching them and hoping they go away on their own. If they are still there in another day or two, we will be making yet another trip to the vet to have them looked at.

She also needs to get in for a chiropractic treatment. I think her body is out of sync this last few weeks. She needs some treatment to get her back in alignment. They are supposed to call me for an appointment when they figure out what the vet's schedule will be the next couple of weeks. The vet we see can be hard to get into so sometimes it takes a week or two (new clients have to wait months).

On our way!

The stitches come out tomorrow! Then hopefully Marley will be able to go back to normal activities.

I want to try to get her in for a chiropractic treatment. She seems to be having some pain in her back or hips. She's not sitting straight on her hips most of the time. She has been kicking her leg back when she runs. She was due to go in the beginning of June but they said to wait until after she was healed from the injuries.

Finally Getting Better!!!

I think Miss Marley is finally on her way to getting better. She had the drain pulled out last night because I accidentally pulled it partially out when I was cleaning it. It's looking better today than it was even yesterday. That's probably partially due to the fact that she has had opportunity to do some grooming and clean things up a bit. She's not licking the wounds excessively but I let her do some cleaning last night and this morning.


The bruises are starting to fade and she has two wholes where the drain once was. She bled all over my sheets last night because I didn't expect that she would be bleeding still.

The incision that is still stitched has some bubbling areas. I am not sure what that's all about but I think it will be okay. I am sure the vet's office is getting tired of hearing from me all the time so I will just watch it for a few days.

She's acting much like nothing ever happened so I think she is feeling well. I think today may be the last day of pain meds if she keeps acting like she feels okay.

The drain on day #2

Two days in and this drain is looking pretty disgusting. Her fur is all crusty and gross and I have yet to find a good way to clean it. I thought I had some waterless pet shampoo but I can't find it in my messy house. A warm wash cloth is not helping much. Two more days and Marley will be able to do some cleaning herself. At least that will get us by until she can have a real bath.

I'm concerned about the new bruises. The vet's office said just to put warm compresses on the area a couple times a day. When I do this, the drain drips more frequently so I guess it should be working. I keep cleaning her skin but some of it is looking a bit irritated.

The good news is you can barely see the scar from the original surgery in the picture. It's looking so good! One down and three more to go! I can't believe that incision is only 12 days old.

I wonder how long it will be until her hair grows back. She's had her belly shaved twice in the past 2 weeks and also one of her legs has a ring where it's been shaved twice for the IV. It looks a bit funny for sure!!

I'm still just so grateful that my baby girl has lived through all of this. She's been a pretty good sport and is getting very used to showing people her belly on demand. She already knew this as a trick but she often rolled all the way over instead of stopping on her back. Now she is stopping on her back every time because I keep making her do it 10 times a day.