ness

PME - just wing it - what I have to do and it usually works out fine :laugh:.

BC Crazy after Ness had a reaction to the last round of flea treatment I was a bit concerned about continuing heart worm medication with her even though she has never reacted to it in the past. After seeking advice of the vets she is on Interceptor Spectrum as she has always been but they told me that was considered to be one of the lower risk products.

Consider asking about tramadol instead of a NSAID. Its supposedly kinder in the long term then a NSAID is to their system. Kenz's ortho was keen for her to only be on tramadol if she could cope on that or at least a combination of the two to reduce the NSAID dosage. Might be worth asking about.

Physio might be worth looking into. If your going the crate route then I was also told a steroid injection can be valuable if its something like a bicep tendonitis related issue. I opted for a PRP treatment x 2 with my girl and her bicep tendonitis case. She also had on-going physio treatment.

Good news Christina .

So I ask does anybody have a problem with the endurance limit? There was obviously logic to imposing age limit for that particular activity.

yes my 13 and a half year old has never really "done" toys until she had surgery for her cruciate and moved in with my parents. Whenever I went to visit her I would end up with a toy shoved in my leg. Now she is home again she will often run around the place with a toy.

If your dog is under 6 months you don't have to test before starting heartworm prevention. I don't think either of mine started on heartworm prevention until they were 6 months either. No point in giving them more drugs in their system then absolutely necessary.

for which surgery though korbin - a tightrope repair fits somewhere between a traditional/lateral suture repair and a bone cutting TPLO/TTA procedure as far as cost is concerned. Wonder how you crate rest a bull though.

:laugh: yes I can really honestly see a judge wanting to dismiss a dog from the ring because its unsound. Just on the matter of age limits an endurance trial already has an upper age limit of 8. Why would it be difficult to put an upper limit on a sport like agility or flyball regardless of breed. If the dog is still sound then you can still train them (and hopefully make the adequate adjustments on jump height) or even trial them in something like a veterans class. I think its less important in terms of obedience/rally/tracking/dances with dogs which are lower intensity activities and I think can quite safely be done by older dogs. You also have to remember its not the jumping but the chances are if you have an oldie competing in agility they may well be up in masters so you are subjecting them to turns and angles which aren't going to be as nice on the dog as a simple run around the novice course. I have seen some clubs here start offering a veterans event which is run over a novice course (I think it might only be a jumping course) and the dogs are permitted to run at whatever height the handlers nominate. Bit tricky for the smaller dogs but you often see the retired 500 dogs run around at 300 and have a ball doing so.

No I think the consensus is they have no idea truthfully what is going on and can't find enough to even suggest there is a problem and is currently leaving everybody scratching their head :laugh:. The other thing that I don't like seeing is oldies still competing and doing a full weekend of agility. Sure they may be fit and healthy otherwise but seriously why. I am not against keeping dogs active into their old age but I do wonder if the ANKC shouldn't put an upper age limit on some competition activities. They have minimum age limits in place why not a maximum. For what its worth I retired my agility dog at 10 - she was still otherwise sound and fit and happy and we then went off and took up tracking as a retirement activity.

i have a youngster with a number of issues (bilateral MPLs although they aren't even sure she has that anymore - long story) and interesting in her case the orthopedic specialists have all been in favour of me continuing to do whatever I want with her because it won't cause anything catastrophic. I don't believe them so she doesn't trial in anything much these days.

A little off tangent but its interesting since my girl wasn't deemed to have a traumatic rupture (she was 13 when she did it) but she has never been significantly out anywhere in any of her appointments either. Hence why I am not sure it necessarily helps. Should also add she was still in good physical condition before it went - up to 4km walks twice a day, completed her tracking dog title about 2 months prior and was still out tracking training weekly. Certainly no couch potato and her cruciate went while out on a walk.

Just to clarify this regular chiro will not necessarily prevent a dog from suffering a cruciate ligament rupture. My girl was only at the chiro about a month before she ruptured a cruciate. My understanding is there is that you can do everything to keep the dog in appropriate condition and the dog can still do the cruciate if its going to do so. However there is also no point in wrapping a dog in cotton wool because they are likely to injure themselves.

My guess is the $135 excludes crate hire. I haven't flown recently but when my 17kg BC girls have flown virgin its been as accompanied and its been $100 each way thats been to fly from Adelaide to Perth and Adelaide to Sydney. I paid about $200 a number of years ago now for my 36" vari airline crate and managed to borrow a friends when I took them both with me.

What about seeking a referral to a neurologist - at least they should have more of an interest in the epilepsy then a normal "gp" vet might have. Pity your not in my neck of the woods the new neurologist I have been using with Kenz is just brilliant and well up to date on things.

Not sure either Kenz or Ness would be quite so obliging as Mac - he looks quite happy with his new set of wheels .

Well done Ptolomy and NN .

Way to go Sue and Waldo .

Jordie didn't look she was on a lead and that was the running after cars bit but yes apparently flynn was on a lead.

The chasing cars bit and no the dog isn't on a lead - where the dog is limping its Jordie.

Flynn and Jordie's new ad you mean :)

Yes I would have thought a couple of days would be ok - not quite the same but post orthopedic surgery my girl had a bandage on and so long as it didn't get wet or dirty it could stay on up to 3-5 days.

Ok Steve i just found a website that suggests your dog makes about 18mg per lb of body weight a day. Taking my youngest girl as an example she is about 29lb so is therefore making 522mg of vitamin C a day. The amount of vitamin C in her size dosage of RHVC a day (since that is the product I use is 2.5mg). Not sure we are talking about a real significant amount.

Each to their own - not going to argue the point anymore but maybe you should also jump in on the food threads and suggest people better also check before they intend on starting any diets which might have vitamin C added no matter what the quantity then if it really is as you say and such a problem for a dog. I don't think any of the joint supplements profess to be vitamin C supplements and potentially in huge quantities you might encounter a problem but I would suspect the percentage of vitamin C contained in the products as a percent of the amount a dog requires isn't great. It could also be argued that a dog who is clearly suffering arthritic type symptoms is under stress so therefore could possibly benefit from supplementation since the body under stressful conditions will be depleted of vitamin C. I guess that is why it might be recommended for dogs undertaking performance activities because they are working and placing their bodies under physical stress to. There is also evidence that a dogs body doesn't produce as much vitamin C as it ages - again maybe a case in favour of having it included in a joint supplement for older dogs suffering from arthritis.