The Park

This morning we walked the state park. ( I guess you figured since I posted a new blog header) We got there around 9am and it was packed. Even in South Carolina they are having spring fever. Its not like this is the first warm day we have had all winter. The first parking lot was full. I figured, "Great, tons of bikes". I thought we would be ok if we just stayed mostly on the spider women trail. The bikes don't go on that trail to often because its very hilly and some of the paths are narrow. But today we had 8 bikes on the spider women trail. It makes life difficult because Guiness goes crazy when the bikes go by. So much for a nice, peaceful walk. We did see a beaver swimming in the water. The water looked rough, I guess all the rain and snow was coming through. It didn't seem to bother the beaver. We walked most of the spider women trial but not all. I didn't want to over due Miley. We finished without any skipping or leg flicking. Yea. It was already warm this morning and I wasn't well prepared with water for the dogs to drink. Several times they went down to the creek for water. Both Miley and Guiness went and stood in the creek. I figured Guiness was hot. He never gets his feet wet. He will always walk around any puddles of water. Miley always trots through them.
I let Miley run a few jumps this morning. That made her and me happy. I didn't see any problems. We also did some box work. Which she must remember from before because she picked it up easily.
This afternoon its very hot, 85 degrees. The dogs are in shock. Miley is looking for shade so I filled up the baby pool for her. That's how it is in South Carolina. We usually don't have Spring or Fall. Just Summer and Winter.
I did watch some of the activities at Crufts. How great is the computer and technology that we can now watch Live dogs shows in England. I watched some of the freestyle competition. I really only like watching the dogs and people that have fast music. The slow stuff is boring to me. What I really liked was the guy who gave a small demonstration on teaching tricks to your dog. He has won some freestyle competitions with his dogs. His boarder collie just seemed so happy and excited to be doing the tricks. That was nice to see. I also watch the semi-final and part of the finals for the large dog agility. I didn't like the second course set up as much as the first. They really like those tight twisty courses over there.

Rehab today and other things

Today I still let Miley run around the back yard but only for a few minutes. I did have my husband video tape her when she chased a toy. I wanted to have the rehab vet watch the video and make sure her gait was ok. Sometimes I think she is bunny hopping. So I got the video and off we went to the rehab vet. When I got there I walked her around outside to warm her up. Its on a paved parking lot and I noticed some little pebbles. So guess what happened? She skipped a couple of times. So off we go into the building. I talked to the vet about the foot flick yesterday and the skip just now. she had me walk her again and watched. But you know that weird thing that happens when you go to the vet. The dog doesn't do it. LOL Then we put the dog in the underwater treadmill. She did great. Nothing noticed in the treadmill. You can look under the water and watch the feet and gait. Perfect the whole time. She even increased the speed the last 2 minutes. I also had her watch the video. Once I slowed the video down you could then see that the dog was not bunny hopping at all. It was just hard to see when she is running and stuff. She thought Miley looked great. Had great extension and she didnt feel this was a dog having
pain. She feels that there is just a little laxity in her knee that may sometimes cause a funny feeling in her leg. Like something is off. She also told me Miley could have a sensitive spot on her foot. And next time check her foot and see if anything is on it. Make note of what surface we are on and what we were doing then and before that. Which I feel like I have been doing. Have a note book that I keep Miley's daily activities , exercises and symptoms in. I have been charting it since Feb. 21st. I told the vet that it has now been 6 weeks since this started , should I be worried. She said not at all. It can take months to build the knee up to what we need. Also she told me to do a little agility but nothing repetitive. I think she is a good vet. She did her rehab training at the University of Tenn. and so did her tech. She has a regular vet practice too. And she works at the spay and neuter clinic. She always ask me how Miley did after the last treatment. Watches her in the treadmill, carefully watching her legs and feet and gait. But lets be real. Its a dog and they cant talk. So some of it is a guessing game and see what works. I'm not sure about the agility. We will see how the next few days go.

Next I bought the DVD, Running a-frames by Racheal Sanders. I had originally taught Miley a running a-frame with this method and gave up. Now that there is a DVD, which I felt was a good price , I realize a bunch of mistakes I made. Some of them were not making sure she made the correct number of strides into the box. My jumps were to high. I wasn't far enough away from the box to make sure she understood the box cue. And other things. Good thing I had those videos I made of training to go back and watch and see what I did wrong. Plus she states you are going to have failures in the ring when you first start and you need to expect this. You know what my problem is? I'm impatient and then change what I'm doing. I need to give things time. Oh, you mean like rehab? LoL

I found this helpful.

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/saortho/index.html

This is a very good book on orthopedics in dogs. One thing that I found interesting was when he did an x-ray of a joint and then did the x-ray with the jointed stressed. The first x-ray looked normal but in the stressed x-ray , you could see the problem. Anyway, in case you have nothing better to do then read a text book on canine orthopedics. Here is the site.

Set Back

Miley seemed to be doing really well. She had her underwater treadmill treatment on Wednesday. She did well and didn't seem sore or tired that night. She actually seemed to feel better than she had in a long time. She was a little crazy in the house and maybe that was the problem. I have been increasing her activity. On Tuesday I let her run around the backyard for about 2 min and did that again on Wednesday. So since she had been doing well, I let her run around the backyard for about 10-15 min . I watched her the whole time and I didn't see anything. Later that evening I took her to the park to walk. Within the first 1/4th of the walk she did something. It was hard to see because she is walking in front of me and she has all that fuzzy butt hair. But it looked like she picked her leg up and shook it. I saw the butt hair fling out twice. I didn't see anything else the rest of the walk. That night she could still sit in a nice tuck sit and a nice sit up with again her legs tucked in nicely. Was able to stand on her back legs like usual. So I don't know what happened. This morning when I walked her, her gait was a little off on the first part of the walk. Not the whole time, just for a few seconds. Nothing that I can really tell you what she is doing. So I guess we have taken a step back. I don't know if she over did it on Wednesday when she seemed to feel so good. Or if me letting her run to much in the back yard did it. I guess I need to be more careful. (I'm trying to be positive and not let this set back take me over the edge- which is really what is happening. LOL)

No Snow!

That's right. We got no snow. Not one flipping snow flake. So now I have to make up another day for nothing. Ugh!!
I changed Miley's rehab appt. to this morning since I didn't have to go to work.
Well Guiness just knocked the pan of spaghetti sauce off the stove and on to the kitchen floor. I called for help from my family but they didn't come. Good thing I wasn't dying. I finally gathered up the dogs so there wasn't a feeding frenzy and locked them up. I cleaned it up the best I could. There is a big throw run in the kitchen and I cleaned it with a carpet cleaning vacuum. Well now there is no dinner for my husband and daughter because they hadn't eaten yet. And Guiness is locked in his crate because I'm mad at him.
Back to Miley's appt. She examined Miley and couldn't get her to react to anything she did. She got great extension and flexion in her legs. She looked at the x-rays. She had me walk her up and back to watch her gait. She said she didn't see anything abnormal in her gait. She feels its either just a stretched ligament or maybe a muscle injury. She also thought it could be a luxating patella, although she said the patellas were tight , with no movement. She wants me to increase the Miley's activity level. She gave me a bunch of exercises to do with her. I'm to alternate he exercises on different days. She also wants me to start her on the physio ball to strengthen her core muscles. This will help with jumping. She will use her core muscle to help her jump and not make her legs do all the work. We put her in the underwater treadmill. She increased the speed to .8mph and the water level was at 7 inches. Miley did really well. She didn't limp or show any signs of any problems. Afterwards I didn't see anything either. But when we go home , she off loaded some weight off the leg a few times. I put a heat pack on her leg for 10 minutes. ( and she let me and just laid there) after that she seemed good. She did take a nap, which probably helped too. Then this afternoon we walked at the park. The one with the hills and all the roots on the ground. She did really well. I didn't see any problems. And when we go home, I did see any problems. Things are looking up. ( I hope I didn't just jinx it)

More Rehab

This video was from Friday appt., second time on the treadmill. They put a leash on her because in the morning , she was riding the treadmill to the back and stood where it wasn't moving. Sneaky huh? She did really well on Friday. Friday night at home she seem very good. I didn't seen any leg problems. Saturday I cancelled my appointment. Where were suppose to get severe weather and I didn't want to be driving in it. But we just got lots and lots of rain. It stopped for a short while and I took the dogs for a walk. I really didn't see anything specifically wrong with her gait. Just this little hop, but not with her feet it was more in her hip. It was so slight, I kept saying to my husband, "Did you see that?". "No"
I think I'm making myself crazy. I did decrease the Rimadyl to once a day on Saturday. On Sunday no walks. Its been raining a lot.

We are suppose to get snow. They are saying between 1-5 inches. So guess what? They closed school already. Its been raining all day. What if they are wrong? And I cant believe it but this school system has no emergency days built into the calender. So the last snow day they called off , I have to make up on my own time. Stay late and make up the time or take a personal day. I don't have a personal day for this type of thing. My personal days are for agility , dog or kid stuff. An now they have called school already and I will have to make up this day too. I get seven personal days for the year and they think I should use two for this. They better hope it snows!!

Has anyone used or know someone who has used Cartrophen for knee injuries?

Day 3 of Rain

"Cant you make this stop?"