Beach Dog

It appears that I've fallen behind in keeping this updated.  Zio is still not out of the woods with his knee yet.  I played a little frisbee with him on Memorial Day weekend and his limp returned for a few days afterwards... mostly after he would rest a while and then try to start moving again.  I had limited his physical activities for about 6 weeks at that point.  I called Dr. Morey to see what she thought and was referred to Dr Tanger, who is supposed to be the premier orthopedic surgeon in the area.  I'm still not convinced he needs surgery though, so I've held off making an appointment with him.  I still have him penciled in for the next tournament, so I think I may give it a go and decide afterwards which path I should follow.

In the mean time, we went to the Mississippi Gulf coast and played on the beach last week.  Zio was obviously a waterdog in a previous life and loved it!  Here are some pictures of him playing. 

Still Hopeful

The "Limp Watch" continues day by day.  I scrutinize his leg constantly anymore, especially when he does something out of the ordinary.  A few days ago, we were on a walk (still not on a leash).  He lagged behind to smell something, so I gave a quick whistle to say let's go!  He came trotting back to where I was standing and I couldn't tell if he gave a short hop when he stopped or I'm just paranoid now.  After watching him intently for the last two days for any adverse sign, I decided I must just be paranoid. 

We did walk down to the school last night for the first time since he injured his leg.  No sign of limp or favoring afterwards, so he's looking good.  He was allowed to be a distraction for another dog at practice last Sunday too!  I think he enjoyed "killing" his tug for about 10 minutes while a newer dog was doing recalls in the next lane.  I never really grabbed it to tug with him, but he thought I might, so he kept killing it just in case I tried to get it from him.  Silly boy!

Hopeful

Zio was not a happy dog to be watching everyone else race this past weekend.  The positive news that came out of it is he did more walking over the last three days than I had allowed him to do in total for the last two weeks... and not a single sign of a limp!  A lot of this was on slippery tile floors that challenged his balance and going up and down stairs from our second floor hotel room.

I decided to have Dr. Duree give him a chiropractic exam while she was there.  She couldn't find any loosness in his knee at all.  She also suggested four more weeks of rest with some supplements to help his joints in general. 

It's going on two weeks now since I've seen any type of favoring on that leg.  I'm going to add a 10 minute walk in the morning to his 10 minute walk in the evening for the rest of this week.  If that goes well, we'll go for 20 minutes in the morning and 10 in the evening for a week.  I'll just keep progessing the walks slowly one week at a time until the beginning of June.  If he's still okay, we'll get back to practicing for flyball and see how it goes.

 

Monitoring

I've decided to put any further testing on hold for Zio's leg.  He has been showing improvement and generally uses his leg normally while walking or playing.  I had started taking him on short five minute walks (without a leash to pull on) Monday and Tuesday.  I went on a longer walk Wednesday, but he appeared to be favoring it a little after we had been home a while.  Yesterday he was looking good again, so we did a short five minute walk off leash.  He is showing the normal bounce in his step and no indications of soreness.

I did try a little manipulation last night and noticed he resists flexing his hock if the stifle is in a normal position.  Flexing both joints at the same time doesn't seem to bother him though.  I will try more manipulation tonight and see what happens when the stifle is extended first.

Cranial Cruciate Ligament

A partial tear was the initial diagnosis last Friday by my vet.  Thursday evening we played a little backyard Frisbee when I got home from work.  After they ate, we went on a long walk as thunder rumbled in the distance.  Of course it started sprinkling when we were at the farthest spot from the house.  We jogged back and I spent about an hour on the computer before Zio followed me into the bedroom so he could hide from the storm in my closet.  When he came out he was hopping and wouldn't put weight on his right rear leg.  I examined him a number of times thinking he had something in his paw or pulled a muscle.  No matter how I manipulated him I couldn't get a reaction from him. 

The next morning he was hopping or toe touching.  I took him to the vet and of course he started putting some weight on it.  The vet tech initially had to ask which leg was the problem because his gait was close to normal.  He wouldn't relax enough for Dr Morey to examine him, so she put him on Rimadyl and asked me to let her know Monday if he wasn't putting 90-95% of his weight on that leg.  She suggested that I give him six weeks of rest with no walks for a while.

The rest of Friday was a mix of toe touching and then walking normal.  I did notice that he was pointing that leg slightly while in a sit.  By the time we went to practice Sunday, he had a pretty normal gait while trotting or walking.  While standing, he was still favoring the leg though.  Other than the issue with pointing his leg in a sit, he was acting normal... chasing birds off of the power lines, playing with his jolly ball, and generally being in a good mood.  He did hop one time last night after being inactive about 45 minutes.

Today, I haven't seen him hop once and there has been only a slight favoring in a stand.  I've taken him out for a 5 minute walk twice today (without a leash) and he trots and walks normally.  He's scheduled to go back to see Dr Morey again tomorrow morning.  She's going to sedate him to try and get a better idea of what is going on.  I keep debating whether I should just let him continue with limited activity or take him in and see what she comes up with.

Part of my concern is that my research said it's hard to pinpoint a partial tear by manipulation.  I know too much about the surgical options now too.  TPLO seems to be the gold standard for surgical procedures, but TTA and Tightrope have their supporters too.


Here's a video of him Sunday evening in the backyard.  There are a few times when I notice him slightly favor it, but if you didn't know about it, I'm not sure you would see anything out of the ordinary.

 

Disc Dogging Time

With the OKPaws Spring Fling in about ten days, we starting to spend a little more time practicing with the disc.  I've had him how the last two evenings doing some distance throwing that we can't do in the backyard.  He is still jumping early too many times, so he'll really need to get his timing down if we wants to do any good.  Sometimes he'll make an awesome catch and then on the next throw, he'll be way early and not even close.  We'll see how much more practice time we can fit in before the 28th.

Zio Factoids

Some non-flyball related observations.  Most people that know Zio have only ever been around him at practice or tournaments and see his focus and intensity.  He's actually a very different dog away from flyball.  To those he trusts, he is very affectionate.  He hates conflict and will go in his crate if Luna starts barking at the neighbor's dog through the fence or there are raised voices.  It's pretty obvious when he feels guilty about something when I come home.  It might not even have been him that did anything... just that he thinks someone is in trouble and he doesn't want to be around if he thinks I'll be mad.

 He doesn't play with many dogs, but when he does, he makes this growly, purring sound that I call his puma imitation.  He loves riding in the car and sticking his head out the window.  Absolutely loves his Jolly Ball!  I have no doubt that a stray cat would be in serious trouble around him.  He is okay if he is introduced to a cat and will ignore it, but a stray cat is just a slow bunny with short ears.

For three and a half years, Zio has stretched out to pee.  In the last three to four months, he has started hiking his leg once in a while.  I'm not sure if it's maturity, he has seen other males do it, or he has gained confidence... but it is happening more and more now.  I find it interesting to watch the transformation.

Zio also did something for the first time the other day on a walk.  He's been around barking dogs on walks and at flyball all of his life.  He's learned to just ignore them when we are out on walks and someone's yard dog is going crazy behind the fence.  Heck, Wisp and he bark at each other face to face all the time in the racing lanes before the race starts.  On our walk Sunday evening, we passed by a yard that has a wrought iron fence where two obese Boston terriers live.  I haven't seen them outside in over a year, but they were out that day.  I was trying to make sure Luna didn't escalate with them when Zio lost his mind and lunged at them with his "serious" bark and his hackles making him look like he had a buffalo hump. I've never seen him display an aggressive response to other dogs, so it took me by surprise.  It was all over in two seconds though as he found his mind and started walking down the sidewalk again.  It did take about a half a block before his hackles were down though.