Both the girls had vet appointments this week. Ginny went in for a senior wellness exam. At 13 I know it's important for her to see the vet on a regular basis so, in we went. On the whole, Gin is great. She's a svelte 33 pounds and her heart sounded great. I'm waiting for results on her blood work but I am not worried on that count. One surprising finding though; she has luxating patellas. The reason this is surprising is because no other vet has ever caught it. There is a surgery that can correct the issue but, at 13 I won't put Ginny through that. The other bump in the road for Gin is a fractured and abscessing tooth. I knew the tooth was broken a couple weeks ago when I found half of it in her crate. Since the vet appointment was already made, I didn't panic about getting her in right away. It's incredibly important to get this taken care of because this sort of infection can become systemic and impact the kidneys. She goes back to the vet on Monday to have the rest of the tooth pulled and a general cleaning. The cleaning shouldn't be too extensive as she just had her teeth cleaned last October.
Moira's vet appointment was actually with the physical therapy vet. This is the same vet Sam went to for acupuncture before he passed. She is also a licensed canine chiropractor. With Moira doing so much agility I felt it was important to be sure she is in alignment. For the most part, she was pretty good; a tilted pelvis, some metacarpals that needed re-positioning, and a small adjustment mid-back. The concerning part of this visit was slow conscious proprioreception in her right hind foot. The test for this is to turn the foot over and see how long it takes to right the foot. It is a test to determine if the dog knows where its limbs/feet are and how quickly they correct the position. Moira did not correct the position of her right foot very quickly which means that the signals from the nerves in her foot are not getting through to her brain as quickly as they should. A very concerning condition in any dog but especially in one who does agility.
The PT vet asked me to get xrays done by our regular vet - lucky for me we were headed there for Gin. The xrays didn't reveal anything glaringly obvious that could be causing her slow response time. However, she has absolutely no arthritis which is pretty incredible in a dog of her breed and age (nearly 7). We have pulled from the agility trial we were entered in next weekend and I have some range of motion exercises to do with Moira for the next week. We will go back to the PT vet on the 15th for another check/adjustment. Hopefully, the adjustment this week combined with the exercises will resolve the problem. If it doesn't, I'm not sure what we will end up doing. The thought of another dog having back issues - especially one as young and athletic as Moira - is daunting.
1 year ago
