Bad Timing for My Dog to come up lame

Dakotazeb said:
Diagnosis at the U of M without spending $2-3,000 on a MRI is a bulged disc. Treating with medication and 6-8 weeks rest. There goes the hunting season! 😥
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Bummer George, I would understand if you decide not to make the drive but you're more than welcome to hunt behind our dogs.
 
Took 9.5 year old lab to vet today with sore rigjt rear leg. Xrays show good hips and knees but a bone spur on last vertebrae irritating nerves to leg. Blood test and starting a nsaid.he also said to stay with the tick drugs through December. Tick like cold weather.
 
Sorry to hear that, it's crappy news buddy. hopefully she heals up quicker and gets to do what she loves before the season is done.
 
Dakotazeb said:
Diagnosis at the U of M without spending $2-3,000 on a MRI is a bulged disc. Treating with medication and 6-8 weeks rest. There goes the hunting season! 😥
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I am so sorry that you won't be able to hunt with her, George. I am also sorry that she won't be able to hunt with you. I hope that recovery goes well.:)
 
Sorry to hear George, wishing Elle a speedy and full recovery. I will be in your area the week of November 7th if you want to join me and my pack of young dogs you are more than welcome!
 
Update on Elle. After a week of meds and very restricted activity (basically crated except to potty) she is feeling very good and pretty much back to her normal self. Bad news is by feeling so much better it's more difficult to keep her down. Even just taking her out to potty she wants to run and blow off some steam, which I can't allow. Being crated for 4-6 weeks is essential to heal those damaged nerves in her back. I'm hoping that by the 1st of November I can at least take her for some short walks. I've written off this hunting season and plan to head to our winter home in AZ right after Thanksgiving.
 
George,

Have been following this current saga with your Ellie - sorry to hear you will totally miss the season and wish for a speedy and total recovery. Max and I wish you both the best.
 
Most of these joint care homeopathic "meds" are designed for joints where mild arthritis and old age wear and tear are setting in. Not so sure they are designed to help ligament damage.
 
That said,

Seems like I have been down the road with just about every injury known to an athletic bird dog (Brittanys). Some are acute, some chronic in nature.

Foster's & Smith have really good joint care homeopathic options. The cost of their products are typically far below what a vet (if they sell them) offers them for and below the "name brand" options such as Cosequin. By the way F&S also sells Cosequin and Dasuquin if you want to go name brand.

I give my 11 year old Britt (still getting a little field time) the F&S Level 2 joint care pills which she eats like a biscuit. More preventative than need based, but she was showing minor lameness at times and that has mostly gone away.

One of Britts from long ago had likely ingested rat poison or something else left out in the field. She survived that, but in the process had full x-rays at the University of Minnesota hospital. It showed her hips were arthritic. Same Britt had also torn an ACL a year prior ... Anyways I found the homeopathic route to be very effective in her case and only used Rimadel sparingly and only after hunting ... not to keep her hunting.

My vet is a good surgeon, good vet and also a homeopathic guy. My middle aged Britt was breaking toe nails on a regular basis. He told me to feed her coconut oil or coconut oil gel tabs. It appears to be working !!
 
BeirlSetters said:
Anyone dealing with signs of Lyme's should see vet right away.
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There is more out there than just Lyme. Anaplasmosis is another relatively common tick disease. My middle Britt came down with a "tick fever" last year. Her white blood cell count went high and platelet count went really low ... so low that the vet said she could have hemorrhaged and bled out just from a bruise.

Antibiotics worked well and she recovered quickly, but it took two weeks for her platelet count to rebound.

Using Nexgard this fall and it is working really well. Spray a topical tick repellent on the dogs coat too as a secondary precaution.
 
BRITTMAN said:
There is more out there than just Lyme. Anaplasmosis is another relatively common tick disease. My middle Britt came down with a "tick fever" last year. Her white blood cell count went high and platelet count went really low ... so low that the vet said she could have hemorrhaged and bled out just from a bruise.

Antibiotics worked well and she recovered quickly, but it took two weeks for her platelet count to rebound.

Using Nexgard this fall and it is working really well. Spray a topical tick repellent on the dogs coat too as a secondary precaution.
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I also use a topical spray. UltraGuardEX. It kills and repels more than 70 species of bugs including ticks. It's waterproof, sweatproof, and stays active for up to 17 days.
 
Thanks for the update on Ellie, I know how tough it is to keep an active dog crated. My offer still stands if you want to get out during election week, I will be in your vicinity, I'm sure it would be way different then what Ellie does for you......young pack of dogs, if nothing else we should meet for coffee or a soda.
 
Miforester said:
Thanks for the update on Ellie, I know how tough it is to keep an active dog crated. My offer still stands if you want to get out during election week, I will be in your vicinity, I'm sure it would be way different then what Ellie does for you......young pack of dogs, if nothing else we should meet for coffee or a soda.
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That might work. Why don't you PM me with the dates you'll be here.
 
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Another Elle update. While she showed improvement when she was first put on meds this past week she has regressed a little. We are now almost 4 weeks into the rest and meds program and she should be getting better. Easy to see that something is really bothering her. So next week it's back to the University of Minnesota. Have an appointment with neurology of Wednesday and a MRI scheduled for Thursday. I'm at the point that we need to isolate her problem regardless of the cost. It's tough to see her down like this every day. It has be quite depressed. I haven't been out hunting yet and don't really care if I do.

Hunting pheasants was once about shooting birds but has now evolved into being out in the field with my dog. I could care less about shooting a bird. I guess that's what a good dog, plus time and age does to a guy!
 
That's too bad! It's tough to see those sad eyes begging at you to help. Hopefully they see something that can be fixed.
 
Thanks for the update, I certainly hope they can pinpoint what is up with Elle. I know it must be frustrating not knowing what to do to help her. Let us know what you find out this week.
 
Dakotazeb said:
Another Elle update. While she showed improvement when she was first put on meds this past week she has regressed a little. We are now almost 4 weeks into the rest and meds program and she should be getting better. Easy to see that something is really bothering her. So next week it's back to the University of Minnesota. Have an appointment with neurology of Wednesday and a MRI scheduled for Thursday. I'm at the point that we need to isolate her problem regardless of the cost. It's tough to see her down like this every day. It has be quite depressed. I haven't been out hunting yet and don't really care if I do.

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I'd be depressed too, George. The cage rest/meds program they put her on was sound science. Agree that she should be showing improvement in fours week time.

Hope they can pinpoint the cause of all the trouble this time!! Fingers crossed.

NB
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Well guys, I got some not so good news today. Elle had an MRI done today at the University of Minnesota and they found a tumor on her spine. Doesn't appear to be much we can do except keep her comfortable for the time being. Looks like I might be making that final visit to the vet in the near future. It has me so broken up I can hardly type this message. Text is getting blurry from the tears.
 
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