So barley is of to the vets on wednesday to see if we can get to the bottom of his hip problems and see if we can make him happy again, as he is not a happy boy at the moment. I have a suspision that he has hip displasia, but only a vet can diagnose it. I don't want him to get another course of anti-inflammatory's as he has had that before and he improved for a bit but then they stopped working, but we never went back to the vet, even though we should have. We also need to get him some more piriton, so that we have enough in stock for the other side of christmas so he has them in his system for when spring comes, even though i don't want to keep him on them, but should be around summer next year that he moves onto raw food (yes, we have that much food that he has won stocked up in the garage ). we also need to see if they would refer him to accupuncturist so that we can then get insurance to pay for his sessions as the vet belives that it is in his best interests, i hope.
Re: Of to the vets Good luck Annabelle,let us know what the vet says.id have to write things down to remember everything,I always forget something when I'm in a consultation,luckily they are very patient with me when I call them as soon as I get home! X
Re: Of to the vets So vets verdict not very clear. She suggested that we get him x-rayed, but she is more inclined to think that he has arthritis. If anything is found then he will be on anti-inflammatories for life. he was not very helpful for the vet as when she tried to move his leg and feel his stifle(?) he tensed all of his muscles and would not budge, so she could not see if he had any damage to his cruciate ligament, even though she said she would expect him to be more lame, than what he is. She did not want to go down the route of giving him a weeks rest with anti-inflammatory's as she does not know what is wrong with him and she would prefer a proper diagnosis. We have not decided whether we are going to go ahead with the x-rays or not as insurance will not cover it. It would be over £130 to have a GA and 6 x-ray plates so they can look at his hips and 2 x-rays of each stifle at different angles.
Re: Of to the vets Would the treatment be any different for him if it was a hip problem or just plain arthritis?
Re: Of to the vets Sorry to hear that, hope you find a way forward for your boy and it works out well. I know how worrying it is! Best wishes to you.
Re: Of to the vets I wonder why she didn't suggest you walk him up and down outside the surgery so that she could see his movement if he was too tense to be examined?
Re: Of to the vets Stacia, that's what our ortho vet did. I know that our issue was eventually shown to be hips, but it wasn't clear at all from examination, and was only proven by having a good examination under GA (and of course the x-rays). Lilly's problem was an intermittent limp. Our own vet thought it was her knees (aka "stifle"). I guess its not an easy diagnosis to make clinically :-\
Re: Of to the vets Sorry you didn't get a definite diagnosis and solution Anabelle....when you've had a think let us know,it's been an right week for hips ,elbows and limps this week...here's hoping everybody is back to full health very soon x
Re: Of to the vets [quote author=Oberon link=topic=3523.msg39392#msg39392 date=1386189666] Would the treatment be any different for him if it was a hip problem or just plain arthritis? [/quote] i don't think so. But it would depend on what the hip problem was and if it required surgery or not. oddly enough the vet did not metion anything about hip dysplasia, i forgot to mention it as well : [quote author=lynnelogan link=topic=3523.msg39393#msg39393 date=1386190203] awh poor barley,.....how old is he annabelle ? [/quote] He is around 5, so not very old, or not very young either [quote author=Stacia link=topic=3523.msg39404#msg39404 date=1386191700] I wonder why she didn't suggest you walk him up and down outside the surgery so that she could see his movement if he was too tense to be examined? [/quote] I don't know, it could have been that it was dark outside when we went. She did not even really feel his legs, she felt a bit but not as much as another vet did a few months ago for the same complaint. [quote author=drjs@5 link=topic=3523.msg39416#msg39416 date=1386196564] Stacia, that's what our ortho vet did. I know that our issue was eventually shown to be hips, but it wasn't clear at all from examination, and was only proven by having a good examination under GA (and of course the x-rays). Lilly's problem was an intermittent limp. Our own vet thought it was her knees (aka "knee"). I guess its not an easy diagnosis to make clinically :-\ [/quote] The vet knew straight away that is was his left hind as he was not standing correctly and was trying to rest his leg without putting too much weight on it. She could not say whether it was his hip, knee or any other part of the leg. [quote author=Dexter link=topic=3523.msg39457#msg39457 date=1386216192] Sorry you didn't get a definite diagnosis and solution Anabelle....when you've had a think let us know,it's been an right week for hips ,elbows and limps this week...here's hoping everybody is back to full health very soon x [/quote] Yes i will let everyone know what we decide to do.
Re: Of to the vets Dad has agreed to get him x-rayed but it probably will not be done until after christmas, so he is on restricted exercise until then so we can find out what is wrong with him and make him happy again as at the moment he is being a grumpy middle aged man :-[
Re: Of to the vets Is he on anti-inflammatories at the moment? If not, and if you have to wait until after Christmas for the x-ray, then I would put him onto painkillers / anti-inflammatories now. Poor old lad, he is clearly not a happy chappie at all, I would guess he is in quite some pain. Both my old dogs got quite bad arthritis as they got older. They LOVED their happy pills; quite changed their lives.
Re: Of to the vets He is on loxicom at the moment as we had some left over from last time we went to the vets, we also have some devils root claw pills that we are going to try him on as well.
Re: Of to the vets Poor boy had a rough day yesterday Whilst playing with puzzle he slipped over and started to get very aggressive towards puzzle when she did not leave him alone. He is very sore and stiff this morning, he would not let me massage him. Looks like it mght be another vets trip on monday if he does not improve :'(. He was coping quite well up until now. we are looking at getting a carpet to go on the wooden floor so that should give him more grip and less likely to slip over in the house.
Re: Of to the vets Thank you julie, i know that this is not half as bad as what youare going through with charlie. but it is still a worry when he is not well. He has been better the past few days, probably the lack of walks, he is back playing with puzzle again :, having a ball of a time. he is still going to go for x-rays but not yet. He has also put on 2kg since he last got weighed at the vets, so his food has been cut down again, to his delight . I still think it is HD and not arthritis as he is only 5, and this has been going on for almost a year now with no improvements, just getting worse. When i think back to last summer he was so active we both went running 3 times a week, he went to agility lessons every other week and we done agility in the garden as well,he got 2 walks a day and now he is lucky to get 3 walks in a week. i hope once we have found out what is wrong with him to get us both running again as he built up lots of muscle doing it and he had fun, when puzzle is older we would like to get her into running as well, so he can have a furry running buddy. Depending on the outcome we might also start him back on agility again to build up his fitness and get him having fun and enjoying life again.
