My Chocolate Lab

I’ve posted about Lena, my lab, a few times and I’ve finally gone to the trouble of posting some photos of her to Flikr and attaching them to my blog.  Check them out on the bottom of the column to the right.

Poor Dog

I took my dog, Lena, to the vet a couple of weeks ago to get her hips checked again.

A while back I started noticing her having trouble standing up after she had been active. Obviously, I was concerned that something may be wrong. I had her checked a couple of months ago and the vet thought she seemed fine, but was concerned none-the-less. I was sent back with an anti-inflammatory to try and it didn’t help.

So this visit to the vet involved an x-ray. To my dismay Lena has hip dysplasia. Having seen her x-rays it is obvious what is wrong. Her hip sockets barely cover the balls on her leg bones. When she walks her hips pop so I’m not surprised she’s hurting. Anyway, the vet gave me a different anti-inflammatory to try which seems to be helping some, but at the same time I’m not exercising her as much now. I discussed treatment options with the vet and surgery is the only real option. Unfortunately, I can’t afford however many thousands of dollars it is going to cost and frankly I’m having a hard time justifying the money when there are SO MANY other dogs that need a good home. So as much as I hate to say this, when she gets REALLY bad I may have her put down. I am going to keep her on the anti-inflammatories and I am going to try Glucosomine/Chondroitin.

It’s sad too because she’s a smart and fairly well behaved dog, for a 11 month old.

Bad dog part 2

I’ve been rather busy this week and have been unable to take my dog for a walk most nights. Needless to say she made me pay for it! Sunday I had put a carpet remnant in her crate so she had something softer to lay on while I am at work. Wednesday night I came home to see about 1/4 of the carpet yarn hanging from her mouth. She didn’t eat it but she definitely tore it up. So in hopes of making her a little happier I cleaned out a room in my apartment and let her stay in there while I was gone. Come to find out she doesn’t like that setup either, this morning I put her in that room for a few minutes before I left for work and she barked her stupid head off. My neighbor even pounded on the wall and yelled at her or me I couldn’t actually hear what he said. Strangely enough she prefers to eat and drink in that room though, I can’t figure it out!

Tonight I went to the pet store and bought her a couple of new toys, a heavy rubber squeaker and treat-release bones. She really likes the squeaker, it kept her busy most of the night and annoyed the heck out of me. I just hope she doesn’t break it any time soon.

Now I just need to figure out how to break her of this whining crap! I don’t have time to play with her all night since I have things to get done before bed. I’ve thought about a shock collar but I’m not enthusiastic about spending that much money on something for her right now. So we’ll just have to wait and see what I decide.

Bad dog

I have a 9 month old chocolat lab and she is driving me crazy. The stupid dog thinks she needs to go outside all the time but as soon as she’s out there she wants back in. My Dad offered to take her so she can keep his retriever busy, I may take him up on that. Assuming, of course, that she doesn’t have any serious hip problems. She’s usually fine but most nights we will go for a 1.7 to 2.5 mile walk, then she comes home and sleeps for a few hours, when I let her out before I go to bed she acts like it is very painful for her to stand up. I had the vet check her out and the vet seemed somewhat concerned. She gave me some anti-inflamitory medication for the dog. I think the vet said that if the medicine helps then I need to get her x-rayed for hip dysplasia but didn’t say what might be wrong if the meds don’t help. So now we’re about a week into the meds and they aren’t helping very much if at all. I don’t know what that means and I’m a tad worried because I don’t want to spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on treatment for her.

We’ve been having some rainy weather here so both of the last two days I decided I wouldn’t take Lena for a walk. This is probably why she is being such a pain. Hopefully this rest will be good for her and allow her hips to heal some. I guess I’ll see when the weather gets dry again. Here’s hoping!