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Well Gunner forced me to get a second opinion on his status today. He seemed back to his normal happy active slef so I let him accompany me on a quick and dirty hunt on the river tuesday, I doubled on two redhead drakes but my shots were poor and both still had the ability to dive, he did great retrieves on both even as cripples. We got home and I noticed he had a new symptom to what I thought was going on with his back.
He was limping on his front left leg, bad. I told myself if it wasn't better in the morn we were gonna see a vet. This morning we woke up and it wasn't better. In fact worse. He had a lump about two inches or so above his paw. I tried checking it out but he winced real bad and took his paw away quickly when I touched it.
Off to the vet...
I feel so bad for the vet and the technicians that have to check him out. I don't know what it is about being at the office that makes him the scariest sounding dog ever. The minute they walk in he is all growls, hair on his back is up etc. They were kind enough to sit with him for a good 10 min and kept giving him treats and what not trying to win his trust over. He was still pretty edgy but the doc got a good check on him and suggested we do x-rays and blood work to check for lyme disease. I said of course and headed off to the waiting room. There was no bad gut feelings or anything this time around for some reason, and I truly wasn't worried. The tech walks gun back out to me and the vet calls us back to see the x-rays.
The x-ray of his left foot shows a break in one of the joints in his toes. Go figure. The vet said this probably happened on a shallow water entry where he was expecting it to be deeper.
The x-rays of his hips do show signs of displasia, but its in the very begining stages and if I keep him up on his supplements and anti inflammatory pills it should prevent him from deteriorating as fast.
Now for the good news. I told the doc "I have to ask, because my other vet told me I had to stop hunting him. Can I still hunt with him?"
The vet told me yes, of course. As long as I keep up with everything he will be fine. As he gets older, and deteriorates more there's more procedures that we can do to keep him going. He also said it wouldn't be fair to keep him just as a house dog, hunting is what he is and even if it would shorten his life at least he would remain happy doing what he was born to do.
I couldn't agree more with what the doc said.
Thanks again for the prayers, good thoughts and kind words guys.
Mike & Gunner
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He was limping on his front left leg, bad. I told myself if it wasn't better in the morn we were gonna see a vet. This morning we woke up and it wasn't better. In fact worse. He had a lump about two inches or so above his paw. I tried checking it out but he winced real bad and took his paw away quickly when I touched it.
Off to the vet...
I feel so bad for the vet and the technicians that have to check him out. I don't know what it is about being at the office that makes him the scariest sounding dog ever. The minute they walk in he is all growls, hair on his back is up etc. They were kind enough to sit with him for a good 10 min and kept giving him treats and what not trying to win his trust over. He was still pretty edgy but the doc got a good check on him and suggested we do x-rays and blood work to check for lyme disease. I said of course and headed off to the waiting room. There was no bad gut feelings or anything this time around for some reason, and I truly wasn't worried. The tech walks gun back out to me and the vet calls us back to see the x-rays.
The x-ray of his left foot shows a break in one of the joints in his toes. Go figure. The vet said this probably happened on a shallow water entry where he was expecting it to be deeper.
The x-rays of his hips do show signs of displasia, but its in the very begining stages and if I keep him up on his supplements and anti inflammatory pills it should prevent him from deteriorating as fast.
Now for the good news. I told the doc "I have to ask, because my other vet told me I had to stop hunting him. Can I still hunt with him?"
The vet told me yes, of course. As long as I keep up with everything he will be fine. As he gets older, and deteriorates more there's more procedures that we can do to keep him going. He also said it wouldn't be fair to keep him just as a house dog, hunting is what he is and even if it would shorten his life at least he would remain happy doing what he was born to do.
I couldn't agree more with what the doc said.
Thanks again for the prayers, good thoughts and kind words guys.
Mike & Gunner
