Worrying days for Rosie and Toby.

Ravenwood

Ravenwood

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We have had a bit of an eventful week this week.

Starting with Rosie (new BC puppy). Every morning before work I take the dogs to see the horses in the field and then on for a quick run on the moor (only about 20/30 mins as Rosie is still too young to do any more than that). As you can imagine at that time in the morning, I never see a soul and just let the dogs run around and do their own thing - they always stay pretty close anyway.

As we were walking back, another chap who lives near by came up the hill with his three dogs (2 labs and a spaniel), they are gundogs too so very well socialised and I didn't worry in the slightest - big mistake :(

His two black labs chased Rosie like a pack of hounds onto a fox and the poor little mite high tailed it. I ran after her, he was trying to call his dogs back and Rosie had the foresight to duck under the gate and stopped. His dogs backed off and Rosie came out from under the gate and they went for her again :(

I was shouting at his dogs to get back as I tried to get through the gate myself - poor little Rosie she was quite upset about it and stayed with me walking home whereas usually she runs around with Flyn :(

Toby: Poor Toby has been really suffering with his joints this week and when I take him out he generally just plods along with me now rather than run around and unfortunately he has got too fat which makes his joints worse - its an awful viscious circle :( I don't know how he has got so fat - he gets very little food - typical lab!

The only time Toby gets really excited (other than shooting) is when I take him riding with me, so yesterday evening after work I tacked up my mare and took him and Flyn up onto the moor. The plan was to do just a very short ride that he could cope with but make him do a bit more exercise.

So we set off and I hardly bother to notice the dogs when I am riding as they are always "just there", Flyn is running around and following smells but always keeps one eye on me just in case I change direction or canter off! Toby just follows - bless him.

So, I ride on down for ten minutes or so and then circle round to go back and have a short canter up the hill - I do this often and just wait for Toby at the top. But Toby wasn't there.

I waited and waited, called and called but no Toby - I just can't tell you how worried I was, imagining all sorts of awful things and almost too scared to go back and look for him.

The lady I was riding with (she had three of her dogs with us too) rode back to the yard as we wondered if perhaps he had turned back of his own accord although I knew he hadn't as he never has before. And I cantered back to where we turned around still shouting and calling.

Eventually Toby appeared looking lost and bewildered. I think he had carried on when we had turned around and lost us :(.

Now I am really worrying about all his faculties - his eyesight and hearing and other little things are niggling me like when the kids throw him a stick. Don't forget he is a trained gundog - who has been taught to mark an object, fetch on command and retrieve but now when they throw him something he just jumps around in any old direction and just doesn't seem to see it.

Oh I don't know - he is only 6 but you would think he was 14 :( I am so worried about him. I am going to take him back to vets tomorrow and start another course of Cartrophen for his joints and see what they think.

Christ Alive - if you have read all that you must be as bored as me on a Friday night!! ;) Here - have a glass of red. This has just made me feel better just writing it down!

I shan't go into my other worry about Rosie not eating enough and looking a bit skinny - as I suspect you are all asleep by now! :o:D
 
Oh bless 'em, they do know how to worry us, don't they? Have a hug((()))

Maybe Toby has picked something up that has made him feel a bit under the weather? I'd mention it to the vet and get him to look at his eyes. Barney got cataracts, although at a much much greater age than Toby! If it is that they can do something about it though.
 
Thanks for replying Spudlet - I really appreciate it, I wasn't really expecting anyone to wade through all that.

When Toby was just 6 months old he was diagnosed with OCD in his elbows and one vet (we saw many!!) told me he wouldn't live past five - just a few months ago he was looking really good at the end of the shooting season and I was quite positive about the situation but he seems to have suddenly gone down hill :(.

I have to get his exercise just right - he is much better for being worked very carefully, on perfect terrain etc but worse with a lack of exercise :( Its so hard to judge it right.
 
Poor lad :( Could swimming help? Have you got a hydrotherapy place nearby, so the water would be nice and warm for him?
 
*sticks head round* Someone mention wine? :D

B*gger all useful advice but have a hug from me too! As a fellow worrier I can entirely sympathise :) Fingers crossed all the worries resolve and life gets a little less "exciting" for the pair of them!
 
Poor Rosie. Bless her heart, the poor love. BC's are so clever aren't they? Getting where they couldn't reach her was genius! :g:

As for Toby, what a shame. I was shocked when you said he was only 6 years old. The ground is unbearably hard at the moment, could this be affecting him?
 
I don't think so - or at least not that I know of! However we do have a river at the end of the lane so the dogs do swim very regularly. I think first and foremost I must get a bit of weight off him.
 
I'm just thinking, non-weightbearing exercise might be good :)

The ground is pretty hideous here too, it's rock solid. Can't be nice on achey joints!
 
Patches - you are probably right about the ground being hard - I never take him on a road anymore, maybe that's what is making him worse.

BC's do seem to be amazingly intelligent :) Rosie learnt "sit" in just one sitting!! LOL ;)
 
Numpty Novice (love that name!!) plenty of wine here - I look forward to it all week after another stressful week at work! Just wish the weekends lasted longer! Have another glass!
 
Glad little Rosie had the brains to find a way out of the situation.


About Toby, I never seem to be able to remember if the ticks in UK might carry any transmittable diseases? If they do, then even though you perhaps treated him with Frontline last year, no anti-tick treatment is 100% fail-safe as far as I know, so it could be worth checking.
Other than that, as always, I recommend trying acupuncture.

You really have all my sympathy, it is difficult and feels so unfair when they're still young, to already need to worry about, that it soon might not be anything more you can do for them. Also, it isn't always that easy to keep their weight close to perfect and temporary home-blindness, doesn't make it easier.

{{{{Hugs}}}}
_hug__by_bad_blood.gif
 
FL - the deer ticks round here do carry lymes disease and one poor chap died of it so we are all very aware and I also know of two horses that have suffered but survived however I haven't heard of any dogs getting Lymes disease but its worth a thought.

Toby is a very big lab and he does seem to have put on weight and you are quite right about the home blindness! There are still lots of channels for me to try yet - such as metacam which I have been putting off because he is so young (not to mention the cost!!), magnetic collars, etc. I will try everything possible and give him the quality of life that he loves.

I am very much going down the route of keeping him active and doing the things he gets excited about over prolonging his life - not sure whether you agree with that or not.
 
Oh poor Rosie, gad she is ok!

And sorry to hear Toby is having such bad issues :( When Windsor started behaving like that we put him on Devils Claw which made a huge difference, along with plenty of swimming. We were lucky though as he was never prone to weight gain which did make things easier. I hope you get him sorted.

I have had to face that Tinadog is now deaf and has more bad days now, but she is an older girl now so she just gets to take it easy.
 
Ravenwood said:
I am very much going down the route of keeping him active and doing the things he gets excited about over prolonging his life - not sure whether you agree with that or not.
Click to expand...

I think that is a very admirable attitude, besides, nobody knows how long their life will be, sometimes lightning does strike and all that, so carpe diem, make the most of today.

:)
 
That my worst fear, the puppy chasing scenario, have see many injured and some killed in this situation as they just run in a blind panic, im glad she was a clever girl and ran out of reach:D and hope it does not put her off big bully dogs:D
We have a short coated male collie in our rescue, he is 12 weeks and a handsome dude, will have to get some pics for ya.
 
Hi - nothing to add about Toby I'm afraid, although we have an elderly pointer who sometimes gets lost when we walk her.........we need to stand still, shout and wave our arms so she can get her bearings if she's gone too far away.

Just thought I'd try to cheer you up a bit with an anecdote about my 1st 'own' dog - a BC called Emma that was given to me when I was 16. She was unbelievably clever! I taught her to bring me named items.....'Go get the ball/stick/flowerpot'. One afternoon I taught her 'put the ball in the flowerpot'. I'm not kidding - that dog would go and get whatever you told her to get after one showing of what it was. But then to put the 2 together was just astonishing....she could fetch a flowerpot or a ball, she could put the ball in the flowerpot and then fetch the flowerpot with the ball in it.....extraordinary!

We used to play a game where I said, for example, 'Where's Mum?' and she would go and sit at Mum's feet, and 'Where's Dad?' etc.......you get the jist...

Anyway, I left home to go to university and left Emma behind.

Life goes on, and eventually I meet the man of my dreams (Pye) and bring him home to meet the family for the 1st time. Emma by this time is pretty old, but after dinner the whole family was in the sitting room, and I said to Emma 'Where's Pye?'. I swear that dog looked at everyone round the room and discounted them because she knew their names and just chose the one she didn't know - she went and sat at Pye's feet.

A very special dog.

When she died my mother had her cremated - we'd never had an animal cremated before.

When my mother died 2 years ago we put Emma's ashes in her coffin and they were cremated again together. We then buried their combined ashes, and she is named on my mother's stone in the churchyard of my childhood church where we were married.

Sometimes animals are more than just animals.
 
Hey, just saw this thread and wanted to say - i have an arthritic lab too, and we find that swimming does more harm than good. I understand it'll be different for every dog, and you want to keep the weight off, but after my dog goes swimming even if it's across the width of our local little river and back, she's much more stiff later in the day and even over to the next day. Recently we went to the beach and she did tons of swimming (we, like you, are keen to keep her active and the weight off!) and she was very stiff for days afterwards. We don't keep her out of the water because she loves it so much, but when we do take her to the beach or park we try not to keep encouraging her to go in the river like before. If she wants to, fine, but we find that she's starting to limit how much swimming she does now anyway, so she's obviously realised the corrolation herself!
 
I have recently had to put my old dog on medication for stiffness and pain. he is 14 though so had a really good long life. i spoke to my vet about Metacam and he suggested a medication called Loxicom - the same as Metacam - just lots cheaper. And it has worked. I give him his dose before we go out for a long walk and he appear fine afterwards. He used to just sieze up if he did too much - but you try telling a lurcher he can;t go for a walk, and he should just meander sedately. Now he is far more comfortable and I only give him the medication occasionally. He is going to have the cartrophen starting after Badminton, but I will give him the Loxicom daily to make him comfortable for the 4 days walking at Badminton.
 
Sorry to hear you have had a worrying week. I'm glad Rosie was bright enough to find a way to escape the labs, poor girl, Ii don't know if you were plannign it but maybe somem general obedience classes would help her socialise again with other dogs if she is a little unsure. I'm sure your son would enjoy them too. I wouldn't worry too much about her weight, BCs tend to be quite lean, as long as she is happy and full of energy she is probably fine.
I feel for you with Toby, it is horribly when they start slowing down. I think you are sensible taking him for a check up. I have mentioned on here before that my Buffy has problems with her sight, can't actually pinpoint what it is (despite visits to specialist) but she is coping okay, one of the first things I noticed was she wasn't able to find things when they were thrown to her. Toby could just be getting a bit absent minded, although as you say he isn't old at 6 so doesn't sound like the typical canine senility. Regarding his joints, Buffy is on cartrophen injections (yes she is a wreck), and they really seem to help her. Initially it is one a week, then a month, then every 2 to 3 months. I suspect it works out cheaper in the long run than metacam but haven't done the sums. I try not to add up how much my vets bills are, would scare me.:(
I hope they both have a better week next week, keep us updated.
 
_JH_ said:
Hey, just saw this thread and wanted to say - i have an arthritic lab too, and we find that swimming does more harm than good. I understand it'll be different for every dog, and you want to keep the weight off, but after my dog goes swimming even if it's across the width of our local little river and back, she's much more stiff later in the day and even over to the next day. Recently we went to the beach and she did tons of swimming (we, like you, are keen to keep her active and the weight off!) and she was very stiff for days afterwards. We don't keep her out of the water because she loves it so much, but when we do take her to the beach or park we try not to keep encouraging her to go in the river like before. If she wants to, fine, but we find that she's starting to limit how much swimming she does now anyway, so she's obviously realised the correlation herself!
Click to expand...

Have you tried stretching her after swimming?
Many years ago, when I during a period took some of my now dead old bitches to an indoor dog swim, I was told that stretching helps avoid that they get stiff afterwards.

You can also stretch them during or after longer walks, but you should not stretch cold muscles, so you should only stretch them after that they at least have been active for 20 minutes.

:)
 
Thank you so much for all your replies everyone - I really appreciate it :) Lots of suggestions to look into.

Bedlam - what a lovely story, it actually brought a tear to my eye.

Cayla - Rosie is also 12 weeks so look forward to seeing pics of your BC to compare :) Why is he in rescue?

Re the swimming - my vet also told me not to let him swim much because they can do too much without realising but swimming doesn't seem to make him any worse.

Poor Toby looks so miserable when he sees that there is barely enough biscuits to cover the bottom of his bowl in the mornings that he has taken to eating the layers pellets that I scatter over the lawn for the hens ;)
 
Poor Rosie :( Mean stinky Labs!

One of my Mum's Cockers has a broken both his elbows and has awful arthritis in them (and his back ones from compensating!) but he still gets out to do the odd drive picking up because he loves it so much! He just doesn't stop, still runs around like a loon!
So I'm definately with you on the quality rather than quantity!

I can highly recommend Nupafeed Flex GLM, my Mum's old cocker managed to do a season picking up after being so arthritic he couldn't get up only 2 months earlier! In fact the only reason he was eventually retired was because he went slightly bonkers and reverted to his old trick of burying game! Right up to the day he was PTS he could still rival Otto in terms of running around! :D My horse is on it too, and it turned him into a right thug when he first went on it because he felt so well! :D
 
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