Reformed raw vegan.
Danny has been making really great progress at rehab. He goes twice a week to work out on the underwater treadmill so that he can keep his muscle mass up on the injured leg. The vet doesn’t think it’s a cruciate injury and maybe the injury is around his patella.
Here’s Danny in the underwater treadmill as it’s filling up with water. He’s been on it 3 times already but he’s still suspicious!
Danny playing with a ball while walking on the underwater treadmill.
Danny working out.
My sister called me to remind me to watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show the other night. I love watching it to see all the breeds of dogs. I love the herding dogs. I can’t believe a 10 year old spaniel won! I have two English Springer Spaniels who are 10 and 11 years old.
Buddy at Crooks Hollow
Last year my favourite dog was the Australian Shepherd. She won in the herding dogs category last year. This year’s entry in that breed isn’t as pretty as last year’s.
2008 – Australian Shepherd
This year my favourite is the Finnish Spitz.
He didn’t win anything this year, but I don’t care. He looks like a red fox. He has the same hair colour as me! And he’s Baltic!
And the puppies are sooooo adorable. I want a Spitz when we move onto our farm.
My mom decided to cancel Danny’s surgery. We took him to the rehabilitation/injury specialist vet in Puslinch last night. The vet doesn’t exactly know what it is wrong with him either, but does not think it’s necessarily a cruciate ligament injury like the other vet said. Well the other vet said he couldn’t get a drawer movement so “what else could it be” and therefore he should have surgery. Silly, and leaping to conclusions in my mind, since he’s only a year old. Surgery is a pretty radical solution.
The rehab vet gave him laser therapy on his muscles and felt around to see if she could feel injury or inflammation. She also gave him a massage which seemed to help, since he was carrying his leg more forward afterwards.
We put him on the underwater treadmill and he was pretty freaked out! He is a really quiet dog and I have never heard Danny make so much noise as when that chamber started filling up with water. His eyes were bugging out of his head. I wish I had had the camera! When they turned on the treadmill part, Danny, being a border collie, tried to outsmart it by swimming instead of walking. He was freaked out for the first few minutes but then he got the hang of it. He’s going back on Friday to use the treadmill again. It’s supposed to let him get some exercise and use his leg muscles without weight being put on the muscles to injure them further.
In the mean time, Danny is off the anti-inflammatory pills from the original vet and will be taking Arnica tablets. He is being kept quiet and is really sad. We are setting up the cage downstairs so he can’t run up and down the stairs or run around with the other dogs. We’re going to try to keep him quiet to see if we can see any progress.
