Corgis keep you humble...

We are back in obedience class now that Dash no longer has restrictions on his movement. Hopefully by the end of 7 weeks, he will earn his first set of letters - CGC - behind his name. However, it will not be without making Mom work hard and look foolish along the way. Here is the rundown of class number 2, last Tuesday... We practiced two of the tasks, but not (apparently) the most important. However, that didn't really matter as someone totally disengaged HIS brain.

Task one - Heel on loose lead. Clearly the wood chips were much more fascinating than me. He has never reacted this way. Usually he is a little star. How bad was it. I gave up and just carried him off the pattern as I figured I was just setting him up to fail. Note - I am the only one in class with the option of actually lifting their dog.

Task two - Stay - for 3 freaking seconds but at a distance... Uh NOPE (Granted this is the one we didn't practice). Once the instructor picked up his leash, he sat calmly. He was just confused. We will definitely be working on this more.

Task three - Get left with friendly stranger. No problem. Someone giving him attention. Mom - who's that. Oh. Okay. She's back. Whatever... and no, I'm still not picking my nose up from the wood chips.

Task four - Recall. I left him using "Hold it" instead of Stay as I consider this more of his "wait" command. He sat patiently and then raced to see me on command (finally we don't look like total fools).

Task five - Sit & Down. Nailed those. Did a few puppy pushups. Finally starting to pay more attention to me. Helps that I have now pulled out the string cheese (which he liked better even than the boiled chicken that I tried to use earlier).

Task six - Sit nicely while a friendly stranger approaches. He barely contained his excitment but did as I asked.

Task seven - Sit nicely to be petted by friendly stranger. "At least he jumped on you (me)" instead of on friendly stranger.

Task eight - Heel on loose lead again. NAILED IT. My boy actually does have a brain in his head. Just took 30 minutes to turn it on and another twenty to warm it up.

Fortunately, one of the instructors has a Corgi and can relate. We know what we need to work on! And we have four more classes to go. Then I'll miss a week (my blondeness came out when I planned a trip to Florida - which would have been on test night except for the heat advisory last week...). And finally test night - stay tuned for the events of August 29th.

Must you visit the vet EVERY month?

I am convinced that this dog believes his life is not complete unless he visits a vet every month. So far, we've seen Dr. M, Dr. S. and others at least once a month (except maybe in January - but if I look hard enough I'm sure I can find a record of a visit there too. In December, he visited the vet I volunteered for as a young teen - conjunctivitis. In July, it was a little more dramatic. The note I sent out on July 5th tells the story pretty well.

We are in Arkansas visiting Mike's parents.

Some time around 10-15 years ago, they put a box of D-Con rat poison in one of the closets. Dash found it last night. Fortunately I caught him in the act and we rushed him to the emergency clinic where the induced vomiting, gave him the antidote, and
charcoaled him. He will be on vitamin K tablets for the next 4-6 weeks. The vet does not think he absorbed much if any into his system as we got him treated so quickly that the granules he puked up were pretty much whole.

We went through the entire range of what-ifs last night (what if Gus had found it as an infant, or my neice when she came to visit, or Java & Bixter over the past years that they've visited). Trust the walking vet-bill to do so.

He is playing happily with his new Giggly Frog, like nothing happened. He charged out of the ER last night with not a care in the world in spite of being tubed with the charcoal and being made to puke up a perfectly lovely (well rather hideous) late night snack.

A couple weeks ago there was a sad story circulated online about a show dog(s) who
found rat poison under a hotel room bed at the "dog show" hotel. Sadly, it is not just hotels that we need to be careful about. We've done a whole house search to make sure that there are no other finds awaiting him. And the stupid/scary thing is, my back was turned on him for less than two minutes when he got into that closet.

There are no long-term effects expected. We do have to do a blood test at the end of the month to make sure that he is clotting correctly (otherwise we extend the vitamin K). His energy, personality, persistance, etc. are unaffected. Though he was
pretty pissed off with me about the hydrogen peroxide we used to try to get him
to throw up... he has forgiven me.

I took the precaution of letting Dash know that he didn't need to go out of his way to find a vet in TN, as we were staying with friends on the trip to and from Arkansas - and she is a vet. Tomorrow, we will have our August appointment - a follow-up to July.

Please be vigilant about using poisons around pets and children. This forgotten box nearly resulted in a serious tragedy.

Rehabilitation

When Dash's cast was finally removed, it was cause for great celebration about the land. And of course inevitably, the short dog jokes... Aunt B. informed us that we need to Zamboni the back yard, as we wouldn't want him to fall in any more divots.

Dash was placed on restricted movement for the next two weeks (includes
leashes inside the house) so that he will not "run with reckless abandon" and
screw things up. We go back for a follow-up x-ray on May 3rd. I'm also
going to contact the rehab vet next week as he is not using the foot much -
though I'm assured that he will go back to using it in a few weeks...

The first two days - he used that foot less than 20% of the time. Not good for a show/performance dog.

On April 26th we went to VetHab in Raleigh for a consult. I was hoping that a few chiropractic adjustments might solve the problem of him not walking. Not to be (and realistically, I knew this...). Dash made new friends. We started a course of physical therapy on Friday the 28th - Dash was in Raleigh 3 times a week for the next 4 weeks. Provided Dash agrees - the plan was to use the underwater treadmill and swimming to help him rebuild the muscle and ligament tone. Happily, he agreed and took to the treadmill like a fish to water. At home he is on pen rest for the next two weeks so that he doesn't undo the work he will do in therapy. His movement restrictions were more stringent with the cast off than with it on.

After the first week, he started to use his foot, but was swinging it out when he did use it and overall, prefered to hop three legged instead of actually walk. Very little semblance of a gait at this point - or at least not one that I recognize.

May 11th - Dash completed his sixth intensive therapy visit. He is pooped when he gets home. Dash was given homework - 10 minute walks at a very slow steady trot. Which is tough because he has lots and lots of puppy energy. He also graduated to the land treadmill. So no longer reeks of chlorine.

On May 13th, we were given instructions to build Cone Cavaletti for the next stage of PT. I spent some time on the porch with our new drill bit, drilling lots and lots and lots of holes in traffic cones. And then let Dash meet the cones so that he didn't think they were going to eat him. May 16th we started trying to walk over the poles at the lowest level. The intent is to build muscles to support his knee, hips, and spine so that he doesn't injure himself again in a moment of brilliant stupidity.

May 23rd, we got the wonderful news that Dash graduated from his thrice weekly visits to Raleigh. He is to spend the next month increasing the lenght of his walks with Cavelleti time as well. Unfortunately, this coincided with me coming down with a hideous summer cold that sidelined me. So during that month he did not get as much time walking as I would have liked. On June 17th we had a follow-up visit and were released from care. We are still to work on longer walks with Cavelletti time to keep up his conditioning. Often his walks are after 9:00 p.m. as the summer heat arrived.

During the past two months, Dash had to stay in his laundry room, his ex-pen, or his crate whenever he was not on a leash. Mike was very glad that Dash was released from full confinement on the 17th, though we left the ex-pen up for two more weeks as it provided a handy refuge from a silly puppy.

During the four months of healing and rehabilitation, I developed a little more patience than I initially possessed. Onwards and upwards...

The rest of the Cast Story

Well, The four week x-ray came and went. The diagnosis was 4 more weeks (so 8 weeks instead of the four we were hoping for).

March 16th we had a scheduled cast change - swelling was coming down and hair on his leg starting to grow back so that he wasn't totally bald. The inicision was finally healing. But the lump looked scary. Chuck explained that it was a function of there not being much flesh to hide the pin. He came home in an NC State Red bandage.

The next scheduled bandage change was April 4th. After leaving his red cast alone for 18 days, he took his fresh blue one off by 7:00 a.m. the following morning. At the vet's office, waiting for our turn, Tim accused him of laughing at us. Yep. Corgis laugh! Back to a red cast. The next, and hopefully final x-ray was scheduled for April 17th - through the cast. We did not make it to April 17th before needing a new bandage!

April 12th he started slipping his leg out of his cast. Fortunately (and heartlessly), I was able to jam his leg back into his cast and restrict his movement until we reached the vet's office the following morning. Dr. Reynolds decided to approach the cast differently, and used only the back half. This reduces the weight of the cast. Only 4 more days to our final x-ray! The bandage is now a lovely purple!

Through this all - I've listened to the cracks about dogs with no legs - and how on earth do you break a 4 inch leg... So from my sister (who shall remain nameless Aunt S...) "He’s finally found his school to support: the University of Western Ontario – the Purple Flash."

On Monday April 17th, the verdict from the x-ray - "Let's keep it on for two more weeks - there is still a tiny shadow at the breakpoint." My jaw dropped. Ideally this is a good plan, as Dash really does try to keep on frapping with his cast on... however, realistically, it is nearly impossible to envision keeping that thing on for two more weeks (note the four previous unplanned bandage changes....).

Tuesday April 18th, we got a little bit complacent and forgot to put on his Bitenot collar. Bad idea. He started to chew on the bandage. Because he only has the back half of the cast acting as a splint, he did some damage beyond just tearing off the purple vetwrap. I replaced some of the vetwrap, and replaced it again a few hours later and noticed that the bandage was decidedly damp. Uh oh. I sent a picture of the boys in their purple bandages... to which Aunt S. replies "I can't believe how tall Gus is getting! Mind youhe's next to short dog (you had to know that wascoming), but he is definitely sprouting." ...

The following day - I sent this email out:

Dash got bored yesterday. Really bored. And combined with our getting too complacent and leaving his colar off when we were gone yesterday... he got busy... First thing I noticed when I got home was that the lower part of his cast was decidedly chewed on. And when I went to rebandage it, it was decidedly damp. And when he chewed more of the bandage off while my back was turned, it was even damper... So I had Mike take him to the vet's office today. Where they decided that his leg was just too wet to bother re-bandaging. I wonder if he stepped in his water dish, but there wasn't a puddle in his laundry room.

Nope - no puddle. As we sat together in the ex-pen on Wednesday night, Dash demonstrated the power of Corgi Slobber. Come to think of it, over the course of four months, I spent a lot of time sitting in the ex-pen, keeping him company.