Not what I was hoping for
We're starting to feel very much at home in the new house. There are still boxes here and there, but we are getting there. The dogs love it! They enjoy spending time in the big yard which by the way took me 3½ hours to mow the other day :S Having all my agility equipment right out side the house is a luxury I can learn to live with.
As some of you might know I recently discovered that Zap is suffering from hyper mobility. Especially his left knee is in pretty bad shape although shoulders and elbows are affected as well. We started Zap on metacam to see if he was in pain. After a couple of days on pain killers Zap was back to his happy self, and more goofy then he has even been. Great to see him happy, but not so great considering that the pain killers actually gave him some relief from the pain.
I have always wondered why Zap didn't really act like Poncho or some of the other BC's I shared my life with. He has always been pretty contempt with his life as it is and never asked for more. It wasn't until I started his weave training I suspected something was wrong. Like really wrong. After a couple of goes on 4 straight poles he would leave the training session. Just walk away from me and the equipment. If I tried to call him would lie down. Naturally I stop training weave poles with him. I thought it might have something to do with my training and I started analyzing our training sessions. I didn't find anything in my training that would result in Zap shutting down and refusing to train so I took him to the chiropractor. Let's just say I have never seen a joint pulled apart so easily!
Zap has always been skinny and not very muscular, but I never thought of it as a problem. I have been waiting for him to 'grow up' and get more muscular and maybe stop running in that puppy-like bouncy style but it have never happened.
Now it needs to be fix - I have doublet the amount of food he gets each day, shifted to a diet for dogs with mobility issues, add MSM, glucosamine and extra omega 3 oil. I might start feeding him raw, but not until I have finished 'Basic Nutrition' this term. Zap has been on this diet for 3 weeks and I am very pleased with the results so far!
He is so happy. I haven't seen him this happy for a very long time. Growls his happy growl at us all the time which he normally only does at dinner time. His back isn't arched the way it used to be. He is finally showing some BC characteristic behavior like herding the lawnmower or vacuum cleaner ;) I'm sure the new diet must have helped. At least it seems like he isn't in pain and that's a great relief.
So what about agility?
I don't thing Zap will ever run agility but I'm hoping for a miracle. The experts says I shouldn't train him because it would put to much stress and strain on his body. Even though he can jump at a low height I'm not going to take the risk. Going straight is no problem for him, but turning is. Unfortunately I can't find any constructive publications on hyper mobility not even in the scientific databases I got access to on campus.
For now Zap will get chiropractic and acupuncture treatments on a regular basis - all the while I will be working on a miracle cure.
