Tess in Orlando

[MandyPug]

You keep saying she's broken. What do you mean by broken?

[Flyinsbt]

Originally Posted by MandyPug

You keep saying she's broken. What do you mean by broken?

We went on a long hike a couple months ago (a few days after Labor day), and her back has been messed up ever since. Probably something with the ligaments. It was really gross, you could put your hand on her back and feel things crunching around. She was unable to extend in the rear, or jump up on things she would normally jump on.

She's had chiropractic, massage, laser therapy, and rest. And she has improved, her normal behavior is mostly back. Maybe a bit less vertical than usual, but way better than she was. But her jumping isn't what it should be. I kept her dosed on Rimadyl for the trial we did the weekend before as a warm-up, and through the Invitational. Walked her out well. At both events, her first run would be pretty normal, and her 2nd run, she had trouble jumping. She doesn't act like it hurts, she just doesn't move right.

I'll have video eventually, and you can see it. Her 2nd run on Saturday was cringe-worthy. She only took out 2 bars, but she was struggling hard with the 2nd half of the course. Poor broken dog.

[Shai]

Holy smokes that's awful that she hurt herself so badly . Why did you decide to run her? Did you do Rounds 3 and 4 too?

[Flyinsbt]

Originally Posted by Shai

Holy smokes that's awful that she hurt herself so badly . Why did you decide to run her? Did you do Rounds 3 and 4 too?

She's not in pain, and her vet wasn't worried about her. Neither her regular vet or either of the chiros that have been working on her thought I should skip it. She's been on rest since September, but I'd already paid $700 for my plane ticket to go to the Invitational, and if it wasn't going to hurt her, I was going to go. $700 is a lot of money for me to just wave byebye to. I figured we could have a nice time hanging out together if she couldn't run. But she did run. She wanted to run. I wanted to let her enjoy what is likely to be our last national event.

She did do rounds 3 & 4. Round 3 she got 2 refusals, my handling wasn't good because I was trying to watch her to see what her jumping was like. Round 4, she actually did pretty well. Knocked one bar, but I think that was because I did more rear crosses than she is used to. I believe she did a lot better with the 2nd round on that day because there was less down time between the runs, so she didn't have as much time to stiffen up.

Today I took her to Sauvies Island and let her run around like crazy on the sand, so yeah, my choices for her are sometimes more about letting her be a happy dog than a sound dog.