Burning Up

After a crappy Saturday evening, the hubby and I returned home to a sauna. Our air conditioner was not working.Temperatures have been soaring to the high 90's (37 degrees for my Celsius friends) and humidity in the high 80's. We were in for it.Stephen ran to Wal-Mart to purchase a couple of fans. We knew we would be without air conditioner until at least Monday.We debated about whether to intrude on someone with our seven greyhounds (yes we were baby sitting an extra dog), but it seemed like such a hassle.We endured Sunday with cold showers and a wind tunnel living room. It was miserable. We did our best to keep the dogs cool and hydrated. Some sought out tile floors.Sunday night brought some relief as temperatures dropped a bit and the sun went down. We all slept in the living room. I was on the couch and Stephen slept on our dog bed/futon mattress. We surrounded ourselves with fans and propped our front door open. It was kind of weird to sleep knowing that someone could just walk right in. Hence the nearby shotgun.We decided we were not going to spend another night without air conditioning and had planned to move in with my parents. Luckily we did not have to as my hero showed up early Monday afternoon and revived our air conditioning unit.I have never appreciated air conditioning as much as I do now. It was truly a miserable experience.

Breaking Down

Unfortunately, Katie has dislocated another toe, but his one does not pop back into place (meaning the connective tissues in the joint are torn). Adding insult to injury, this toe injury occurred on a rear leg... as if Katie does not already have enough rear end problems (neurological, missing toe, and lots of arthritic changes in the remaining toes).

Dr. Toby examined the problem and suggested we see if Katie can live with the dislocation (versus amputating the toe). The dislocated toe joint has broken down completely and is not repairable. The other toes are breaking down as well and may not be able to support the burden of a missing toe. The interesting thing is that the injured toe never had any swelling so that makes me think it was probably being held together by scar tissue anyway. Normally a dislocated toe swells up immediately from the trauma. In the above photo, left to right, the first toe is the dislocated toe. The two middle toes almost appear to be headed for the same dislocation, but both have large knuckles and bony changes (especially the third one). Hopefully the additional scar tissue and calcification will hold them together for the rest of Katie's life. Left rear foot is below.This foot belongs to Katie's neurological leg. As you can see, one toe is missing (amputated 2 years ago) and a bursa has developed. You can also see bony changes in the remaining toes, but they are in much better shape than on her right foot. I believe the other foot takes a beating from compensating for the neurological leg.

Since Katie's newly dislocated toe has been painful, I have been giving her Deramaxx and I think it makes a big difference. I had kept her from moving around too much so I had not watched her move until the vet saw her. She actually was moving sound... well... with all things considered. She did not appear to be limping and was putting weight on it. Dr. Toby wants to see if Deramax can keep her going. We both agreed she is probably in pain elsewhere so the Deramax is probably a good idea anyway. Otherwise, he thought she looked great and complimented her healthy teeth.

Katie is just such a spirit and so tough. Never complains... just don't forget her Kongs and Bully Sticks!The sight of the toe creeps me out, but Katie does not let it stop her. I think it bothers me more than her. She has resumed her rehab exercises. A couple of days ago, she worked out for bites of ribeye that the husband begrudgingly gave up.

What bothers me the most is that I am putting a stop to her wheelies. In the afternoons even when it is 99 degrees (37 degrees for my Celsius friends), Katie is prone to spinning, running, and bouncing around the yard. I love to watch her. It makes me feel good to know she feels good. I hate to stop her, but I think the risk of injury is just too great.

Dock Jumping

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of Travis' passing. Time flies no matter what. I finally stripped his dock jumping videos from DVDs that originally came from tape. It is not super quality, but it is all I have. I usually try to edit videos for short attention spans (because I have one), but its my blog, that was my dog, and this is probably the only purebred greyhound most of you will ever see dock jumping. Travis is the only one I have ever seen..... how lucky am I that he was mine!Travis was not a spectacular dock jumper. His flat style did not carry him for a long distance, but it was hoot watching him get so excited for his turn. We had a great time! The record holder (at least at the time) was actually a greyhound/coonhound mix. His jumps reached 26 feet.

I was wondering the other day if Travis at age 12 would still be doing agility or not. I mentioned to Stephen that I probably would have retired him once Reagan and Riley were ready to compete. Stephen reminded me that I would not have adopted Riley if Travis were still alive. I do not think I would trade Riley for those two years (at least not today, tomorrow might be another story if she is bad :-). So things are working out, but I still miss him so much. Last year, I did a Memorial video for Travis. If you have not seen it, please check it out. I love how it turned out. Click Here.

Short Nails

Katie dislocated another toe. Two years ago, I had the first one chopped off 2 days after it happened. The collateral ligaments were obviously torn and the affected toe was on her left rear leg, the same leg she has a neurological deficit in. Katie simply could not afford to not be using that leg so it was easy for me to decide to amputate the problem toe. It was a good decision and she was back to normal in less than 2 weeks and has been busy ever since.

It probably sounds so strange to non-greyhound dog owners, but toe injuries are fairly common in active greyhounds (but things like bad hips and knees are very rare). In fact, Katie's recent dislocated toe is the 6th one I have dealt with since adopting my first greyhound in 1993. However, this time the toe ligaments were not torn. Despite being totally grossed out, I was able to pop it back into place with little discomfort to Katie. The toe didn't even swell up and she was immediately sound again..... but then it happened again immediately. Both times occurred indoors when she was not doing anything rambunctious. This happened right as I was trying to leave for the Perry agility trial. Since the toe was popping back into place, I hoped that a bandage would hold it into place and maybe it would not happen again.

The hubby reported no problems the 3 days I was gone. I took Katie in the backyard to do her rehab exercises and it dislocated again immediately. And then again! Dang it! It appeared a second amputation was on the horizon. I discussed surgically fixing the toe with my vet and he felt that being 12 years old and neurological that amputation was a better fit.

I scheduled the surgery. Despite the different bandages I tried, Katie seemed to be more uncomfortable than comfortable so I decided to leave it unwrapped since I was not trying to save it at that point. I also clipped her nails.

A couple of days went by and she had not dislocated her toe again. I started to hesitate about amputating. I stopped being careful with her, worked on rehab exercises, and even jumped her. No toe dislocation so I happily cancelled the surgery.

The moral of the story is to keep your dog's nails short. I am embarrassed to admit that I think a long nail was the cause. Normally, I trim the seniors once every 2 weeks and the brats weekly, but had probably let it go an extra week. I am really anal about keeping nails trimmed short, so I am appalled that Katie literally dislocated a toe walking through the kitchen possibly due to a long nail. The thing is that I have seen nails much longer than the ones you see in the photos below. So trim those nails religiously!

For those that have never seen a dislocated toe, the first photo is all of the toes in a normal position. The second photo shows the toe farthest to the right dislocated between the P1 and P2 bones.

Reagan's Travels

I decided to take Reagan's new found sanity on the road and took her with us to the Perry agility trial. Truth be told, it was probably too much driving for her. I have undone some of the work I had accomplished traveling locally. Hopefully I can get it back and fortunately she is already showing improvement.

However, Reagan did very well with a variety of noises at the show and hotel sites. As you know, Reagan is taking a medication called BuSpar in an effort to minimize her phobic reactions to engines, motors, construction, and road noises. So far the change has been amazing and Perry gave us a variety of situations to test Reagan.

She was able to potty at the hotel near a road with passing cars.Reagan used to fall apart when one of these bad boys drove by... not in Perry.

Reagan also did well with the loud air conditioning units outside of the building and the road noise from the interstate.

I also took her down to the agility rings to see if the teeter noise bothered her and it did not. I am probably going to be loading my teeter into my van very soon and hauling it over to the covered arena at our local agility trial site.

All in all, I'm truly amazed by how well the BuSpar has worked for Reagan's noise phobias. I am so thankful as it has brought the joy back into mine and Reagan's relationship. If you are having a serious behavior problem (not just noise phobias) with your dog (or cat), you may want to consider a behavior consultation with Tufts University (click here). At the cost of $250, I received an in depth behavior evaluation for Reagan, suggestions for solving her problems, and access to a behaviorist for 6 months via phone or email. If drug therapy is suggested for a behavior problem, Tufts University is probably the best place for getting that advice.

Perry Agility

Riley and I competed in agility in Perry, Georgia last weekend. She is really coming along nicely. She now has 2 qualifying runs (needs 3) towards her Open Standard and Open Jumpers titles. I cannot wait for her to move up to Excellent.... soon!
Here are three of Riley's agility runs.

My goal right now is to qualify once at each two-day trial, so I was very pleased to have achieved that goal twice!

Seriously?

Recently, my mom and I were walking Reagan, Riley, and her three small dogs. We stopped at our favorite lake spot, a peninsula that projects off from the beaten path. After a few minutes, we were startled by three off leash, unsupervised dogs. I carry pepper spray for such encounters, but lucky for them, they had polite body language and immediately headed for the lake. Riley quickly greeted the malamute/husky type and they were friendly. Everyone else ignored each other. I started to relax as it appeared that the eight dogs would easily share the lake shore. I expected an owner to toddle down at any moment so I was working out my lecture in my head. I find it terribly rude for someone to not be in control of their off leash dogs. Minutes pass.... and still no owner. My mom and I start to wonder if something might be wrong so we gather our dogs and head back to the trail. I look left and right and see nothing. Suddenly I see an off leash shepherd mix heading down to the water on the other side of the trail (opposite from where the other dogs are. Finally, I see a person.Me: Do you own the three dogs that are down at the lake (pointing in the direction of their location)?

Irresponsible Dog Owner: Yes.

Me: It is kind of rude for you to allow your dogs to run all over as if you own the place.

Irresponsible Dog Owner: Everyone else does it.

Me: Yeah, well I do it too, but I put my dogs back on leash when we pass other people and dogs.

Irresponsible Dog Owner didn't really have anything else to say to that.

I am just glad her dogs and our dogs were friendly. I wish I could control how I feel, but it really does make my heart drop when my greyhounds are approached by off leash dogs. If anything goes wrong, my thin skinned hounds are the ones that will need medical attention. At least every pleasant encounter is good practice for us.

Here are a couple of pictures of silly Reagan grabbing a stick out of the water.

I am just glad I did not have to send Rabid Reagan after them.

Until Somebody Gets Hurt

Tricks are fun until somebody gets hurt. For instance, Reagan can shake paws. Cute right?

Let us just say that Reagan has a firm paw shake and if you are not ready to grip it you get clawed instead. Not cute...

Hotel Weirdness

Riley handled the agility trial venue like a pro, but she had issues with the hotel. The Knights Inn is not quite as nice as the Westin that Travis and I stayed in when we traveled to California for the Agility Invitational, but he and Katie stayed in a lot of cheap hotels. We have seen broken out car windows, a drug bust, prostitutes, and tons of feral cats! Comparatively, this Knights Inn was pretty nice.

About when Riley should have settled in, she became hyper alert with her nose and ears. She seems really offended by certain smells. At times she was shaking. I thought sleeping on the bed would be a special treat. I am not sure if she liked it or would have preferred a crate. I took her for a nice walk Saturday night and it took a long time for her to calm down and just be a dog. She is a strange little greyhound. Thankfully, it never interfered with our agility trial.

Dealing with fear and phobias is definitely something I wish to avoid. I was truly spoiled with Travis and Katie. I could take them anywhere. I never gave it a second thought and didn't have to. They traveled great. They shared hotel rooms well with others. They had no separation anxiety about being left in a hotel room. I always appreciated that about Katie and Travis, but now more than ever.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day! I am so happy to be safe and free in the United States. Its so wonderful to be able to pursue teaching my dogs silly tricks.

And thank you, Readers! I really appreciate all of the comments and the followers. I try to repay the favor and visit your blogs as well. Don't be a stranger!

Murfreesboro Trial

Riley and I traveled to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for an agility trial last weekend. I opted not to bring Reagan. I am still not sure how to handle her on a long drive. The Manners Minder works really well for local trips, but she just doesn't eat enough food in one day to make a 3 hour drive.

Riley ran really well... just some baby dog errors. Here are three of her runs.

This ended up being some of the longest agility trial days I have ever experienced. Normally we are done early in the afternoon, but agility runs continued well into the evening. Lots of sleeping and napping going on.