Seven has a busted carpal joint (wrist)! After having several great agility trials, she suddenly came up lame during agility class. Since she is a drama queen and often fakes broken legs, I gave her a few minutes to walk out of it and she did. She finished class.
Well, it happened again at our next training session. I gave her a couple of days off and she continued to be lame off and on despite the rest. I determined that it was her wrist as there seemed to be discomfort in that area.
Seven's left wrist lacks flexibility and I have known that for awhile. It flexes at a 90 degree angle where as the right carpal joint can flex further. Neither are as flexible as they should be.
Right wrist with more acute angle
Left wrist with a more open angle and less flexibility
I had it x-rayed and confirmed that there is significant arthritis in the joint. I started her on Adequan immediately. It has an excellent track record of helping arthritic joints and I hope it will help. BUT SEVEN IS ONLY FOUR YEARS OLD!!! My head is spinning. Do I continue to do things that will break her down? If she retires early, what the heck am I going to do with her? How did I get this unlucky? I am sick of problems, injuries, treatment, early retirement, and rehab. It is all so expensive and not much fun.
Reagan
First there was Reagan, who became too noise sensitive and terrified of travel to compete in agility. And at the ripe old age of five years old is sitting in my house most days while me and my other hounds are out having fun. God Bless the husband for including Reagan on his old dog outings. She is able to tolerate 10 minute trips in his vehicle to a lake shore where she can play fetch and sniff around a few times a week, but otherwise she plays fetch in the yard and that is about it.
Riley
Of course, you all know that Riley was out a whole year because of the fractured hock and then a punctured joint. I was so glad to have gotten Seven. She was basically Reagan's replacement and while I knew a puppy was a possibility, I was worried that in the meanwhile all of my eggs would be in Riley's basket. If anything happened to Riley (and it did), I would have not have a dog to do anything with. Plus the age spacing between Riley and a puppy was going to be too great.... I really needed a dog between them.
So that is my complaint as of lately. Any visions of a long agility career for Seven are being flushed down the toilet most likely. It is just so disappointing when she is just so awesome.
On Wednesday, Seven is being seen by an orthopedic specialist and we are sedating her for thorough x-rays. Think positive thoughts...
