In the month of March, we attended two local agility trials. On March 8th, Seven tweaked her wrist towards the end of the Standard course. You can see her on the table holding up her left paw on the table. Yes, we kept going. I looked at her on the table for a few extra seconds and asked if she wanted to continue. The next obstacle was the tunnel and if she really did not want to finish, she would tell me there. Well, she wanted to finish so we did. If this was anything other than arthritis, I would have stopped her on the table.
Long-time readers know that Seven has an arthritic left wrist that she will occasionally torque and come up lame for a couple of minutes, walk out of it, and then be fine again. There was a time when it was happening almost every time we did agility. The carpal joint became inflamed and was prone to getting hurt, but with the help of an orthopedic specialist vet and a rehab specialist vet, we have developed a system that manages the wrist very well. Seven gets joint supplements and fish oil. I carefully warm her up and do lots of work on her wrist before and after any activity. She is given Adequan once a month. And about 8 months ago, we did a platelet rich plasma injection. Platelets tend to concentrate in the injured areas to promote healing so the vet basically takes the platelets from Seven's own blood and injects them right into her problem joint. Last time, we got three months of ZERO wrist issues. It was amazing! So we did it again.
A week later, Seven competed at her next agility trial and did great. Here is video of her two best runs.
So onto Nationals later this week! Wish us luck!
Also, just an FYI, I asked my vet, the orthopedic specialist, and my rehab vet about the new stem cell treatments for arthritis. All three are skeptical of it and need to see more evidence of its effectiveness before they are willing to do it or suggest it. The great thing about the platelet rich plasma injections (PRP) is that it does not require a surgical procedure like the stem cell treatment does. The whole PRP process takes about an hour and if your dog is as food motivated as mine, they don't even need to be sedated. Cream cheese and canned dog food made the procedure very tolerable for Seven.
