March 18, 2010

Doodle Bug

I don't know how she ended up with this nickname, but she did and it stuck. I think it was something that The Princess used to babble to her. Anyway - about 10 days before we were leaving for vacation she started hopping. She was holding her left rear leg up and not putting any weight on it at all. We started giving her Rimadyl. She was doing much, much better so we took her off after about 5 days. Of course she started limping again, and one day her leg was hurting enough that she wouldn't climb the stair. Unfortunately there is no way to go anywhere in our house without using stairs. So we called the vet thinking maybe she had torn her ACL. The good news is she can weight bear on a very low dose of Rimadyl. Nothing in her legs feels like it's torn. The general diagnosis is arthritis. I guess she's due - she is 10.5. She's an old girl now. However - no matter what we do we can't get her to stop spinning for her supper. Any suggestions?

8 comments :

  1. Love you Abby!! Smooches all around...

    Sissy says that if you feed her early and often, she won't have time to spin first. I don't have any great ideas (and don't support Sissy's efforts to over-feed Abby), but I do know that my bassets have always developed their own food rituals, and have always tried to get me to feed them early, often and to excess.

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  2. i have an idea regarding your animals, and whatever ails them. Stop taking vacations. have you noticed that pretty much EVERY time you schedule a vacay, they act up??? yes, they DO totally own you!!!!!
    Hope she is feeling better!!
    ~jess

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  3. If you can find a way to stop spinning please let me know. I live with the spinning king, Fudge, and he passed the spinning gene on to all his offspring. I live in a house full of spinning dogs.

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  4. But spinning bassets are so cute! (You should be glad she didn't teach the big dogs to spin for their food.)
    I think she is very sweet, no matter what she does.

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  5. Sounds like arthritis... poor girl... but glad its manageable!

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  6. Aww, poor baby! Give her a big smooch from Simon and me!

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  7. I am grateful Thor doesn't spin. I'd have no house left if he did. I've been giving him Glucosamine and Chondritin for almost 2 years to keep his joints in better shape, and it has worked, but the poor guy is approaching 9 years old. I think in Mastiff terms that's like 100+. Patrick did hear of a Mastiff that made it to 11 when he was censusing, so I plan to keep investing in the G&C to try to keep him agile. Thor sends great sympathy to Abby.

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  8. Sorry that arthritis is rearing its ugly head. I'm glad the low dose meds help.

    If you figure out the spinning, let me know. My Skippy is a spinning Pom and his cousin Charlie is too. Someone told me it's a Pom trait - apparently one they share with the Bassets !

    And we can be very glad they are not Thor's size LOL :-)

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I appreciate you coming to see me. It may take me a bit to publish your comment - but I will get to them by the end of every day. If you leave a way for me to get back to you, I will. Thanks for taking the time to comment and share your opinions. g

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