Finally! John and I are cranking up the Empress (truly the brand name of our RV) and heading home today. If the roads are clear we should be home by Saturday afternoon. Our rescue BC Autumn has fit right in with our other red BC’s, it will be sad to see her go to her new home. What a sweet, yet still grossly overweight dog. We have got some weight off of her. My guess is that she is around 17″ tall and she was 55 lbs when she picked her up. She might be under 50 now, but we don’t have access to a scale.
Encore continues to do well. Now it seems I can’t make her lame. I got the antibiotics to put her on for the suspected Lyme but think I will now wait until I can have my own Vet look at her on Monday.
Don’t think I have forgotten about giving away a copy of Shaping Success to one of our shapers last week. I just haven’t read through all of the comments yet. Will do so while on route over the next two days.
Today I am grateful for the hospitality shown by everyone here in South Florida (especially Neta).
@Susan – wow, that is quite a distance indeed! Speaks loads about your dedication to keeping your dogs healthy. Is that Dr. Robert DeHann? I did a quick google lookup, and the address was in NC, although very close to the SC border (actually not far from the MD that I go to myself). I’d certainly love to know of a vet somewhat close to me that did prolo, for myself as well as to refer others to.
Most doctors do use anesthetic with the injections which will usually make the pain subside very quickly for the first week, I hadn’t heard of other methods to reducing the later issues as they relate specifically to the inflammatory reaction that the injections are designed to create. It certainly can vary greatly from person to person as well as from session to session. Sounds like he is doing some interesting stuff though. I actually was looking into stem cell treatment for a knee that I’ve had one failed surgery on already (platelet-rich plasma therapy or PRP)…it’s more expensive but considered a much better treatment for knee injuries than prolo…. my doctor said that I wouldn’t really see any difference in the amount of pain, that basically you’re wanting all those platelets to do their thing and get a similar inflammatory reaction going and typically that is where the pain 2-3 weeks out is coming from. Once the body lays down new tissue and heals the area, that’s when things improve.
The hardest thing in my experience as well is knowing the exact right spot to inject. Pain often originates in one area and radiates to others…I find it hard enough to describe it for myself, it certainly can be an even tougher challenge with our dogs knowing exactly where they are injured. That’s another area I think that having a really experienced sports vet is beyond valuable.
Susan , glad to hear Encore is doing well again…certainly looking further into Lyme as a cause is important….but I also noticed you mentioned on an earlier post that you do prolotherapy treatments and had the shoulder treated. Prolo has been becoming more commonly used in people, as well as racehorses, to treat sports and other injuries, but fairly new in dogs. Hopefully more vets will learn how to do it as it can really be incredibly effective for tendon/ligament injuries in particular, but just isn’t very widely known. I actually have been through several rounds of treatment myself for chronic pain in my back, pelvis and elbows, with really excellent results. I drive 4 hours to go to a doctor that is tops in the field, and have to pay the costs myself since insurance won’t cover it but it’s well worth it. I’m really at this point 90% pain free for the first time in about 5 years (I can’t begin to say how much PT, chiro and other treatments I’d been through that didn’t help!) But a couple important things I’ve noticed….that 2-3 weeks after my treatment, my pain is generally at its worst. Often worse than before the injections. Then it comes down and levels off around 4-5 weeks. Most people do need 3-4 treatments for best results as well, depending on the nature of the injury and how chronic it has been as well. I couldn’t quite get a feel for the timeline when you said she was limping worse than after after the prolo on the shoulder, but if it was only a couple weeks, that might have played a part.
Congrats to Canada for so many gold medals at the Olympics…can’t wait for the hockey game tomorrow. Here in Raleigh NC, there is no pro football team, no pro baseball team, but we have the ’06 Stanley Cup Champions the Hurricanes and you won’t find many places in the US that are as hockey-crazed as this city (ironic as we pretty much never get snow down here!) My family is all going to be glued to our TVs cheering our US team on!
Thanks for the note Mary Jo. I actually go to SC for Encore’s Prolo (to Dr. DeHaann–that is almost 1000 miles each way so I certain can appreciate traveling a distance to someone you thinks is the “best”. Encore (and DeCaff) have had Prolo for about 5 years. We started out with 3 or 4 sessions 3 weeks apart and then a year later 2 sessions 3 weeks apart and now it is down to once a year. Love the results. I have not noticed either of the sore after. It is a bit different then what they do with humans as Dr. DeHaan avoids the “pain” by using 1/2 the diluent and adding homeopathics and European stem cell to his mixture.
Have a safe trip home. I wish you all the best for Encore – I am so looking forward to seeing you at the WAC in May (and am sending postive thoughts for you and Encore that all will be well) but if I have to settle for watching you and Feature then that is OK too 🙂
I hope you are keeping an eye on the Winter Olympics on your way home. I have been watching with a new eye – I am on the Aussie team for the WAC and will be running a borrowed dog. Nothing can really prepare us but watching the winter olympics has really helped. I am totally inspired by the mental toughness of the athletes competing. It has truely been inspiring.
Johnny-driver, steady as she goes, the snow storm, she’s a-blowin’
Hi Susan,
Thank you doing a wonderful seminar at Queen City DTC last week. Loved the puppy day. The 2×2 weaves lecture cleared up a few things I was unsure of from the video. Thank you so much for coming to Cincinnati, and hope you can return next year.
Diane and the BC dogs from KY
I am sure your pups are excited to make it home, I can hear them chanting now “there’s no place like home…” 🙂
Be safe on the drive back.
Watch out for the storms! It’s supposed to start today and continue through until Saturday with most of it South of us.