Poor paw

[Amarillo]

On the day Catalonia declared independence, Meg was chasing feral cats into thorn bushes. The incident was detailed in my blog at the time:

Day 113 to 118 – Cadiz

There’s a green sheen across the campsite – bone dry sand is sprouting grass. It just shows how a good thunderstorm can transform arid land. I noticed something different yesterday too.…

au-revoir.eu

Day 119 – Cadiz to El Ejido

It took me 70 minutes to pack the van today – exactly the same length of time that it took our 12 volt kettle to boil. I make that 840,000 joules. It should take 267,750 joules to raise 750ml…

au-revoir.eu

Two and a half years later and one of her injured paws is causing more distress. A £200 x-ray shows nothing other than inflammation around her left rear ankle joint. A week of anti-inflammatory medicine has done nothing to settle her discomfort - she won't touch the paw to the ground and can't/won't jump into the car or climb stairs. The vet wonders if a fragment of thorn has worked its way into the ankle joint. Only a ~£1500 CT scan would reveal if this might be the case. Meg is now on antibiotics as well as anti-inflammatory drugs - back to the vet in a week to discuss next steps.

On a brighter note, there doesn't appear to be any abnormal wear in her hips, knees or ankles, although ankles are more complicated joints and less easy to spot abnormal bone wear.

 

[GrannyJen]

On the day Catalonia declared independence, Meg was chasing feral cats into thorn bushes. The incident was detailed in my blog at the time:

Day 113 to 118 – Cadiz

There’s a green sheen across the campsite – bone dry sand is sprouting grass. It just shows how a good thunderstorm can transform arid land. I noticed something different yesterday too.…

au-revoir.eu

Day 119 – Cadiz to El Ejido

It took me 70 minutes to pack the van today – exactly the same length of time that it took our 12 volt kettle to boil. I make that 840,000 joules. It should take 267,750 joules to raise 750ml…

au-revoir.eu

Two and a half years later and one of her injured paws is causing more distress. A £200 x-ray shows nothing other than inflammation around her left rear ankle joint. A week of anti-inflammatory medicine has done nothing to settle her discomfort - she won't touch the paw to the ground and can't/won't jump into the car or climb stairs. The vet wonders if a fragment of thorn has worked its way into the ankle joint. Only a ~£1500 CT scan would reveal if this might be the case. Meg is now on antibiotics as well as anti-inflammatory drugs - back to the vet in a week to discuss next steps.

On a brighter note, there doesn't appear to be any abnormal wear in her hips, knees or ankles, although ankles are more complicated joints and less easy to spot abnormal bone wear.

Bless her.

Give her a big hug from me and Max extends a manly canine cuddle.

 

[BeagleMum]

On the day Catalonia declared independence, Meg was chasing feral cats into thorn bushes. The incident was detailed in my blog at the time:

Day 113 to 118 – Cadiz

There’s a green sheen across the campsite – bone dry sand is sprouting grass. It just shows how a good thunderstorm can transform arid land. I noticed something different yesterday too.…

au-revoir.eu

Day 119 – Cadiz to El Ejido

It took me 70 minutes to pack the van today – exactly the same length of time that it took our 12 volt kettle to boil. I make that 840,000 joules. It should take 267,750 joules to raise 750ml…

au-revoir.eu

Two and a half years later and one of her injured paws is causing more distress. A £200 x-ray shows nothing other than inflammation around her left rear ankle joint. A week of anti-inflammatory medicine has done nothing to settle her discomfort - she won't touch the paw to the ground and can't/won't jump into the car or climb stairs. The vet wonders if a fragment of thorn has worked its way into the ankle joint. Only a ~£1500 CT scan would reveal if this might be the case. Meg is now on antibiotics as well as anti-inflammatory drugs - back to the vet in a week to discuss next steps.

On a brighter note, there doesn't appear to be any abnormal wear in her hips, knees or ankles, although ankles are more complicated joints and less easy to spot abnormal bone wear.

Sorry to hear this, hate to hear of a dog in pain or discomfort. Is Meg insured? We have had CT & MRI scans, spinal taps, orthopaedic consultations & surgeries for our dogs all covered by insurance.
We wish her well and hope there is soon some improvement.

 

[willwander]

Poor girl. Hope she feels better soon.

 

[Amarillo]

Sorry to hear this, hate to hear of a dog in pain or discomfort. Is Meg insured? We have had CT & MRI scans, spinal taps, orthopaedic consultations & surgeries for our dogs all covered by insurance.
We wish her well and hope there is soon some improvement.

No insurance. We made the decision with our eyes wide open. To cover chronic illness you need lifetime cover, and the cheapest of those policies start at £300 per year. 7 x £300 = £2,100, so even if we have to shell out for a CT scan we won't regret the lack of insurance... Until the next feral cat chase.

 

[AlisonF]

Poorly pooches are heartbreaking. I hope you get it diagnosed and are soon on the road to happy walks again

 

[gvick]

Hope she gets better soon .

 

[BeagleMum]

No insurance. We made the decision with our eyes wide open. To cover chronic illness you need lifetime cover, and the cheapest of those policies start at £300 per year. 7 x £300 = £2,100, so even if we have to shell out for a CT scan we won't regret the lack of insurance... Until the next feral cat chase.

Fully understand, we never insured before, our current 2 are the first we’ve insured and fortunately our previous dogs didn’t have any major problems.
We made the decision to insure this time due to taking early retirement, having a reduced income made us anxious should there be any major problems as we knew the exhorting costs of CT scans etc.
Weird thing is both of these dogs have had major health issues, 2 bouts of meningitis, ruptured cruciate ligament requiring surgery & an elbow problem requiring orthopaedic intervention. Insurance covered these treatments in excess of £20K so it was the right decision this time.
However due to their history the monthly premium has risen and is now around £80. With what we’ve paid in over the last five years we are way ahead of what the insurance has covered.

We hope the medication is helping Meg, it’s awful to see them poorly.

 

[pjm-84]

One of ours is, the other isn't because of his age. I think over the last few months we paid out about £900 in total for a allergy issue that appeared on his head. Pretty nasty, and the conclusion was, but not fully concluded, that it was related to his YuMove tablets. Antibiotic are expensive

Current spend on the our two dogs a month is circa £400 with food (raw), and twice a month pool swimming for fun.

The last time the "old boy" was insured it was £680 for the year. With him 10 this year I would expect 4 figure premiums.

 

[Amarillo]

Thanks for all your kind thoughts.

The injury came on suddenly, but only noticed by me at bedtime. Earlier in the day she had chased a fox across the Faesten Dic, from London and into Kent. The suddenness suggests a trauma, but there was no indication of discomfort until the evening. After a full week on anti inflammatory tablets, she is still not putting weight on her paw, but I have not lost hope that it is not more than a sprain or strain that will heal itself.

My greater fear is that it's a missed thorn from October 2017 that has worked its way to the bone. I now think that less unlikely. We shall see of the antibiotics help - it they do it suggests an infection has got in there somehow.

 

[pjm-84]

Sorry, I read the blog but missed your post. Not sure if this will helps at all.

I have bone fragments in my ankle joint. I found this out the painful way when my ankle locked during driving . I had an xray which showed the fragment scatter but not the relative location (3d). I learnt to understand the tell tale signs to avoid locking the ankle and kept my physical activity going.

Nowadays I suffer sometimes from a "sprained" ankle. I can walk and struggle to put weight on the ankle. 10mins later all is fine. Very mixed bag. Doesn't affect me on the bike and less so with walking boots that provide better support to the ankle.

I'm hedging toward the sprain.

 

[Joker 1299]

Hope she’s ok Tom.

 

[Keith Smith]

Tom, we took Jess to the vetinary teaching hospital on the Wirral. She had two CT scans, saw several of their top specialists and a multitude of blood tests and biopsies, total cost was about £1500. They didn't find out what is wrong with Jess but it is a really brilliant place and may be worth the trip if you are being quoted £2k just for a CT scan.

 

[BeagleMum]

Thanks for all your kind thoughts.

The injury came on suddenly, but only noticed by me at bedtime. Earlier in the day she had chased a fox across the Faesten Dic, from London and into Kent. The suddenness suggests a trauma, but there was no indication of discomfort until the evening. After a full week on anti inflammatory tablets, she is still not putting weight on her paw, but I have not lost hope that it is not more than a sprain or strain that will heal itself.

My greater fear is that it's a missed thorn from October 2017 that has worked its way to the bone. I now think that less unlikely. We shall see of the antibiotics help - it they do it suggests an infection has got in there somehow.

To give you hope of recovery for Meg. We had a situation 18 months ago when one of ours suddenly developed an excessively bad limp, it was dreadful to see her in obvious discomfort.
It was suggested the problem was coming from the elbow. There wasn’t any improvement after a couple of weeks so she was seen by an orthopaedic specialist, no underlying cause was found despite scans, examinations etc. She remained on rest and medication, thankfully after 3 to 4 months she recovered. Dogs are amazingly resilient.

 

[BeagleMum]

One of ours is, the other isn't because of his age. I think over the last few months we paid out about £900 in total for a allergy issue that appeared on his head. Pretty nasty, and the conclusion was, but not fully concluded, that it was related to his YuMove tablets. Antibiotic are expensive

Current spend on the our two dogs a month is circa £400 with food (raw), and twice a month pool swimming for fun.

The last time the "old boy" was insured it was £680 for the year. With him 10 this year I would expect 4 figure premiums.

View attachment 55969

Hope the allergy issue is under control, allergy’s are so difficult to identify & manage.

Ours will be 6 in September we suspect within 2 years we won’t continue with insurance as at aged 8 all insurance prices are hiked as they consider dogs to be senior at 8.
Our outlay is similar to yours for food, additionally they both have daily Salmon oil and 2 types of supplement, one also has an additional daily liver supplement. One goes to hydrotherapy which is £25 a week, the other one won’t go near water

 

[Amarillo]

Ours will be 6 in September we suspect within 2 years we won’t continue with insurance as at aged 8 all insurance prices are hiked as they consider dogs to be senior at 8.

You can get lifetime cover where they guarantee no increases in annual premium.

Fixed for Life insurance

lp.boughtbymany.com

 

[Amarillo]

Tom, we took Jess to the vetinary teaching hospital on the Wirral. She had two CT scans, saw several of their top specialists and a multitude of blood tests and biopsies, total cost was about £1500. They didn't find out what is wrong with Jess but it is a really brilliant place and may be worth the trip if you are being quoted £2k just for a CT scan.

Thanks Keith. I'll look into it if Meg needs a CT scan. Sorry that you haven't been able to get a diagnosis for Jess. Is it just a quirk? Collies can display some very odd behaviours.

 

[BeagleMum]

Tom, we took Jess to the vetinary teaching hospital on the Wirral. She had two CT scans, saw several of their top specialists and a multitude of blood tests and biopsies, total cost was about £1500. They didn't find out what is wrong with Jess but it is a really brilliant place and may be worth the trip if you are being quoted £2k just for a CT scan.

+1 for the University of Liverpool Small Animal Hospital in Neston, also highly recommend the specialists at North West Surgeons Runcorn.

 

[Keith Smith]

Thanks Keith. I'll look into it if Meg needs a CT scan. Sorry that you haven't been able to get a diagnosis for Jess. Is it just a quirk? Collies can display some very odd behaviours.

She still literally runs out of energy. In the garden I throw the frisbee a few times and she then gets in the pond to cool down but when she's away from home she can run herself ragged, especially if she is with another dog. I've had to carry her home in the past. Funnily enough she was fine with Meg, they seemed to have some kind of special understanding and she was able to pace herself.

Although they didn't find out what is wrong with her at Neston they put our minds at rest in that they were sure she wasn't in pain. They also ruled out the possibility that we could find out what was wrong with her in the future and then be kicking ourselves that we hadn't got her fixed earlier. She isn't insured but we felt the money was well spent and I will definitely go there again if the need arises.

 

[willwander]

She still literally runs out of energy. In the garden I throw the frisbee a few times and she then gets in the pond to cool down but when she's away from home she can run herself ragged, especially if she is with another dog. I've had to carry her home in the past. Funnily enough she was fine with Meg, they seemed to have some kind of special understanding and she was able to pace herself.

Although they didn't find out what is wrong with her at Neston they put our minds at rest in that they were sure she wasn't in pain. They also ruled out the possibility that we could find out what was wrong with her in the future and then be kicking ourselves that we hadn't got her fixed earlier. She isn't insured but we felt the money was well spent and I will definitely go there again if the need arises.

Border Collie? I expect you're aware of Border Collie Collapse Syndrome, sometimes know as exercise induced collapse. I've seen this happen a couple of times at agility competitions.

Border collie collapse syndrome

 

[Hamish S]

Hope the allergy issue is under control, allergy’s are so difficult to identify & manage.

Ours will be 6 in September we suspect within 2 years we won’t continue with insurance as at aged 8 all insurance prices are hiked as they consider dogs to be senior at 8.
Our outlay is similar to yours for food, additionally they both have daily Salmon oil and 2 types of supplement, one also has an additional daily liver supplement. One goes to hydrotherapy which is £25 a week, the other one won’t go near water

View attachment 55972

I keep looking at that picture and thinking I want another Beagle (already had two)!!!! Looks wonderful

 

[Keith Smith]

Border Collie? I expect you're aware of Border Collie Collapse Syndrome, sometimes know as exercise induced collapse. I've seen this happen a couple of times at agility competitions.

Border collie collapse syndrome

Thanks, yes that was our first thought after scanning the internet but it was ruled out at the hospital. From what I've been told collies with this syndrome collapse involuntarily whereas Jess chooses to go and cool herself down. She can ignore it if she's playing with another dog but then pays the price of feeling ill for several hours. It's a worry but hopefully it won't get any worse and she has a great life as we manage it pretty well.

 

[BeagleMum]

I keep looking at that picture and thinking I want another Beagle (already had two)!!!! Looks wonderful

Thank you. We’ve had 3, they are such wonderful dogs

 

[alan middleton]

On the day Catalonia declared independence, Meg was chasing feral cats into thorn bushes. The incident was detailed in my blog at the time:

Day 113 to 118 – Cadiz

There’s a green sheen across the campsite – bone dry sand is sprouting grass. It just shows how a good thunderstorm can transform arid land. I noticed something different yesterday too.…

au-revoir.eu

Day 119 – Cadiz to El Ejido

It took me 70 minutes to pack the van today – exactly the same length of time that it took our 12 volt kettle to boil. I make that 840,000 joules. It should take 267,750 joules to raise 750ml…

au-revoir.eu

Two and a half years later and one of her injured paws is causing more distress. A £200 x-ray shows nothing other than inflammation around her left rear ankle joint. A week of anti-inflammatory medicine has done nothing to settle her discomfort - she won't touch the paw to the ground and can't/won't jump into the car or climb stairs. The vet wonders if a fragment of thorn has worked its way into the ankle joint. Only a ~£1500 CT scan would reveal if this might be the case. Meg is now on antibiotics as well as anti-inflammatory drugs - back to the vet in a week to discuss next steps.

On a brighter note, there doesn't appear to be any abnormal wear in her hips, knees or ankles, although ankles are more complicated joints and less easy to spot abnormal bone wear.

Sorry to hear that. Poor Meg. Just a thought, have you considered a second opinion? If it is a foreign body in the joint, ultrasound is much better. It isn’t as good as MRI for any alternative diagnosis, but at least you’d know if there is something in the joint that can be removed. It is much cheaper.

 

[Amarillo]

Sorry to hear that. Poor Meg. Just a thought, have you considered a second opinion? If it is a foreign body in the joint, ultrasound is much better. It isn’t as good as MRI for any alternative diagnosis, but at least you’d know if there is something in the joint that can be removed. It is much cheaper.

I'm happy to report Meg is slightly better. She is beginning to put some weight on her paw, although clearly there is some discomfort when using it. We are taking her to the vet weekly so she may monitor it. Before putting Meg through further examination we will give sufficient time for it to heal as if it were a sprain or strain; I am hopeful that that is what it is.