Week 2 of rest

Grey has officially stopped limping to my untrained eye. I'm sure someone more experienced can see something still, but to me, he's stopped limping. Which is really amazing. He's also completely off medication now. So no more Metacam. Rob the vet said he could come off it when we saw him a few days ago. He was taken off straightaway. And that he still hasn't limped is really really good. We've put him on Seraquin to support his joints at 3 tablets per day. He'll be on that dose for 4-6 weeks and then it drops down to half the dose.

He's still coping really well with the routine. Some good things have also come out of this situation. It's such a long road, that it's amazing there are some good things to come out of it along the way. He's now content to be left in our bedroom on his own for a wee while. Before this controlled rest period, he would sometimes howl and bark if we left him in the bedroom during our breakfast service at the B&B, which is when I have to go cook for guests. Now that we didn't have a choice but for him to live in the one room, he's now happy to be left unable to follow me from room to room. He's also much more into chews and the life saving treat dispensing tug-a-jug. Makes sense I suppose that while he's in a more restrictive environment that he gets pleasure from investigating things more.

But funnily enough he's really not that curious or clever in terms of his immediate environment compared to other slovaks I've heard about. I've got chews, primula cheese spread tube and tupperware boxes of his kibble and treats on top of the crate which is next to our bed. He hasn't tried to get them once, despite the bed being the same height as the crate. He doesn't really go in the crate except to eat. I've left it up because it enables him to play with the tug-a-jug and dog pyramid without them rolling under the bed or wardrobe. Mostly he's spends the whole day lounging on our bed with the odd trip out on the lead for a wee.

I'm still taking him out on the headcollar for the 2 x 15 min walks. He still hates it with a passion and shows no sign that he'll ever get over it. Still visibly shudders when the clip clips and runs and hides if he sees it come out, no matter how it is connected to the idea of going out. But everyday I'm reminded that without it I wouldn't be able to manage him. Whether it is a cat or a car that comes round a corner at a certain speed. Bam! There he can go, rearing up and on anything else I wouldn't be able to get him back under control.

He's being very cuddly and soppy. We're managing to have him almost not bark at guests as they come in and past the bedroom door.

So there goes another two weeks. We're now onto 2 months since Grey first got ill in April. It will soon feel like we've passed through the whole of the summer.

Here are some piccies of the slovak poodle sporting a lob sided shaving job:

Looking out

Poodle clipped Grey

Big headed Grey thanks to the iphone camera lens

skinny chested Grey from no exercise and the shaved bits

Grey's doing ok at the vets

Just heard that Grey is recovering well from his surgery. Hopefully can get the monkey back tomorrow. Vets now think that he has some kind of trauma to his shoulder that is causing instability. We'll know more tomorrow.

Night, night, monkey.

Grey's initial orthopedic consultation

We spent 6 hours driving yesterday in the May sunshine. Grey was really excited at first as he must have thought we were going for a lovely off lead walk. Poor love. He eventually settled down into staring sadly out the back window with the occasional bark at passing motorbikes.

He was examined and found to have a possible issue with his left shoulder. They think it is slightly dislocating. They also think he is lame on his right leg. He wasn't easy to examine as he's become a skillful wriggler at these havy manipulations that end up provoking something to hurt. Unfortunately, nothing we can do to avoid this as it's only by finding out where and how it hurts that we can find out. So we had a couple of breaks. I calmed him down, did some Ttouch with him and managed to get him to lie on his side with me sitting next to him.

We've been booked in to come back next Weds for him to have extensive xrays and keyhole investigative surgery on his shoulder. He'll stay in overnight and we pick him up the following day.

Off to the ortho specialists tomorrow

We've got an appointment tomorrow to see an ortho specialist vet in Hertfordshire tomorrow morning. We were referred by our vet today. Today's consultation revealed that Grey's lympth glands are still up and they agreed his limp is bad. It will take us about 3 hours to get to the vets. He's off the metacam now and has been resting all day. I've not taken him out the front to stretch his legs at all. It's too exciting and he needs the rest. He's slept through.

Back to the vets tomorrow

I'm taking Grey back into the vets tomorrow. he may have to stay in and have xrays again. This is just so shitty and depressing for him. He's generally more insecure now while he's ill. I don't think he's feeling too happy in himself today. He stood and had a howl when some unusual noises came on the radio and growled at a sock on the floor that he'd left there earlier. His limp is worse today and I just hope we can find what is wrong with him.

Another young slovak with pain issues

We sadly heard of another young male slovak of 12 months with the same extreme pain symptoms as Grey, Gunner and Indy had. Crying in pain so much that had to be hospitalised. Jed has had extensive tests and the diagnosis is sterile meningitis. We hope that Jed gets better really soon and makes a speedy recovery. Details of his condition were posted on Dogsey Forum.

So why are these young slovaks coming down with such extreme symptoms? We have four reported cases of a pain condition. Two have been found to be discospondilitis (Gunner and Indy), one sterile meningitis (Jed), and Grey is the unknown. There is also a friend who has a 3 year old bitch (Eva) who also had meningitis and had to be isolated for 9 months from the age of 6 months.

Update on Grey: He's on the second day of a 25KG dose of Metacam. He's still limping and had a little yelp when going down some stairs. He's been kept in today and we'll speak to the vets tomorrow. We're just hoping that we can find out what the heck is wrong with him and get him fixed.

Update: Grey still has ongoing pain issues

I've been meaning to post back following Grey's trip to The Animal Health Trust last Weds. I truly hoped that we'd be in a different position by this weekend. Unfortunately, despite getting thoroughly examined at AHT and coming out with clear MRI scan results, he had a further set back this last Friday when he started yelping in pain again when pressure was on his neck. So he was then put on Metacam along with everything else and we have to speak to the vet on Tuesday to see what we do next.

The Animal Health Trust were absolutely fantastic. That place is like the set of ER or Gray's Anatomy for animals! He had a full spinal MRI and spinal tap. They found nothing wrong with him. We may have caught an infection early and are now dealing with the residual pain from inflammation. We heard from someone else who got a slovak pup that was a litter two weeks older than Grey and Gunner. I remember peeking over at them to have a look. The owner said her dog had had a bad spinal infection the same as Gunner and had to have specialist treatment for months. This is the same litter that someone I met who had a pup called Freya who was rehomed at the 2008 slovak fun day. I remember the owner having lots of problems with Freya having the runs too.

More news from the vet on Tuesday. For the moment, we still don't go running. He rests.

Grey's Results and Further Testing

Grey is doing really well. All pain has now gone. He's down to one set of broad spectrum anti-biotics (Cephorum), pain killer (Tramadol) and a pro-biotic ( Protexin). We had a second opinion on Friday regarding Grey's treatment and results. They said that it would be a good idea for him to be seen by a specialist to see if we can get to the bottom of what is showing up in his results as some kind of immune response to some kind of stimulus like an infection, virus or something else. What I don't want to risk is this going the way of Gunner's pain problems which were also linked to an infection that went undiagnosed for a period of time. We're being referred to AHT in Newmarket.

Gunner is waiting for his MRI scan to see if they can find out why he has been collapsing every two weeks. We heard from another slovak owner who has a 5 year old male from the same sire as Gunner and Grey that he also has collapsed four times in the last year in a manner that sounds really similar to Gunner's episodes. This is obviously a real worry and with such small numbers in the gene pool, it's really important for this data to be shared amongst owners and breeders. It may be that the cases aren't linked at all, but alarm bells do ring when you hear of other dogs with the exact same mystery symptoms.

We heard back from the breed club health rep the other day that Grey's details were part of the list that has been compiled re the slovak bite fault issue and that guidance has been sent to the Kennel Club. I've requested to see this advice.

For now, I've been working on doing bits of training with Grey to try to keep him from being bored. We've done more lead walking on the halti. My friend sent me this Susan Garett video to work through which I'd forgotten about!



In general he's really wanting to go and run now. But we've been told he can't until further notice. He's had a few mad runs round the kitchen island after we've got home from a lead walk. Bless him. He's going to kick up his heels after this.

Day 7 of the mystery illness - how to manage a bored slovak?

Woke up this morning to Grey sat on the bed barking at a cat sat on a wall in the garden. No yelps or squeals today. Generally he's quite bored and finding ways to amuse himself in the house like collecting up a range of objects into his bed. He's eating and going to the loo fine. He's still quite a bit more reactive to noises outside even when in the house. He's also stood a few times barking at me which he doesn't normally do at all in the house.

I waited until the morning school run had finished and the green was all clear to take him out on the halti. We went to say hello to his friend the decorator who's now working on a house near us. He really loves this guy. He was much safer and manageable on the halti. We just mooched across the grass with lots of sniffing.

Off to the vets this afternoon.

I'm now giving him his dinner in frozen kongs to keep him busy longer.

Day 6 of the mystery illness - normal service is resumed

I woke up this morning to Grey hovering above me licking my arm to wake me up. So pretty much back to normal in terms of inside the house. he has only had the odd yelp for going down stairs. otherwise, he's behaving as he would have done before he was ill. He's had just one painkiller tablet and his antibiotic this morning.

This now raises the next issue of what to do with him while he thinks he needs to go out and he's not really allowed out to go running. And lead walking a dog that doesn't lead walk very well is an obstacle to get over.

What equipment should I put on him?

So for now we've been amusing ourselves with lead training with treats and keeping an eye out for things that might set him off in terms of reactivity. Don't want him rearing up on the collar etc.

We've been following the Dogs Trust videos for 'close' in the back yard and looselead walking with the premack principle on the green. Roll on tomorrow for test results.

Day 5 of the mystery illness - ups and downs and ups

Today has been such an up and down day. Last night he had basically refused to wee or poo all evening. We had to carry him up and down the stairs and out into the back yard, where he just stood looking sad with his back curled up so he looked like an oversized beddlington terrier. I woke up at 4a.m to him crying so I gave him some more painkiller tablets. I managed to get him to lick some water from my hand while he was in bed. This morning at 7.30 he was no better. He was very distressed if one of us leaves the room. Again wouldn't wee or poo when he was carried outside. He ate his tripe brekkie no problem and had a new antibiotic. Then he turned around for a while. We'd left the front door open and he took himself off up the front steps to look out the gate at the front. So I asked him if he wanted to go out for a wee and he did. Popped on his fleecy harness on, checked there were no dogs around and lead him over onto the green. He greeted two lady neighbours wagging and pleased to see them, then onto the green cheerily had a wee, a poo and decided to lie down on something he thought smelled nice. He seemed very engaged and actively came back to the house when I asked him if we should go find his dad. He then snoozed for an hour or so. I gave him his next pain meds at 10. A bit later he was back to crying and whining and being a bit lost. So I popped a Ttouch body wrap on him and did some Ttouch on him. He wanted to lean into me and generally be sure where we are. So after he tried to sit on the bench with me at the dining table, I moved to the dog duvet with him with all my paperwork! He seemed calmer and slept a while stretching out.

I popped out at lunchtime and on my return found a much more alert and relaxed Grey. He was in bed with a nicked butter pat pot off the side. Woohoo! He's interested in thieving again! He then went outside to the garden and dug up his raw hide chew that he continuously has a bit of a chew on and then buries in the garden. To finish it off he went up the front steps and barked at something across the green. Don't want to tempt fate but a big improvement on yesterday.

He's had chicken for dinner tonight and more painkillers and his second antibiotic. He's now fast asleep.

Report back from the vets

Quite a mixed bag of news really. He's had a every test there is to have and is now home with shaved bits and feeling sorry for himself. The vet doesn't think it's cancer, so it's a huge relief. They don't know what it can be and have mentioned that it could be as a possibility immune related arthritis. His xrays look fine on all joints and spine. We've been sent home with more painkillers and anti-biotics until Thursday evening. So I guess more of the lying around moaning until then.

Let's not forget it's Gunner and Grey's 2nd birthday today. Here they are when they were reunited as adolescents and below a video I found on my phone from a few weeks ago up Botany Bay. Happier times. Both are not too well at the moment with also Gunner having fortnightly collapses. Happy birthday lovely boys.

Grey is really ill for his second birthday

Not the way I'd hoped we would spend Grey's second birthday tomorrow. He's been realy ill for the last three days. Started on Thursday night when he yelped suddenly when I touched his shoulder. This quickly progressed to him yelping when he moved to him being unable to lie down or get up on his own. He spent the night whining lightly and twitching. It was awful. Friday I took him to the vet and they said he has an enlarged lymph node on his right shoulder at the base of his neck. They said they couldn't find any evidence of injury or strain. Worryingly they said that in an older dog this could be linked to cancer, but given Grey's young age this would be really rare. But still, scary that the 'C' word was brought up.

I spoke with the vets again on Saturday as he wasn't getting better and was still crying. We added paracetamol in every 6 hours. By Sunday it was clear he needed some stronger pain killers. We went to see the other practice. Grey arrived full of adrenalin going into the vets. Had to be carried in because of the tiled floor. The vet said again that it's strange his condition in such a young dog. He gave him a morphone injection and we came home with stronger pain killers which he has needed to take. We're taking him back in to the vets first thing for xrays and a biopsy.

I'm totally worried about him and what's going on. Wondering if it is at all linked to the condition his brother Gunner had (diskospondilitis). It's just awful seeing my once full of life dog, just lying around either out of it on drugs or crying in pain. Hopefully will know more tomorrow.

In other news, Gunner is now having collapses every two weeks. How awful is that. Hope both these brothers get well soon.

Grey's brother is really poorly

I've just heard that Grey's littermate is really poorly again with the mystery pain problem in his neck and shoulder and that pain killers hadn't worked and he's in the vets on morphine. I'm so sad for him and his owner. He has been ill since he was 9 months old and this latest flare up is really serious. This is the 3rd pain issue I've heard of from people with slovaks. All young dogs under a year old. I chatted with a breeder about it who had suggested it could be linked to previous GI infections when young and these stay somehow in the system causing reactive arthritis. In humans it's called Reiters Syndrome. No idea if this is what Grey's brother has. His vet thinks it might be something to do with the vertebrae. Obviously we're really worried in case something could also happen to Grey, but primarily sending healing thoughts to his brother. It's not fair for such a young dog.