Otis at Salt Point

He's a swimmer!! We've finally gotten a chance to take him to the lake, and he's loving it. The retriever in him is shining through. We just throw a stick out there and off he goes. He runs until he can't touch anymore and then he doggy paddles. It's super cute. He drinks as much water as he can, too. Which is also hilarious.

Otis definitely enjoys bounding through the water without a care in the world. I'm so happy to see it!! He's really progressing so well...his fur on his haunches is still short, but that will come back over time. He's almost finished with his Lyme antibiotics. Hopefully that will take care of all of his ailments and he'll live an uneventful life from here on out. *fingers crossed*

I don't know if anyone will ever read this blog, but if you do, I hope you get an idea as to what to expect throughout the "hip dysplasia" process. Ultimately, we're happy we put him through it, and three months later, he's like a brand new dog. And he's still not 100% strength yet! I'm also glad that we chose to have the surgery in the winter. Because it's a lot easier to keep a puppy from acting crazy when it's all wintery out than when it's gorgeous and the critters are outside. 

Well, off to play in the yard before it gets dark. Those big brown eyes are staring up at me...I think he's had enough rest. :-)

Ciao!

Long time, no see.

Sorry for the delay, folks (if anyone's out there, anyways!). Things have gotten a little crazy lately--husband's place of work went through a major transition, my semester is ending and we bought a house. In the midst of all that, Otis is still, well, Otis.

He got castrated and radiographed last week (April 28th) and Doc said that his hips look great! He was "very pleased" with the x-rays. I hope we can get copies again. Dr. Ross says that we are to gradually up his activity over the next couple weeks until he's at full strength, but other than that, he's perfectly fine. So within the next 2-3 weeks, he'll be allowed to run, jump, play and swim all he wants! We're already treating him to long walks and romps at the park, and playing in the surf at the lake. Yay! What great and wonderful news.

BUT...we also had them do some blood work, since we hadn't given him his heartworm meds in a while. Glad we did...because Otis is Lyme positive. Sigh. Another adventure, I guess.

Apparently, Lyme disease comes from ticks, especially deer ticks. They're tiny--like no bigger than the head of a pin. And they love to live on mice, rabbits and deer. We have multitudes of all three around our house. Go figure. We have never found a tick on him, well, not since last November, but apparently there was one at some time. Lyme is a bacteria and causes fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and limping/sore joints (great, huh?). It can also cause acute pain and kidney failure. We've caught him limping here and there and having trouble standing every now and then and that's probably why. So here we were scared about his hips and some of the limping may have been due to the Lyme. Craziness.

Treatment is pretty simple. Antibiotics twice a day for a month. He'll be retested in September to make sure he's "Lyme-free". If so, we'll get him the Lyme vaccine. Should help some. In the meantime, we'll be treating him with both frontline and interceptor and hoping for the best. Would use Advantix, but apparently it's toxic to cats.

Guess our little journey will go on a bit longer...