Some background on Denzil:
Denzil is by far the most driven of my 3 corgis. He really seems to have a border collie personality in a corgi body. The problem with this is that Denzil "writes checks that his body can't cash." Denzil has problems with his knees. We took him to the Iowa State University vet school, and the vet we saw thought the lameness was caused by luxated patellas. We recently took him back to our vet and got new, high quality digital xrays done of his knees. Based on these new images, our vet thinks Denz has tears in his cruciate ligaments. To keep Denzil comfortable he gets one Deramaxx every other day, gets on-leash walks only, and we try to minimize the amount of frapping, which is challenging, given his personality.
On the up side, we also got new digital photos of his back taken at the same time as his knees, and everything looks good there.
With that in mind, here are my goals for Denzil.....
Denzil
Develop a plan to gain and maintain Denzil’s long term soundness by March 31
§ Confirm diagnosis of injured cruciate ligaments
o Another visit to ISU for confirmatory diagnosis? - if so, by Mar 15
o Talk to our vet – how can we confirm? - by Feb 12
§ Determine treatment options
o Pain maintenance?
o Rehabilitation/physical therapy?
o Surgical?
o New, lower-key, "retirement" home for him? My parents??
o Other????
Train 3 new tricks by December 31
§ Determine low-impact tricks that Denzil can learn
o Research and determine 4 trick options by January 31
§ Develop options on how to train tricks
§ Train and demonstrate tricks
o One trick by April 30
o Trick #2 by August 30
o Trick #3 by December 31
Once you have a confirmed diagnosis for Denzil, if PT is called for I would highly recommend consulting with Dr. Debbie Gross-Saunders in CT. She will do phone consults and has worked on lots of Cardis so she understands our breed's unique structure and needs. Her website is www.wizardofpaws.net
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize as I too have a dog who mind writes checks his body can't cash. I am very fortunate he has avoided injury.
Thanks for the name. I've heard of Debbie through Clean Run. Good to know that she knows Cardis, and she'll do phone consults!
ReplyDeleteIt's so depressing to me that he's got such issues. There is the guilt (as a breeder) and the sadness (because he WANTS to do more than he can).
ReplyDeleteI think Denzil's goals should include "HAVE FUN" and "Make the people laugh"
:)
Let's see... if Denzil were setting his own goals they would include: getting all the attention he can, having a job to do every day, frapping whenever possible, and oh, did he mention getting all the attention he can..?
ReplyDeleteI have really grown to love trick training. Have you thought about doing therapy work with Denzil? Maybe visiting nursing homes or schools and doing tricks to entertain folks? It sounds like he has the perfect personality for it!
ReplyDelete