Puppy Health Question!!!!

Some background:
When we adopted my little porkchop, Ranger, he was disgustingly overweight for a pup of 6 months. He could hardly run he was so fat. First thing I did was put him on a diet of non-crapass dog food (dog chow) and put him on a food that is grain free and has glucosamine (same food my old man eats). And we exercised. We made laps of my farm 2 or 3x a day. He looks wayyyyy better. Perfect weight for his size now and he is building muscle too. But he's off in his right front and I know he's probably a little dysplastic as well. Lola was too. Happens when they grow so fast and is worsened when they are allowed to get so fat. Lola was well managed on glucosamine and rarely rarely needed any NSAIDs. And Ranger is a full-blooded lab where as Lola was only part. So that just upped his chances. So the hip dysplasia I can't do much about. But this right front, I can't figure out.

fat puppy that could barely gallop



in shape puppy. "look I haz hips!"

Possible Diagnosis?
My old boss and our puppy class trainer says that he could have Panosteitis. Bascially growing pains in large breed dogs. I haven't put pupcake on a scale but I'm guessing he's around 70-some pounds. He's just a big boy. According to stuff online he should grow out of it. Said it's very painful, though, also and his hitch in his get-a-long doesn't seem to bother him much at all. He's stiff when he gets up in the morning but other than that...... And even if it did hurt him I'm not really comfortable giving an 8 month old puppy painkillers.

he always sits funky. after dealing with lola's hips for almost 4
years, I know that's most likely his dysplasia.

And yes, I will consult my vet. We are going in 2 weeks when I take my old man to the vet for his old man blood work and check up. But until then......

Roader, my old man. He doesn't get enough blog time :P

So my question is! Has anyone else dealt with growing pains in their large breed pups? How did you manage it? Did they grow out of it? If so, when? Or could it be another issue stemming from his months of obesity before being adopted by the crazy dog mom (me).

Thanks!!!

Snow Day

I am going to apologize in advanced for the number of photos in this post. I like to fancy myself a photographer and it was just so pretty Saturday morning here with the fresh snow.

So it snowed in KY on Friday night. Everyone freaked out. Half the state ended up in a ditch. I stayed home. Not because I can't drive in snow. Let me remind you I learned to drive in a Buffalo, NY winter then spent 4 winters driving around Cobleskill, NY where you were guaranteed several feet of snow per storm. I stayed home because southern goofballs that can't drive in snow SCARE ME. Literally, we had like 5 inches of snow...........

asscrack of dawn with fresh snow. really pretty actually, but now I'm done and ready for 80 degrees and sun!



fatass was not impressed



trying to look cute. actually a little cranky about the snow. no fun to roll
when you don't get muddy!



puppy's first REAL snow. He LOVED it



because my dogs think they are horses....



Roader doesn't let the horses get away with anything!

Saturday afternoon the girls and I went for a trail ride. The snow was starting to turn to mud, but it was still a pretty ride. Twister only bucked once and only tried to bolt and run off with me twice. Not bad considering I hadn't ridden since Sunday! He was freaking beat when we got home though, from walking and prancing in all that mud.

And his feet are getting so much better! The tricks I mentioned previously are working and his cracks are healing! I'm doing my happy dance. Also I got sport boots for him that will actually fit and stay on while jumping. Didn't ride in them on Saturday though because I knew we were going in the creek and I didn't want the boots to freeze to his legs.........

now

 

2 months ago

now



poor twister is so bored. he wants to DO THINGS

Why Can't We Be Friends???

There is NOTHING I hate more than coming home from work on a gorgeous Friday afternoon to ride and have my horse be SO horrible when we are just lunging that I never make it on his back. (Ok, one thing I hate more is coming home to ride and finding out one of my brats hurt himself.....) And that's exactly what happened. I told Twister after that I didn't want to be friends. He knew I was made but he's a terrible suck up. So today I tacked up and went to the neighbors to use the round pen. We free lunged forever. He didn't want to coopererate. A couple times when I asked for the outside turn it ducked in and half ran me over. I got after him and told him to quit his shit and put pressure on him to remind him that I am the boss. Not him. Finally, I started seeing results. His head got lower and he paid more attention to me. And finally he started to ask to come in. By the time it was all said and done, he had a changed attitude. And when I mounted up to go home he was so nice and light and didn't even spook at the tarp covered trailer where the tarp was whipping in the wind. And when we got back to our barn, he wanted to snuggle. He got several mints. Deserved them today.

 I wuv you mom. Sorryz for bein a shithead

Mommmmm my buddies are down THERE! We need to GO THERE

Moral of the story is, that even during the week I need to do SOMETHING with him. Bareback jog a few laps in the barn or lunge him or do a realy good groom. Something. Anything. I'm going to ride tomorrow too. Another nice day, though not as warm as today.

Also, the puppy is starting to learn to trail ride. He sucks at it. He wants to walk under Twister all the time. I'm afraid he's going to get squashed.

Oh! And Baby Curtis is back in training. Day one of learning to be an adult. He'll go to the track in 6 weeks. He also needed an attitude adjustment. No manners! But I guess that's mostly my fault. No, worries, he's behaved now. It's this nice, warm, breezy weather that makes them all crazy!

Hard Hooves

I had a friend come down and teach me to use a hoof knife and let me use her nippers yesterday. Twister has a chip in his right hind from where laziness and a dread of trimming hinds has kept me from keeping up with them. Generally, I don't have to do them as often anyways. In the summer I trim Twister's fronts every 6 to 8 days. Closer to 6. I do the hinds every 14 days or so. In the winter, I thought I could get away with doing the hinds every 4 to 6 weeks. Twister has decided to tell me how wrong I am. Pretty sure he has a little white line or something going on too. His cracks in the front hooves have never grown out and they should have like ohhhh I don't know 6 months ago or more. My friend said she had the same problem and squirted some anti fungal/bacterial stuff up there and stuffed the cracks with cotton. Repeat as needed or as cotton falls out.

So back to trimming. I finished cleaning up Twister's feet from yesterday and did his fronts really good. Let me tell you. Those fronts made me WORK! Whatever I am doing to toughen up his feet is working! (Shout out to Carly from Poor Woman Showing for all her advice! Sorry that all your trial and error with Robert is what made you so helpful, though). His white foot, previously his worse foot, looks best now. His black foot doesn't look as good but he's had some thrush in it in November that is threatening a come back.

After getting his feet trimmed and clean, I cleaned out the cracks with a stiff brush and took a syringe and squirted some Farrier Barrier up there and packed it with cotton. Then I scrubbed his frogs really good with the stuff. Cannot DEAL with anymore thrush. Like all year with this horse. I know the first year barefoot is the hardest. But this is redic. My EX-trimmer never even mentioned it could be white line or some sort of infection causing the cracks to not heal. She's not my ex-trimmer because of that. That actually is a long story. I wouldn't reccomend her to anyone though. Anyways.... so in a day or so I'm going to soak his feet too. Luckily, he's the good horse in the barn. I tried to soak porkchop's abcessing feet this past summer and he tried to kill me.

So I'm hoping I'm on the path to getting his feet cleared up, tough and ready for SHOW SEASON! We ARE showing this year! My fiance and I finally found the ONE. The trailer that ends the buy/sell/trade trailer crap we've been doing for a year. It is perfect. 2 horse straight load that is tall enough for our TBs and has a ramp. And my favorite part is the dressing/tack room with built in saddle rack!!!! And I have the career job now, so I can afford diesel and entry fees!

my sexy truck and sexy trailer. ok ok ok.... OUR sexy truck and trailer. lol

Winter Woes

So let's all stop a moment and commiserate. Winter sucks. Winter makes me want to move to Florida for a few months. It's either too frozen or too wet to ride. All I do is break ice in buckets and fill up the heated outdoor tank bucket by bucket. And dress up like the michlin man to do chores. I can't even ride English because my Carhart-clad ass doesn't fit in either of my saddles. So I ride western all the time. BORING.

I rushed home from work today and managed to ride for 30 minutes up and down the road. May have been a boring ride, all things considered, but it made my day. I probably won't get to ride this weekend due to weather and errands. So I'm a happy girl. Twister was pretty happy to be under tack for the first time in over 2 weeks. I can't wait for it to warm up a bit so I can schedule a lesson!

Not much to talk about this week except to bitch about the weather. So just look at pics of my very large puppy playing with Twister.

Bad horsie. Come inside, horsie!

Ranger's new BFF

Twister is SO tolerant. he just deals with the rude puppy.

And I'm going to try to keep up with this..... I'll probably start forgetting in a month or two.....

Even with the big freeze, he's holding his weight nicely. Last year during the polar vortex he dropped weight for the first time in his life. The only one in the barn that lost weight last winter without having to work for it. This year, knowing that Twister WILL lose weight if it get's cold enough, I upped his grain a few days before the tundra weather set in. Lookin' good!