Wobbler's...

While at a recent event, I noticed Sawyer had begun acting funny. He was walking sorta funny and was pushing himself against the brick wall. I brushed that off as him trying to get his Doggles off as sometimes he doesn't love them. He was actually throwing his his and rear end against the wall first. Later when he stood up his whole rear end area was funny looking and he was bending his knees weird. So I decided we should leave especially with the heat. I was hoping the next day he would be all better....unfortunately that was not the case. I made an appointment with the vet and they were going to do some x-rays and check him out. I called a few folks and was hoping this was not Wobbler's as he's at the right age for this to show up. The vet called me a little while after I dropped him up and said she didn't feel comfortable sedating him and doing x-rays there because *if* it were Wobbler's than that could actually cause more harm and thought an MRI would be better. She referred us to Dr. Gallagher in Cary at VSRP. The following Tuesday we were in Cary bright and early. The staff was very nice and loved Sawyer! Dr. Gallagher came out along with his intern and we went outside so they could watch him walk and move. He then wanted to examine Sawyer, being the spaz that he is Sawyer wasn't too fond of that. After going over all the options we decided they would do x-rays as it did appear to him that Sawyer did have some degree of Wobbler's. Less than 30 minutes later we were looking at the x-rays....good news is that he has excellent hip confirmation! Bad news is that he has a few "bad" spots in his neck. His C3 and C4 vertebrae were fused, he had tipping on his C5 and the spacing between the C7 was a triangle shape instead of the normal rectangle. The diagnosis: Cervical Vertebral Instability aka Wobbler's.

I did learn something interesting with Wobbler's, apparently the term is used loosely and to describe a few different spinal cord diseases.

Surgery is way too risky and it seemed to have many more cons than pros, so that was quickly dismissed. I don't feel the gold bead implants would be the best as I've heard about them either helping for a little while or not doing anything. He probably wouldn't make the best candidate for acupuncture as he's so funny about anything being on him other than a collar! So for now we just watch him and if he starts getting worse with walking then we will start him on a low dose of steroids. We also will have to make sure and assist him walking down steps as a bad fall could do damage. Sawyer is a good boy and we'll do all we can to make sure he's happy and comfortable.

Update

Sawyer the stud is still doing well adjusting to his Doggles. We attended the Washington Summer Festival in June and he did wonderful. Kept his shades on the whole time! Everyone loves a big white dog sporting sunglasses! As usual he helped draw a crowd over...especially when he finally crashed...in the chair! Not sure how much longer he'll fit though! His vision hasn't changed too much lately, but I have noticed him rubbing his face on the couch, hoping its just allergies.

Sawyer is one lucky boy! With his eyesight deteriorating, I contacted Doggles a company out of California and they were awesome and donated a pair of Doggles to not only Sawyer, but also Stella!!! Stella is another deaf and vision-impaired Great Dane in foster care with MAGDRL. When they came in the mail and I put them on him for the first time, he wouldn't open his eyes and he kept trying to back up. After giving him lots of treats and thumbs up signals, he opened his eyes and just shook his head. Sawyer attended the Fossil Festival and he did a great job keeping them on! Everyone wanted to come pet the dog with the glasses on. You would think he was some rare animal....(unless you read Craigslist where the "Rare White Great Dane" is offered for sale). At one point, 4 different people stopped at the same time to take his picture from across the ditch where our booth was! Haha, was pretty funny! Overall, I think they really helped him; when we got home, he was not squinting at all and his eyes didn't seem to bother him as they usually do after being out all day! So YAY!!!! HUGE thanks to Doggles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good news

After feeding our trial box of The Honest Kitchen's Zeal for only 4 days....yep that's right. With 5 large/giant dogs it only lasted for 4 days. :-( Anyhow, Sawyer began licking his back foot and it turned red, my first thought was that he possibly had an allergy to an ingredient in the food but he still has a red foot and his other paw has also turned red. So the good news is that I don't think it is a food allergy...but the not so good news is who knows what is going on with his feet. They LOVE The Honest Kitchen so we are VERY glad they can continue to have it as a special meal sometimes! When I win the lottery, we will switch to it full time! :-) Sandy, Titan, Roxy, Piper and Sawyer highly recommend this food for other 4-legged creatures!

Testing

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We love ZEAL!!!

We recently got a sample box of The Honest Kitchen's newest flavor, Zeal. I am not sure who was more excited when the box finally arrived, me or the dogs! We got it this past Wednesday and I have been giving it to everyone for dinner, they still get dry food for breakfast....this works out pretty good since I am usually running behind in the mornings. The Zeal formula's top ingredient is dehydrated white fish and let me tell you...once you open the box, you can surely smell the fish! Let's just say with Sawyer's nose, that boy was trying to get to the box before I had opened it. The good news is that they all love it and their stools have been great! The only not so good thing is that for a multi-dog household, to feed it twice a day would probably be a little expensive. I have 5 dogs weighing -- 115lbs, 100lbs, 96lbs, 60lbs and 50lbs. Total dry cups for each feeding are around 7-8 cups. So we have already used half the box up and it's not been a week. :-( Other than that, if cost wasn't an issue, we would totally switch over to THK's food for all meals.

For those unfamiliar with The Honest Kitchen, they have dehydrated whole foods for pets. You pretty much just add water and let it soak for 5-10 minutes. At my house, 10 minutes is a lifetime...I have to make one bowl at a time and then place them all in a crate so the dogs can't get to it while I am timing it. They then take turns guarding it and growling at each other and Sawyer usually ends up opening the bottom latch, but luckily by then it is time to separate and feed.

Another thing I can't really say for sure is that Sawyer may *possibly* be allergic to one of the ingredients. I noticed Thursday night one of his paws was super red on the bottom between his toes and it was also pink on top of his toes. However, this was after he had eaten the food twice...but as of today his foot is still hot pink. He's had THK's Force flavor before and had no problems, so it very well could be just one thing in the Zeal.

Overall, we give it a great review. The dogs start whining when they see me grab the box down and get the scoops ready to fill bowls. I also like how there are bigger "chunks" of veggies and fish in it! Well I am assuming the white chunks are fish...

Check out their website to find out more: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/

Prayers for Sawyer

Sawyer had a great day at the 20th Annual St. Patrick's Day Festival in Emerald Isle. We raised money for the Danes and met lots of new friends and possible adopters! After getting up at 4:00am and driving to EI, we had quite a long day....got home around 7:15pm. Both Sawyer and I were exhausted. He could barely hold his head up and couldn't keep his eyes open. On Sunday we got up at usual and I noticed Sawyer was still holding one of his eyes closed. When he finally let me near, I was able to see blood so what does any mom do, F-R-E-A-K of course. Long story short, I called our trusty vet, Dr. Whit first thing Monday morning and he was able to call and get us in to see Dr. English, the specialist in Cary. Luckily they were able to fit us in on Wednesday. (Very nice place and friendly staff if you ever have to go, Animal Eye Care.)

Turns out Saywer has "cysts in his ciliary body and peripheral retina in both eyes, and mild retinal dysplasia or folds." This explains the squinting on Sunday, the cyst in his left eye was expanding. Unfortunately this means *IF* the cyst continues to expand, it can lead to retinal detachment and loss of vision. I was very concerned but also glad to hear that his other eye is in better shape. Dr. English gave him a 50% chance of losing vision in the left eye and the other eye should be fine. This was better news than I expected but for now we will take it day-by-day and continue monitoring both his eyes for changes.