Updates..good and bad

The bad news is I now have FOUR broken dogs. Yep, Terra managed to injure herself at the Sheltie club games trial (never again!). I think she landed wrong after the last jump because she immediately held up her right paw, and was quite lame on it that night and the next day. I think its a toe again.. Terra and her toes! She is on a months rest and then we will see how she is. So I have no-one to train at the moment..

There are two bits of potentially good news..the first is that Jess has had some interesting test results from the US. The very capable and experienced vet who is looking after her at Murdoch (big difference from the care she got elsewhere but thats another story!) thought it would be worthwhile testing her for Bartonella, since that can cause Endocarditis as well, even though it has never been reported in Australia. She had the first lot of results back, and interestingly she has tested postitive to one of the strains. She needs to have another test in around 3 weeks, and if that shows a reduction in numbers it will confirm endocarditis caused by Bartonella, WHICH can have a better prognosis! So fingers crossed for that!

Shimmer is undergoing rehab for hip dysplasia, and we are very busy going to the underwater treadmill, swimming, stair walking and having dry needling. She is enjoying all of the above but NOT enjoying the restriction in activity.. and she is not backward in expressing her lack-of-enjoyment. She's definitely the most demanding dog I've had..lovely with her training though, very keen and REALLY wants to please. She has another 2 months of rehab to go, and then we start training!

Here is a pic Mike took of Jess and I together when he did our family portraits..