Long Awated Update

Sorry folks!  I know it's been a while since I updated this blog. I recently started working a full time job and in between that, working with Peanut, and spending far too much time at the vets with Nubs, this has just been at the back of my priority list.

So some updates:
Nubs:


Nubs is doing really well now that we finally have his pain medicine figured out.  He's still favoring his knee that he had the surgeries on, but he's his happy-go-lucky self anymore.  I've been holding my breath, making sure before I said something that it wasn't just short term, but he's been doing great on an every other day dose of Previcox and Tramadol combo.  We had him on a third medicine called Gabapentin but he ended up having a reaction to it (which involved 2 more vet visits to figure out what was going on) where his gums suddenly started swelling up to the point where you could no longer see some of his teeth!  Seems the reaction caused gingivitis to take hold in his mouth, even though his teeth were still beautiful at 6 1/2 years old, and he'll likely need surgery this winter to take care of the gums.

Besides that He's been great.  Better then he's been doing in the past two years. Hoping that this winter he does well and we can have a few more years with my boy!

For those of you who aren't FB followers, Make sure to stop here and see the Prissy Pit Bull Nubs in action:



Peanut:
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this dog?   She's an amazing little dog.  We've taken a while off of SAR practicing because she was just getting burned out.  A few weeks ago we decided to do a few short tracks with her and the other dog Blue the Bloodhound just to get them back into it.  Peanut blew me away with how well she did.  That dog if she could do it like she did this day every time, well she'd be unstoppable.  If anyone is interested in the southern Michigan area in teaming up and doing some tracking (I'll be more then willing to help you learn) for fun and some other training, let me know!  I'm always looking for people who want to do a weekly training and can actually stick with it! 


So, I get a lot of questions about the type of equipment I use with Peanut in the field or even what I use in my SAR pack (which anyone can use in just a basic hiking kit), so I am going to start doing some basic reviews of some of the stuff I use and things like that.  If you have ANY questions, feel free to ask me!  Might also do some Q&A on ACL's and things I went through with Nubs.  So toss me a question you'd like answered and I'll do my best to answer them!

Take care!
The Nut House

Two Amazing Dogs

Anyone who knows me knows I'm very hard on myself more so when it comes to my dogs.  I really never look at myself as a good trainer or that I've done that great with my dogs.  I haven't been putting much time into Peanut as I'd like because I kind of got burnt out after Nubs got hurt.  I'm scared of hurting her as well, it's a major fear of mine.

This past week, I finally saw how much time and effort I've put into my dogs and how much it has paid off.  Nubs has always been great in crowds and with people.  With his bad legs, he hasn't really been able to leave the house so if I go out to grab some fast food or a quick run into a store for one item, I'll take him along to sit in the car so at least he can enjoy a ride.  Well I needed to stop in and grab some treats for Peanut's training and took Nubs with me to a local dog store that just opened up the road from me.  He limped into the store, loved on a bunch of employees, and even did a down stay for me while I loved on a 7 month old Pit.  He was the PERFECT dog.  I puffed out my chest and just was proud of him.

The next day I took Peanut to a local festival which draws in crowds upwards of 10-20 THOUSAND people.  We were out there looking for weird things like back packs on the ground (because of the Boston Bombings), weird people (because of shootings that happened in the past), and lost kids (there was a total of 8 kids lost and all were found).  Now a crowd of 10,000-20,000 people is a LOT of people.  It's shoulder to shoulder traffic and can be very overwhelming for people let alone dogs.  We were out there from 7am until Noon, and Peanut was FANTASTIC.  Never was overwhelmed, loved on the hundreds of people that stopped to pet her, and never even showed any fear walking in that large crowd.  She was PERFECT.

Now the thing that really made me realize how great she is was dealing with one child.  This child was in a stroller and had pins coming out of his/her (not sure of the gender) neck.  The child was about 2 or 3 and wasn't developmentally there.  This child just had this sad look on it's face until it saw Peanut and It's mom stopped to ask if her child could pet Peanut.  Peanut walked over to the stroller, licked the child's had, and allowed it to pet her for a few moments.  Then genitally gave the child a kiss on it's chin and just let it pet her for a little longer.  The smile on that child's face and it's parents face made me want to cry.  Watching that child light up and just go from just sitting there to a big grin and laughing saying "DOGGY! DOGGY!" was amazing.

I have two AMAZING dogs that didn't just magically happen.  It took a lot of time, effort, and luck to get them the way they are today.  I am blessed that they are mine and I encourage anyone that is reading this blog to not give up on your dreams and while today it's hard to see the how the work will pay off, to keep working on it because someday it will happen. 

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Also on another note, I'm looking for a wheel chair for Nubs.  If anyone out there knows where to find FREE plans of wheel chairs or a nicely designed Wheelchair used for a 75lb dog (I can also provide measurements if needed) let me know.  I haven't been able to find free plans anywhere online that I can use, and the one's that I can buy online are roughly $400 that I like.  So if anyone out there knows something that my Google skills can't find, let me know!

Thanks!

Play Time!

Still not much to update so instead, here's a photo of your two favorite Pits playing:

Finally Answers to Nubs Limping!

Many of you know that Nubs has not been well over the past few years. Most of that dealing with his torn ACL and a few surgeries to correct it.  It's been a constant battle over the past few years to get him back to normal.


About November I noticed Nubs starting to have a bad limp again in his good knee.  With the failure rate of 75% of the good ACL after surgery, I figured his other knee had finally torn and put him on crate rest for a while to see if I could avoid surgery this time around with the issues of the first surgery I didn't want to go through that again.  Well after a few months of resting I noticed it not getting better.  In fact it was getting worse and he was having issues controlling his whole back end.

This is video of the night where Nubs couldn't get out of his crate without falling over.



The next day I took him to the vet.  X-rays were taken and his ACLs were checked.  ACL's were in great shape and x-rays only showed that he was backed up and might have had a partial blockage.  I was put on poop watch and given gas meds to help him out.  Even though I didn't agree with my vet's diagnosis, I allowed a week for things to get better.  They didn't.  Finally I made a second appointment at a different vet for a second opinion.

This vet was really WONDERFUL.  She allowed Nubs to get to know her before we started poking him and messing with his joints.  Most vets muzzle Nubs because he give you what a vet referred to as "the Pit Bull look" a look that can make most people nervous but isn't anything at all to worry about, she was loving on him.  Made things so much easier because I could get him into downs and on his back so we could move his legs in a natural motion.  She agreed that the issue wasn't his ACLs.  Something may be going on, but without a ton of tests and all she couldn't tell me nor would she want to run all those tests because it would be a waste since she didn't believe that they would show us anything.  At least I knew it wasn't his ACLs and that was a big step.

Wednesday of this week I received a phone call from my sister telling me Nubs wouldn't move and Pee'd on her and himself and wouldn't move away from it.  Nubs has never in the year's I've owned him pee'd on himself and maybe only pee'd in the house 3 times.  Something was really wrong and I was bound and determined to find it out.

After getting him into the vet as an emergency, the vet and I fought over what was wrong with him.  She was convinced it was just arthritis in his knee causing the issue.  I know that the arthritis is part of the weakness in his hind end, but there is something else going on besides that.  After a good 10 min debate over wasting my money, I had the vet do X-rays and a blood panel for fun.  After she was done with the x-rays, she came back and apologized to me.  The x-rays from 2 months ago and that day showed a big difference in his spine.  What is referred to as Lumbosacral syndrome or Cauda Equina disease.  I still held out that maybe the blood tests would show Lime disease but that came back clear.

Read more here: Lumbosacral Syndrome (should open in a new window)

So folks we finally have a reason for his limping.  Not what I was hoping but at least it's something.  Now I'm looking into building him a wheelchair to go out in so that way he can still enjoy things without stressing out his back.  I know he misses his walks and if he doesn't have a lot of time with me, I want to make sure it's the best time he can have.

First Spring Hike

So it's officially spring here in Michigan and we enjoyed the first 50* day by going out on a nice spring hike. Sadly I forgot my camera so no photos. However this was one of those hikes where Peanut made me so proud to be her owner. Everyone had the same idea as we did and we ran into many dogs, humans, and even about 10 horses. All the dogs after being cooped up all winter were on edge and were lunging and barking at Peanut and myself as we passed. Peanut just ignored them and went by without even much of a look. I can honestly say how GREAT it feels when you are holding onto the end of a leash of what most people consider the "worst breed ever" and she's acting 1000 times better than a Lab or Shepherd. Horses were another fun thing to train. 2 horses no more then 6 feet away from us, and Peanut held her down stay while they passed all the while another dog nearby lunged and barked at the poor horses. Sometimes things happen that make you realize how far your dog has come. Peanut is almost 2 years old now and is just turning out to be just the perfect breed ambassador. For a dog that came from the street to a dog that amazes everyone I'm proud to own her.