If its not one thing................

its always another!! When Maisie was a puppy she had a nasty accident involving a baby gate (please never ever leave your pups behind supposedly safe baby gates - they are dangerous!) and broke her leg. She had a pin placed in her hip to hold the growth plate stable. After lots of crate rest and a very difficult few months, she made a full recovery. The vet was surprised that she recovered with no permanent lameness, and was even more surprised that she was still able to do agility!!

Anyway, she is now 4 years old and has never had any problems. Until this week! Last Wednesday at training I noticed that she knocked a few poles. I thought it was odd, but guessed it must be the new riding school surface, which isn't nice for the small dogs to run on. She didn't struggle at all with anything else. The following Saturday I noticed she was ever so slightly lame on her previously injured leg. It was so slight that it was hardly noticeable. This carried on into Sunday (although still barely noticable). Although it was slight, as it was the leg with the pin I decided to take her to the vet for a check.

His opinion is that she has restricted movement in the joint. He also noticed that her quads are far more developed on the left side than the right, indicating that she is compensating for some discomfort. Due to this he wanted to X ray, as the worry is that the pin could be moving. If this happens it could damage an otherwise perfectly healthy joint. On the other hand, it could be nothing and she may just have bumped her leg - but best to be safe when you have metal in there!

Problem no 2 is that she cannot suffer stress, so she needs to be x rayed and taken back home as quickly as possible to avoid her shaker syndrome starting again. Agghh!! Anyway, I turned up for her x ray on Wednesday only to be told that they had an emergency and needed to cancel. They wouldn't do her later in the day either, and now want me to take her back next week. Not impressed!! I had arranged my whole day to take her in when it was easy for them and then they cancel! And not in advance, but when I am actually sitting in the waiting room. And now they are being so awkward about when they can do it again. Anyway that is the tip of the iceberg, as lots as happened since then that I could bore you with - but I wont!! They are a massive hospital with about 20 vets there. Better organisation required!! Perhaps Maisie isn't top of their priority list, but she is top of mine!! Ok, moan over!

On a better note, we have a show this weekend (obviously Maisie is not running) and my plan is to train Smudges contacts in the ring. I want to get them solid over the winter!! We have made progress, as they have speeded up dramatically, but having that in training is no good if it doesn't happen in the ring!