Kai's back from the Vet's.. good news and bad news

[binka_nugget]

Kai went to the white coat's today for his biopsy and xrays. We found two small lumps a few months back and also noticed he didn't like extending his right leg. We thought it might be due to his excess weight so I started him on an exercise & diet program (swimming 3 times a week and 50% pumpkin for his meals).

The good news is that he lost 4 pounds this month! He lost two of those the first week. Not bad at all for a smaller dog! His highest was 47 pounds. The vet thinks 35 would be a good goal.. then we can adjust it from there. He's now 43 pounds. Yippeee! (I haven't weighed Kaedyn at the vet's yet but according to the scale in our house, he lost at least 3 pounds! )

The bad news is that his hips are horrible. They're a mess. The vet pointed out that it actually looks like his bones (the head of the femur) are disintegrating. On the xrays, it looked like the head of the femur was pressing right into the socket.. the socket almost looked flat. His left hip looks worse than his right one, but surprisingly, it was his right hip that was causing him a lot of discomfort. Ugh.. what's really sad is, all of this could have easily been prevented if his "breeder" had actually screened the parents like he said he did.

His vet said we should stop doing agility.. which would really suck cause Kai LOVES it more than anything else. It has done so much for his confidence.. it'd be a shame to have to stop. I think we'll just take it easy on the jumps and when we're ready to compete, I'll just enter him in specials (one jump height lower) rather than standard.

We still don't know about the lumps. The vet said they didn't concern him too much but since they weren't cysts, he wanted to send the tissue in to be sure it wasn't anything.

Ugh.. it's so much to take in. We have no idea if his situation will get better or worse, so for now we're going to take it easy with the agility and work on getting the remaining excess weight off him.

[Zippy]

Congrats Kai on losing weight.
I am sorry his hips are so bad.I hope he can still do some jumps if he loves it so much.

[chocolatepuppy]

I'm sorry to hear this Ashley. That's great that Kai lost some weight. Hopefully his hips will hold out for a long, long time.

[cyber-sibes]

Ah, poor Kai. You've posted about how much he loves agility, and he always looks happy doing it. I hope something works out so he can continue. And a big congratulations on his weight loss. How does that 50% pumpkin diet work out on his digestion? I've been considering what I can do for Shermie, he's a little too hefty right now too.

[binka_nugget]

And a big congratulations on his weight loss. How does that 50% pumpkin diet work out on his digestion? I've been considering what I can do for Shermie, he's a little too hefty right now too.

Thanks 50% pumpkin seems to be working really nicely! I don't do poop clean up in the yard anymore since the poop from raw fed dogs turn into white dust after a few days, but I'll take a look tomorrow for you LOL He's acting pretty happy about his meals though. As far as he's concerned, he gets to eat even more now! I think 50% might be a bit drastic for most dogs but for such a small dog, he had a lot of body weight to lose.. about 25% .. so I guess a drastic change was needed.

[wolfsoul]

Poor Kai's hips.. I wish there was some way to throw Joe Brandt out of business.