As Skye's aggression is not improving and whatever is hurting her keeps hurting her, I have decided to investigate further and get her checked out in depth. The start is xrays and further examination of her ears, neck area. And here is the result:

Skye is home and very sleepy as she was done late in the day. They didn't find anything in the ears but cleaned them. So nothing to worry there. The xrays however showed two problem areas. One is in the lumbar spine where she has a dry disc. They think it could just be incidental, but might be a source of pain. But it is the front left that really worries the vets. There is a light area in the bone which can either be an infection (but there is no indication of trauma that would have caused that) or a bone tumour... :-( Either scenario should be a lot more painful though than Skye indicates! So the vets are puzzled. Also her lymph glands on the left side are up. They think a bone biopsy is probably the next step, but have sent the images to The Grove referral vets (who are brilliant, Flash was there) for them to look at it and give recommendations as to our next steps. I think the vet I talked to is really worried as she was absolutely adamant that Skye was not to have any exercise at all other than toilet breaks. :-( They have also put her on an antibiotic in case it is an infection, and on metacam for the pain.

We'll see what the Grove thinks about it all. It is so worrying, but hopefully will explain what her pain is all about.

Update - and serious skin infection!

I haven't updated this blog for a while. In the meantime, we have moved on 25th March and Skye is loving her new big garden where she can run and sniff to her heart's content. She did struggle settling in a bit though. She was quite stressed by the moving experience. Here she is among the boxes, knowing that something is up and worrying about whether she is coming too.



But she loves the new conservatory and her garden as do all the dogs.



After about a month or so she was fine and lost that stress look in her eyes. She realised that we were staying here for good!

She loves our new walks and after some additional training and the initial excitement about all the new smells died down a bit, she is now off lead in some areas (mainly Hinderclay Fen).



And with some agility equipment in the garden and lots of smells and space there too, she is kind of in heaven. :-)







 

 

 

 

However, there is also a less pleasant update> Last Sunday, Skye got stung or bitten by something on her nose. Her nose swell up.

 

 

I gave her some antihistamines (Tavegil) straight away as I knew how bad she can get from last time when she was stung by a bee. It soon settled down again and I thought no more about it.

 

 

However, on Wednesday when I came home, there was suddenly an infection there and it got so bad so quickly, I took Thursday off and took her to the vet. She was prescribed antibiotics and got a steroid injection. I also went and got a buster collar.

 

 

On Friday I took her with me to work as I didn't want to leave her at home not being used to the buster collar.

 

 

However by the evening and Saturday morning, the infection was getting worse and worse and I took her to the vet again. She was quite shocked about how bad it got and gave me additional oral steroids and I got an even bigger buster collar as she managed to reach her nose with her back paws with this one .

 

 

 

I also got some Manuka honey to apply to the wound and gave her arnica to. Finally by Tuesday I could see the improvement (although the Manuka honey dried the wound out within a few hours, that was quite impressive) and now the wounds looks clean and healing up well. Wow, what a drama. The wound looked so bad as if it had been neglected for weeks, yet it came up within 12 hours and it was so incredibly itchy and painful for her. But we are winning now and hopefully by the weekend (which we will spend with Karen) the buster collar can come off.  

 

 

 

 

 

How far she has come!

Look at this picture... for the first of Skye's year here, she couldn't have any bones because she warned the other dogs off very seriously from a long distance and I couldn't go near her either. She still grumbles a bit when the other dogs come near, but look at this:

 

Jesse slept on the sofa whilst Skye was chewing her bone beneath! How amazing.

She also very comfortably swapped her bone for a treat. Another thing she wouldn't do at all for many months!

And here she was chomping a little earlier:

Skye at Agility

I took Skye to agility training today after several weeks and she went totally giddy. She loves it so much and was so excited. I must find an agility class in Norfolk for her.

Just a cute picture

Just a picture I took a couple of week ago at Addington Hills

First ever show... St. Edwards

On Saturday, I took Skye to her first ever show. I had no intention of working her (and indeed it was confirmed that she wouldn't have been ready), but we had a great time training and enjoying ourselves. I didn't expect miracles from her, she does get distracted much quicker than Jesse and puts less energy into things (unless it's agility and searching LOL), but she didn't do too bad. Her recalls and retrieves were actually quite ok and she did her stays nicely. So overall, I was very happy. Heelwork however is a very sore point... lots more work to be done on that.

I'll see how this season goes, perhaps get a session or two of private lessons from Kamal and then make a decision whether we persevere with obedience or whether I will concentrate more on agility and/or gundog work with her, which I know she would adore! We'll see...

On Sunday, I taught the spaniels something useful by getting them to search for my keys. LOL

Thryoid Update

Well, when I took Dylan to the vet yesterday, we discussed Sky's thyroid issue too. As there is some improvement (perhaps 20%) but nothing drastic (and at this point not enough to warrant a life time on medication), Mark said we should increase the dosage drastically (seeing also how high Jesse's thyroid levels needs to be to function normally). So he went from 0.3mg to 0.8 mg for a month to see whether that makes a difference.

This could make Skye hyperthyroid of course (and I have to be careful with that as it could induce anxiety which would increase Skye's aggression), but we will monitor closely and see what happens and then go from there. If it helps, then fabulous. If not, then I will accept that it's a genetic issue and not a thyroid one.

I gave her two whole of her tablets yesterday which made it a total of 0.6mg, and from today she is on 2 x 0.4mg to make up the 0.8mg she is on. Watch this space.

Here are her last results from the last thyroid test a week ago:

ENDOCRINOLOGY

Test Result Alert Units Reference Range

38.8 nmol/L 13.0 - 51.0

And here's some pictures I took over the week-end of the naughty one (who is not so naughty anymore at all). LOL

Sleeping beauty!

 

Two sleeping beauties!

Upside down dog

Right way up dog

Thyroid and vaccinations

Well, yesterday we went to the vet's. It was Ian. He took blood from her for the thyroid test, I need to call them today for the results. Skye also got her vaccinations, which luckily seems to have had no adverse effect on her at all (other than being a bit grumbly when we got home due to the stress).

Titre results

Well, two out of the three diseases are low now for Skye: distemper and hepatitis. As distemper is now even lower (the reading is just 7) than it was last year when it was already low, Mark recommends to vaccinate and I agree. So when we go back for the thyroid test in a month time, I will get her a booster sorted out.

Re thyroid: I am not sure whether it makes a big difference with Skye now being on soloxine. She isn't very grumbly in general at the moment and there have been a couple of moments when I was pleased that she didn't grumble... but right now, I can't see enough difference in her behaviour yet to say that it is definitely working. It's only been just over a week, so will definitely observe another month of course when her thyroid test is due.

Thyroid

Well, Skye had another thyroid test. The T4 is a little higher at 21, but still well below the top half range that a young dog should be. After a chat with Mark, he agreed to put her on a trial of Soloxin for a couple of months. So she is now on 0.3mg a day (that's less than Jesse who is on 0.5mg).

Skye's aggression issues were well under control and not a problem at all anymore at home, but in new more stressful situations, she can still be quite scary... e.g. in training school with a new dog, at Karen's (where she was over the week-end) etc. So we will see how she gets on.

She has been on Soloxin since Monday evening and she hasn't had any growls (other than her usual "chatty" growls) since then... probably just coincidence, but nonetheless encouraging.

Just a picture

We had a lovely walk in the country park today - finally it has dried out a bit and the dogs are not covered in mud anymore when we get home.

Some pictures

This morning

Under the bed LOL

It's one of her favourite spots



And some pictures I took on a walk a couple of week ago when we had quite a bit of snow. It was beautiful!

 

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, SKYE

I can't believe my naughty little girl is already 2 years old, but it's true! Unfortunately we didn't have much of a chance to celebrate. It is lovely to see how far Skye has come and she is such a joy to be with now! I love you sooooooooo much, Skye-girl. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Some udpates - major improvement with bones

I thought I'd risk giving the guys a bone to clean teeth today. Last time I did this it was a major disaster due to Skye's extreme guarding where she didn't even let ME within any reasonable distance; let alone the other dogs. I had to trick her to get the bone away from her and she was very guardy and growly for many hours afterwads. Well, today, she still did a good mean growl at the dogs walking past at a few yards, but she did let them walk past now AND once she had finished with the bone, she allowed me to exchange her bone for a few treats after a bit of convincing! Hurray! I am over the moon as a bone is the highest value item she guards and she wouldn't let anyone near her at all hence why they haven't had bones for a long time! But my girl has come a long way and now we are finally breaking boundaries down with this last and biggest issue of her.


For the last couple of weeks, I have also been going to agility again now that the obedience season is mostly over. Skye is doing brilliantly in agility and really enjoying it. She is confident on all the obstacles, does a pretty good (and almost independent) weave now and her attention is much improved. Not bad for a crazy thing that has only done a handful of sessions I reckon. She does some bits and pieces with Elke in Advanced, and I do Intermediate with her to give her more 1-2-1 practice! She is a natural!

Stuff...

First of all, antibody test came back a while ago. No antibodies, so that's no autoimmune thyroiditis. Mark wants to re-test due to the less than optimal results. I sent results to Jean Dodds too and she confirms this. So I'll retest her thyroid in about 6 months. It's not urgent, as her aggression issues are just fine.

Secondly, Skye is generally doing ok. Sitting room is usually all in one piece now when both Emily come in as well as me. House training still dodgy when it is wet outside, otherwise quite good now.

She has taken to breaking out of the car crates though when I walk away at obedience shows... She'd then sit in the front seat waiting for me... If I was sure she didn't touch anything, I'd leave her there, but I can't be sure and I don't want to come back to a wrecked, undrivable car - though I have to say the three times this has happened, she hasn't touched anything.
I have now cabletied the back crate (the strong one) so hopefully that'll keep her in place. LOL

New walk and test results

TEST RESULTS: On Friday, we got the first set of test results back, which is T4, freeT4 and TSH. T4 is on 17, which is very close to the lower end of normal... so it looks like Skye might also be hypothyroid. Just waiting for the second half of the results which will tell us whether she has antibodies or not. NEW WALK: Today Emily came with Lucas again to do some more toddler socialising! And it went really well and was a good improvement from last time. Dylan was totally happy and asleep most of the time (tired from vets and a walk afterwards), Flash still worried occasionally but overall much happier, Jesse was amazing and invited Lucas to play several time by play bowing at him (though sometimes realising that he was too brave and backing off a bit then LOL) and Skye pretty confident, but needs to learn more not to take Lucas' toys. We were really pleased. Afterwards I took Skye and Jesse to South Norwood Lakes walking with Emily up there. It was the first time I took them to that park and they loved it. They are now nice and tired. I did a bit of training there too and they responded very well to everything I asked. And I have to say I was also well pleased with their road walking as there was very little pulling. Good little spangles, they were. :-)

First Gotcha Day

I can't believe that it is alraedy a year since this little rascal arrived here! And what a journey it has been... I have learnt so much and although it was stressful at times, I wouldn't want to miss it. HAPPY GOTCHA DAY, my little girl! Love you so much!

Skye's a little super star - well sometimes she is! LOL

Well, today was the day when Skye's lepto and titre test was due, and I got her thyroid tested. I was really worried about this appointment. When I got her a year ago, one of the things I had to teach her very intensively is being handled, in particularly her feet. She hated having her feet touched, having nails clipped, being restrained etc. I did lots of clicker training with her to give paw, to hold her arm still, me stretching her arm out (e.g. as you would to take blood), increasing the length of time holding still etc. In addition, Skye was - as we know - the type of girl that will grumble and threaten if unhappy, stressy or tired! Well, this morning it was all put to the test. Skye needed her lepto vaccination, and two lots of blood taken for titre test and thyroid test! And she past with flying colours! Mark and I didn't even need the nurse to help! Not a grumble, no avoidance at all, just a couple of unsure glances whilst I was holding her (gently I may add) and keeping still all the way through... and lots of treats at the end of it of course as a thank you. I am so proud of my little girl, I could burst! It is so nice to see when all the training comes together at last - and (nearly) all the naughty things she's done (like knicking Emily's ice cream yesterday!) and no doubt will do in future are forgiven!

Skye's first agility course

Over the last few sessions, I sneaked Skye onto the agility course every so often during Jesse's session to teach her the new obstacles. Well, today she was at the point where she could do all the obstacles, so I decided to give her a go. She was great, very impressed! Her spaniel nose will kick into action once in a while, so I have to be much more on the ball in keeping her attention than I have to with Jesse, but she has done so well today considering it's the advanced class and it was her first time doing a proper course. Very proud of her and looking forward to do more with her. She is also coming along really nicely with the obedience, though I won't compete with her this year (technically she would be up to scratch) as she needs more work on attention keeping outdoors with other dogs around and just a little more time maturing I think! But she'll come good. :-)

Skye's first snow experience!

We had snow today and it was the first time for Skye. She wasn't so sure at first, but then quite enjoyed it! Though she doesn't go silly in it like Dylan and Flash do. LOL

I took her for a walk in the park on her own today and we met Dexter, the staffie, who we walked around with! It was a lovely walk.