We were curious about how the cold would affect Mr. Al. The winter before he went down, he did have a little pain and grumbliness when we had the first cold/damp snap but nothing very mild pain relievers couldn't fix. Then, of course, last Christmas we all knew what happened :(
Anyway, he has been doing absolutely great and doing a small part of the "big dog walk." He doesn't do the whole walk, which is a mile, but does the "home stretch" of it and really enjoys it which is really not that far at all. But all the sudden Friday morning we were back to wobbly legs. Luckily, I had some pain meds left over and was able to give him something and that seemed to really help and make it better. I did do 100% crate rest from friday morning on just in case.
He went to the vet promptly on Monday and while he is not "down" he is definitely crossing or his bad leg isn't keeping up as quickly. She prescribed him 2 weeks of a low dose of pred and modified crate rest (he can be out of his crate to lay in his bed at my feet when I work and can walk from there to his water - but no jumping/running/belly flopping/walks and outside only for brief potty.)
I have been a bit more conservative and am crating him the second my eyeball isn't on him. So long as he wants to lay in his bed, I let him as that makes him happy. The vet said because we know what the extent of this is, unlike last time, that she is comfortable with him having a half ounce more freedom than last time so he doesn't lose total muscle mass. Hopefully this is just a blip and we caught it before it gets worse and can prevent it from it too.
I can tell when the pred is wearing off because instead of standing perfectly while drinking or walking a few steps for potty that he's wobbly again. I may see if i can divide his dose somehow, but for now I am following instructions of the divided piece once a day. But then again, we really only started Monday night on pred so its too soon to tell anything but the effects were great.
He does not appear to be in any pain. The first day, I did give him one pain pill because he was licking his back leg a lot but he has not done it since. His atitude has been very curious/upbeat and not in any obvious pain.
btw, his vacc are due and i was going to titer him because I do not want to risk any other changes and the vet recommended that I not titer him for dhlpp which i was surprised. She doesn't believe in over vaccinating. She said at his age, as long as he has rabies, he is well immune, especally because he is not boarded and he pretty much sees the same 2-3 dogs occasionaly who are also older. If say there is an outbreak, he could get a booster but she doesn't want to upset the apple cart with any unnecesary vaccs or injections, etc.
So that's our story and we're sticking to it. We are working to make sure that Alex doesn't go down - that this is just a little oopsie and that he was caught early enough with the pred to head off any major swelling.
Anyways = so not good news, but not "bad" news either.