Hello

My partner and I recently acquired a lovely 3 1/2 year old surrender dog from Tjukurpa kennels by the name of Jack.

In the short time we have had Jack he has become a much loved member of our family, and has adapted well to the life of a busy city companion dog.

A month or so ago, Jack appeared to injure himself playing ball in the garden and carried a fairly noticable limp. The limp was much more pronounced after periods of rest and Jack wasn't able to bear weight at all, although if an opportunity for play presented itself, nothing woudl stop him from grounding his feet.

As his limp didnt appear to be improving, and could no longer really be considered a play injury as such, we took Jack to the vet who suspected sesamoiditis, an injury not unlike RSI and common in young fit animals like Jack. After sedation and X-ray however it was discvored that Jack has arthritis in both front feet. His feet showed considerable damage with several bone splinters prominent and quite a deal of soft tissue swelling. The boy has always had fairly big feet, so the swelling wasnt easy to identify.

Jack has now started on weekly injections for a month, and a course of anti inflammatories, but with a degenerative condition like this it is more important in the long term to not exacerbate his condition.

We know mobility is most important for arthritis and Jack is well able to run, provided his movements are fluid, without the stop/start, wheeling and jerking he is prone to doing whilst chasing balls in the yard. It is now imperative that he runs freely in more open spaces rather than being forced to pull up short, which places a real strain on his feet. We also have to be careful not to run him on hard surfaces for any great distance and also to make sure we dont over extend him for any length of time. As you can imagine, this is terribly difficult for an otherwise fit healthy dog who would run all day if asked to, and has done in the past at times with us.

We also purchased some speciality food for Jack but this really isnt a long time option considering how expensive it is and how young Jack is. We feel our best option here is to uses glucosamene additive with his normal food, but woudl be most interested in knowing if anyone has had any success with this. There is no real medical proof that it works, but there is no evidence either that it hurts in any way. Any advice woudl be appreciated.

I suppose what we are most interested in knowing is how other koolie owners have managed with arthritis in their dogs and particularly in an animal as young as our Jack. I am not sure either if Jack is genetically pre disposed to this condition and if other members here might be aware of his breeding lines, but woudl be interested to hear opinions on that also.

Any help is appreciated at this stage. Our boy is happy and healthy otherwise and we intend to keep him that way, without curtailing his activities too much, but common sense must prevail in the end and we have to do all we can not to damage him any further.

Thanks for the chance to post and I look forward to reading any responses.

Marylu

Hi Mary so sad to hear about Jack.
Could you post a photo of Jack for the members to see.
It does help to see his type.
I will go through my files and see is I can contact the original owners for you.
I recall they got him from the breeder so I will see how much info we can get from that avenue.
It could be a bloodline related issue.
I have asked George and Bob our geneticist and breeds advise if they have any ideas.
Hopefully we will hear back from them soon.
I know in your caring hands Jack will be always have a good life.
Koolie rescue are more than happy to donate a container of Sashas blend which has shown great response in the management of Arthritis.
So let us know and we will send it to you.

What a shame, but at least you picked up on it early. Our ACD had arthritis in the rear legs but it was caught early and treated with Cartrophan ( 3 shots from memory) if caught at the right time, it can stop the build up in joints and in our dogs case actaully,partially reversed it. I am sure there are other more up to date treatments out now as this was a decade ago....vet science has made great in roads with the treatment of arthritic conditions in dogs, they have come a long way since the days when dogs were treated with BTZ which was also for humans!!!!!

Does Jack cool his feet down in his water dish after a lot of running after the ball by any chance??

Swimming is a good, non load bearing exercise for arthritic dogs if they are water inclined. We still played balll with our dog but with a heavier ball which did not move as quicky or a ball with a carry rope. He slept on a raised ,suspension bed and not in the kennel (after his diagnosis,) which was raised but carpeted wooden floor. He was slow in his later years to get up as but once up ,was fine, I found moving the bed to a sheltered sunny spot in winter helped also as warmth was good for mobility. I think eventually they realise their own limits and adapt accordingly if the temptationis not there. We got rid of the tennis balls.

Hi Marylu Firstly welcome to the Koolie Forum

Sorry to hear about Jack's diagnosis, but at least his complaint is something that there are options for and others experiences to draw on and not some new thing that you become guinea pig for.

As a sufferer of joint point, my heart goes out to him also.

Our first Koolie lived to a ripe old age of 16, but the success of her arthritis treatment also was her downfall, none of it cured deafness and when she felt so well that she decided to acompany the boss down the paddock neither of them thought of the fact that she could no longer hear the tractor, a very sad end for a very significant dog.

At a much younger age she had a knee reconstruction and was given the course of cartrophen injections which did help quite a bit. She then went onto rimadyl tablets which need to be handled carefully because of long term effects but at the time were the best option, these kept her loose and relatively pain free. There are more modern drugs that my parents are going through with their 12yo now, one is a liquid which was quite effective, but before the vet decided lets try something new they were having reasonable results with tablets call norocarp a non steroidal anti inflammatory.

The best results we had for Mindy was a small dose of rimadyl and glucosamine. The trick with glucosamine is to use one that is glucosamine hydrochloride because it is the form most readily taken up by the body. A lot of glucosmines are glucosamine sulphate which is cheaper but nowhere near as effective. I have checked Sasha's blend and it was the correct one. We bought it in a large jar from the healthfood shop and it worked out cheaper, it is very sweet so there was no problems with a teaspoon a night on her food. It takes a few weeks to build up in their system, but once it had we reduced the rimadyl by half and she was bouncing around like a two year old.

I take glucosamine myself, the Herron Osteoeze is the correct one. It has been very helpfull with joint pain, it is supposed to help regenerate the fluid in the joints to cushion them.

There is another product which I sware by myself, but haven't treated dogs with yet, but have heard wonderfull stories about treatment of horses and I know people have treated dogs with, it is a fruit juice. But because it was so successful for me I now sell it (only to my father and some friends), so I won't say any more here, but if you are interested you could pm or email me for more information.

Good Luck.

Thank you so much for the replies.
I have to discuss all of it with Jack's dad (Lachie) who will ultimately decide which way to go.

Jack is always throwing himself into water, but not necessarily his feet. In fact, one day out on the bikes throwing balls with the flicker we lost sight of him, only to find him after much frantic calling, swimming in the inlet water channel of the Newport Power Station at Hobsons Bay ! I will watch him more now, to see if he is attempting to cool his feet at all.

We have some lovely photos of the boy, but on a broken camera, so when we are able to we can post one. I still have a beautiful photo of him that Kerrie used to advertise for his forever home, so can send that in the mean time.

We are keen though to post a photo of him on stage here at the theatre or on the foot plate of Puffing Billy!

We would happily accept a box of Sasha's blend, but as we have never contributed to the Koolie Rescue fund which found us our boy inititally, we dont feel can impose at all.

Thanks so much for the information, there is alot to digest so far!

One Shasha Blend will be sent next week.
We are here for the Koolies and are hornored to help in what ever little way we can.
All the best with his recovery.