Life with Puppies happens in the context of Life with Everything Else. At least, it does for me. The puppies are front and center, but I still need to fit Everything Else in around the edges.
Star Garnet and Jasper — aka Double Trouble
Like the university classes I teach, my team’s federal grant (thankfully still in place), the exercise that keeps me (mostly) sane, the relationships with family and friends that sustain and support me, the adult dogs, and the Big Deal Situation that some of you are aware of and might have imagined just went away — it has not.
In the past week, there has been a lot of stuff on various fronts.
And then Topaz broke.
Topaz this morning: “I am not broken, you dramatic human. I am sore and stiff.”
I hit the pause button on a lot of things yesterday. That is what you do when you are reasonably good at managing your 100 Little Soldiers (aka, capacity) — you know when to give them a break. [Disclaimer: I only learned how to do this by failing at it repeatedly. Some of us are slow learners].
Because one of my goals in spending time writing this blog is to educate — and I have not seen anything like this before — I want to share what happened with Topaz.
Sapphire and Topaz playing this morning
Although the smallest in the litter, Topaz has gained weight proportionally to his siblings and has been perfectly normal in every way. Then I began to notice things about a week ago. His front right paw started turning out. Uh Oh, I thought. But I was only thinking he might not be a show puppy — I did not imagine it was the start of more bad stuff.
Then I noticed that the other puppies were trotting, running, and scampering — but not Topaz. Hmmmm…. Maybe just a day or two behind.
Topaz this morning
I took him and a sibling on a little walk in my big yard earlier this week. The sibling ran and trotted but Topaz only walked. He walked normally but he just walked.
Then the other front paw started drifting out and suddenly he was cow hocked and by Wednesday I started to notice that he was walking strangely — like it hurt.
This is from this morning — you can see his rear end is still not quite right, although it is better than it was.
It was very obvious on Thursday — walking was hard. He would do it some but it was stilted and just hard.
By yesterday (Friday), any hope that he had been injured and was just sore was gone. Off to the vet.
Galen, Bethany (weak and newly grateful for life after a REALLY bad bout of bacterial pneumonia 🤒), and the kids came over to stay with the other puppies while I took Topaz and Capella to the vet.
Multiple vets weighed in. They quickly determined his bones and joints hurt. X-rays were unremarkable. No fever. Topaz was, as usual, engaged and normal except his painful bones and joints.
They prescribed an anti-inflammatory and the plan was to regroup on Monday with a sibling in tow to do some puppy-to-puppy comparisons. All of us were also to reach out to resources over the weekend to see if there are other ideas out there.
Stacy Slade, owner of the potential dads, is tapping her resources. She is SUCH a great stud dog owner.
I called my very best resource — my Montana vet. I love her. She is so smart and as a rural vet, she has seen a lot. Based on my conversation with her, I went from thinking Topaz was a Goner to believing that he will likely be okay. This morning’s activities made me believe it even more.
Growing puppies can apparently have growth that is uneven, and this can cause pain in bones and joints. It is typically self-limiting and resolves without damage within a few weeks. Cause is not really known — it is not nutritional.
Key to a good recovery is to limit activities and maintain optimal nutrition while it sorts itself out. This is what I am hoping is the issue with Topaz. It makes sense given that he has no other symptoms.
Who knew a sherpa bag was such fun?!
I will not be giving Topaz the anti-inflammatory unless he gets REALLY bad for at least two reasons. First, he is six weeks old. Second, it is easier to limit his activities if it is his idea to limit activities; if he feels too good, he will overdo it.
There are FOUR puppies in that photo. See above regarding the previously unknown pleasures of a sherpa bag 😂
I am going to check in with the vets about an additional question I have — is it weight bearing activities we should limit? If so, it seems like swimming could be a good way to keep Topaz’s muscles strong and exercised. He clearly likes water and comes from a long line of swimming Berners — if he can safely exercise in water, we have resources. How cute would that be?!
As you can imagine, this has been a wildly stressful week — and remember that there are already humans attached to each puppy. Three excited and amazing homes. Amazing enough to be both supportive and willing to pause with me this weekend 🙏
Collective Deep Breath 🧘🏼♀️
There are good reasons to hope this is all going to be just fine but what a week 😬🤯
In more fun news, it doesn’t take much to make things novel. I flipped over this part of the crate and looked at what promptly happened.
I also added the tippy board to the top of the ramp, although they could choose to avoid by doing my makeshift soft steps. Jasper was the first one to do it — no problem.
Jasper (and the rest of us) send continuing get well wishes to our recovering friend ❤️
Have a terrific day!
🩷💙💙💙
P.S. If you have ideas, thoughts, and/or suggestions for the Topaz situation, please do weigh in — you can leave a comment or email me at sontag.ma@gmail.com ❤️