Hugs to you and Otter
Otter's Journey....
- Thread starter Beanwood
- Start date
Hugs to you and Otter
Beanwood
Administrator
No, the screw is very precisely implanted to halt growth in one area of the tibial plateau. It is not doing any harm though and it is working. They may surgically straighten her tibia if needed. That is actually a better option than a TPLO if we can't reduce the tibial slope. The surgeon could still feel a bit of "give" in that stifle. That's the problem, any instability will mean that joint is still vulnerable to further damage.
Beanwood
Administrator
We did enjoy a nice little walk together. Apart from her "dock diving!" Seriously my heart was in my mouth, and it was the last thing I expected. Otter should really have a mental health warning plastered all over her.
We started off a little nervous, but actually she did rather better than I thought she would. Otter spotted a few people in the distance, checked in with me, rewarded with a treat and a short game of "find the treats in the grass" then we deliberately headed of in a different direction ,then turned and headed BACK on our original course. This considering we haven't had much opportunity in the real world I was really happy with. She has developed a little bit of resilience on the way somehow.
We met horses, who had it in their heads that we needed investigating. Otter was fine... I was freaked...
Then we headed toward a small pool, I thought she would just explore a little, nope she dived in splashed around, got out then ran to the highest point and just leapt in, I really, really didn't expect that!
A little video of Otter having fun!
We started off a little nervous, but actually she did rather better than I thought she would. Otter spotted a few people in the distance, checked in with me, rewarded with a treat and a short game of "find the treats in the grass" then we deliberately headed of in a different direction ,then turned and headed BACK on our original course. This considering we haven't had much opportunity in the real world I was really happy with. She has developed a little bit of resilience on the way somehow.
We met horses, who had it in their heads that we needed investigating. Otter was fine... I was freaked...
Then we headed toward a small pool, I thought she would just explore a little, nope she dived in splashed around, got out then ran to the highest point and just leapt in, I really, really didn't expect that!
A little video of Otter having fun!
Atemas
UK Tour Guide
- Location
- North Cambridgeshire
about the restricted exercise continuing but so lovely to see her having fun 
- Location
- East Sussex
Sorry the results weren't entirely as you'd hoped and do hope it all resolves properly in time. She does seem to be making the most of that 'lead walk' 
Lisa
Moderator
- Location
- Alberta, Canada
I’m sure that check up was bit of a downer. Hugs. But hopefully it will continue to progress in the right direction!
How are the rest of the gang coping with it all? How do you stop all the crazy play she would love to do with them all, I’m sure?
How are the rest of the gang coping with it all? How do you stop all the crazy play she would love to do with them all, I’m sure?
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
I understand your concerns. We have and had the same concerns with Hunter.
X
X
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
It's not the best case, obviously, but you will all get through this. I think I understand as much as most what it's like to have a sensitive dog, and you do just get on and deal with it. It can be heartbreaking at times, and worrying at others, but you have the knowledge, the understanding, and the kindness to find a way through.tbh, I wasn't entirely surprised with the results, so they weren't unexpected. My biggest worry is her rather fragile psyche will struggle with any additional surgeries..
I don't think any future surgery will do irreversible damage psychologically; it might be a long road to come through, but you will find out what works for the two of you. Because of who you are, you will keep questioning, keep trying, and keep learning as you go. More than that, even though it can be heartbreaking to see your dog feeling low, this is very rarely their entire life. Outside of those periods of anxiety, you spend times training, or playing, or whatever it is that makes you both happy. If she's anxious around other people, well, you can work on that for sure, but also you're not around other people all day, every day, so she gets lots of down time having fun with her loving family.
I think it might be appropriate to re-post this story, which I put on Willow's thread some time ago. It's written from the viewpoint of a mother with a disabled child, but applies equally well to those of us who have ended up in doggy situations that weren't what we'd envisaged:
Welcome to Holland
Written by Emily Perl Kingsley
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!” you say. “What do you mean, Holland?” I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.
But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
Beanwood
Administrator
@snowbunny beautiful post, thank you . "Welcome to Holland" really resonated after a particularly difficult week for Otter. It is also something that I have thought a lot about with Bramble. It took other people going to Holland and coming back and telling me how fantastic it was, how they preferred Holland to Italy... but I digress, different scenario, but was equally poignant, other people showing me how absolutely fabulous Bramble is, OK, so not a natural, super duper driven gundog... but she is a million, trillion other wonderful things.
Bones, muscles, they can all heal eventually. In fact, bones are often better than before. We will get there and I didn't expect it all to be sorted so soon anyhow. The absolutely heart-breaking thing is this deep and over-riding anxiety Otter suffers from. I haven't really mentioned it much mainly because we have been working on just getting our heads around this. Now we are starting work on a plan. I have an appointment today with a vet nurse qualified as a behaviourist, a vet and Otter. I will start another thread to follow our progress.
. "Welcome to Holland" really resonated after a particularly difficult week for Otter. It is also something that I have thought a lot about with Bramble. It took other people going to Holland and coming back and telling me how fantastic it was, how they preferred Holland to Italy... but I digress, different scenario, but was equally poignant, other people showing me how absolutely fabulous Bramble is, OK, so not a natural, super duper driven gundog... but she is a million, trillion other wonderful things.Bones, muscles, they can all heal eventually. In fact, bones are often better than before. We will get there and I didn't expect it all to be sorted so soon anyhow. The absolutely heart-breaking thing is this deep and over-riding anxiety Otter suffers from. I haven't really mentioned it much mainly because we have been working on just getting our heads around this. Now we are starting work on a plan. I have an appointment today with a vet nurse qualified as a behaviourist, a vet and Otter. I will start another thread to follow our progress.
Boogie
Moderator
- Location
- Manchester UK
Oh my word @snowbunny that made me weep. When my first son was born I had exactly that adjustment to make. We tried for seven years for a baby and went though all sorts of pain to conceive and bear him. Then, when he arrived, he wasn’t the kind of baby I’d ever met before (he was a restless screamer, easily bored and never able to be passed to anyone except his Dad and grandmas). But he turned out an amazing, handsome, kind, exceptional young man.
@Beanwood many hugs and lots of love for you and the stunning Otter.
.
@Beanwood many hugs and lots of love for you and the stunning Otter.
.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Just wanted to acknowledge this, not quite sure how though,
just that it strikes a chord somewhere.
I hope todays appointment helps you plan the way forward for her.
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
Having had a very sensitive dog, he turned out to be a highly talented gun dog and I can see in Otter she does have confidence in some areas, look at her in the water, full of confidence and joy. I believe this confidence will generalise eventually. I have a friend who forced her dog to face his fears and that was a disaster. Slowly and gently and with a light heart as you do it, will eventually work wonders.
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
Bramble is totally brilliant. Such a fun, funny girl, and she was so good with baby Squidge (all of your gang were).
The biggest take-away I have with the twins is that the anxiety is something you can work on in parts (CC to certain triggers, for example), but on the other hand it is innate and so will always be there. Shadow will always be uncertain and jumpy in unfamiliar situations: on Wednesday, I got a flat tyre with him in the car. I couldn't get the nuts off and I was out of the car with him, waiting for J to arrive with the compressor, when two Guardia Civil officers rocked up to help me out. Once upon a time, Shadow would have been scared of them, and would have barked and lunged. Not now; he had a very brief sniff, but that was all. It was straightforward counter-conditioning that caused that massive improvement. However, in order to get the spare wheel out of the boot, I had to take out a lot of cardboard that was in there for recycling. Just picking it up startled him, and he cowered away, tail tucked right under. Because, he is an anxious dog.
If I were to train for taking cardboard out of the car with him, he would be just fine with that situation long-term. But, he would still startle and react at the next new situation. Because he is an anxious dog.
No amount of training will stop him being anxious in new situations, but in specific situations, I can totally work on how he feels until it's no bother to him.
Shadow is also a remarkably resilient dog; he bounces back from being scared really quickly. This is also innate to some extent, but it is also modifiable.
Take Willow: historically, not resilient at all. She would remain scared for hours, if not days, after a scary event. She is a very different type of anxious to Shadow. She is far less twitchy in unfamiliar situations, is far more self-assured, but her specific triggers can cause her absolute terror. You've read her log, you know what she used to be like. But now? Not only is she far less likely to react to those triggers, she reacts far less strongly, and her resilience is massively improved, so she will be fine after minutes rather than hours, or days. This created with a combination of conditioning and medicinal intervention.
Yes, we're definitely in Holland, but we've been here long enough that I can get about without having to consult the map. And we're still finding exciting new nooks and crannies to investigate; places we haven't travelled before, and new ways of getting to them. And sometimes, just sometimes, we pop to an Italian restaurant and it feels like we're actually there
The biggest take-away I have with the twins is that the anxiety is something you can work on in parts (CC to certain triggers, for example), but on the other hand it is innate and so will always be there. Shadow will always be uncertain and jumpy in unfamiliar situations: on Wednesday, I got a flat tyre with him in the car. I couldn't get the nuts off and I was out of the car with him, waiting for J to arrive with the compressor, when two Guardia Civil officers rocked up to help me out. Once upon a time, Shadow would have been scared of them, and would have barked and lunged. Not now; he had a very brief sniff, but that was all. It was straightforward counter-conditioning that caused that massive improvement. However, in order to get the spare wheel out of the boot, I had to take out a lot of cardboard that was in there for recycling. Just picking it up startled him, and he cowered away, tail tucked right under. Because, he is an anxious dog.
If I were to train for taking cardboard out of the car with him, he would be just fine with that situation long-term. But, he would still startle and react at the next new situation. Because he is an anxious dog.
No amount of training will stop him being anxious in new situations, but in specific situations, I can totally work on how he feels until it's no bother to him.
Shadow is also a remarkably resilient dog; he bounces back from being scared really quickly. This is also innate to some extent, but it is also modifiable.
Take Willow: historically, not resilient at all. She would remain scared for hours, if not days, after a scary event. She is a very different type of anxious to Shadow. She is far less twitchy in unfamiliar situations, is far more self-assured, but her specific triggers can cause her absolute terror. You've read her log, you know what she used to be like. But now? Not only is she far less likely to react to those triggers, she reacts far less strongly, and her resilience is massively improved, so she will be fine after minutes rather than hours, or days. This created with a combination of conditioning and medicinal intervention.
Yes, we're definitely in Holland, but we've been here long enough that I can get about without having to consult the map. And we're still finding exciting new nooks and crannies to investigate; places we haven't travelled before, and new ways of getting to them. And sometimes, just sometimes, we pop to an Italian restaurant and it feels like we're actually there
Golly you lot are fantastic. And you love your dogs so well (I’m looking at all of you, MLF-ers).
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Cath
MLF Sales Coordinator
I loved this the first time you posted it, I still love it now.
Jacqui-S
Moderator
- Location
- Fife, Scotland
Inspiring @snowbunny
You can do it if anyone can @Beanwood . We think you are strong and capable and that might not fit with how you feel. We know you will get there with your girls xx
You can do it if anyone can @Beanwood . We think you are strong and capable and that might not fit with how you feel. We know you will get there with your girls xx