Nearest and dearests know the stress I've been through with Ross following his collision with a snow covered rock last Winter. He's had anti inflammators, cage rest and X.rays. Coupled with spells of painful pano the poor lad has had a lot to put up with, but to be honest he's just got on with it. The X.rays where sent to Rutlan House where a specialist report concluded there was no obvious abnormalities and the limping was more likely to be the pano. (They suggested a CT Scan could confirm if he continued to limp) Only a short time after the limping stopped a loud clicking sound became apparent in or around the right elbow. I came to the conclusion that Ross had secondary arthritis on the injury to the elbow and decided that I would not be breeding from him in the future. I was gutted and felt I had broken my lovely puppy.
Talking to Rachel about this recently she suggested other causes for the clicking and suggested I take Ross to see a Canine Physiotherapist, so today we did. We went to see Gillian of Paws For Fitness and after a slight strop Ross allowed her to get on with the matter in hand. Gillian feels there is scar tissue around the area and the sporadic clicking could possibly down to a bubble in the synovial fluid around the joint. These seems more likely than my uneducated diagnosis as secondary arthritis on the joint would click continuously. Makes sense when someone explains it to you doesn't it!
I'm still a little unsure what I'm doing next but I do feel a lot more at ease now. Thank you Rachel and Gillian. I know my loud and lovely boy is not to everyone's taste ... but to me he's amazing, he's a star, and if you don't like him then it's your loss, your problem not mine or his!
