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I’ve somehow gotten a month behind in the Case of the Month postings. The plan is to do two this month and get back on track.

I had been waiting for a couple of months to post this one as I wanted to make sure the dog turned out ok. This little shorthair ranks up there as one of my favorite patients, she was in miserable shape and if you only saw her face you would have never known she was this bad off. Sometimes simple activities like exercising our dogs can turn ever so tragic. To find the story and the outcome of the picture give it a click:

The site is still slow, but I’m going to try to make up for some lost time this week and stay current. If you’ve visited the main page you will notice we are switching servers and relaunching the site in the next two weeks. We may experience a 24-48 hour period of being offline; however, after that, the site should be up and completely revamped. Stay tuned for updates.

Monday I was greeted by a golden retriever with severe eye inflammation. He had been into the local emergency vet a few days prior and was treated for a corneal ulcer (think of it as road rash of the eye). The owners reported on Monday that they had progressively gotten worse and that the dog seemed very uncomfortable. In this first picture you can see how irritated and swollen the tissues of the eye are:



Upon closer exam I could see the edges of what appeared to be plant matter. First I’ll show you the closeup:



Initially I could just see the obvious plant material to the left of the eye in the picture. However, if you look closer, in the other corner of the eye you can see a small bit of plant material. In the following picture the black arrows illustrate where some of the plant material was located. Also, if you look at the yellow line and then come back to the picture above you can see the edge of the ulcer. Essentially the plant material was rubbing a portion of the cornea off the eye. If you’ve ever had an eyelash stuck in your eye you know how painful it can be, just imagine plant seeds:



In the end we removed four different seed bodies, only two of which we could see initially. Likely when the dog initially went into the emergency hospital the eye was too inflamed and swollen, and the seeds too deep, for the veterinarian to see the seeds. By the time I saw the dog they had begun to migrate out:


I rechecked the dog on Friday and the eye was much improved and the dog much more comfortable. The ulcer had completely healed, and I’m happy to report he was back to normal. I realize I have gone a little overboard with these foreign bodies the last few weeks, and I apologize. That being said I have NEVER seen a problem like this, and I am extremely fearful of what the hunting season may bring. Please be vigilant with monitoring your hunting buddy during training and the upcoming hunting season.

While penetrating/migrating seeds should be a big fear for all dog owners, as illustrated in our last case, sometimes the very covers we spend hours and days in every fall can be just as harmful. My officemate had a lab that came in last fall with a small wound on his foot after pheasant hunting corn stubble all weekend. The wound appeared to be a small injury on the bottom surface of the paw, which was cleaned and the dog was placed on antibiotics. The dog appeared to be getting better with the wound on the bottom healing; however, about a week later the owners noticed a similar wound on the top of the paw.

With this new development a migrating foreign body was suspected and the dog was anesthetized for surgery. In this picture you can see how small the wound appeared at the time of surgery:



After the wound was explored it was quickly evident the extent of the wound on how deep the problem was:



Once the area was explored a piece of corn stalk was extracted. In the picture you can see the length of the piece. This dog had hunted for an entire day after the injury and outside of a small wound on the surface showed very little discomfort.


Dogs will never cease to amaze me with the level of pain and discomfort they are able to endure while doing what they love. Even with adequate veterinary care, they are sometimes able to mask the seriousness of the problem. It is for this reason that I can’t stress enough the importance of understanding your healthy dog to the fullest so that when things are even slightly off kilter you may be able to pick up on them and address the problem before it becomes a serious issue.

Take the time to examine your dog after every session in the field and deal with problems as they occur to help ensure the best outcome for your hunting partner.

Every year we get multiple calls at the clinic about abandoned baby rabbits, birds out of nests, orphaned raccoons and cute little skunks. I often feel sorry for the people making these calls because their hearts are often in the right place, but the answers they get aren’t always satisfying. In the vast majority of cases the best approach is to leave things alone. Often times we think these cute little wildlife babies have been abandoned when in actuality the parents are probably just out looking for a meal. We can’t fathom leaving a human infant alone and make that incorrect leap to wild animals.

In rare cases when wildlife is truly abandoned or orphaned the best approach is to contact either your state wildlife agency or a local wildlife rehabilitator. I will warn you that sometimes this will take several calls to talk with someone familiar with what can and/or should be done. If your first call results in a frustrating answer from the office staff at the agency, ask to talk to a wildlife official or someone in the field. In the case of rehabilitators, most take these orphans in with the eventual goal of release back to the wild at an appropriate age. With injured wildlife that can be saved they will often place them in an educational situation to help further the public’s knowledge and education of our wild planet.

I would strongly urge against attempting to take in these often cute wild babies as pets. I would say that essentially none of them make for good pets, and there are a host of issues you would be opening by attempting to domesticate them. First and foremost in my mind are the health implications. Many of these animals have the potential to carry a number of parasites that have the potential to be transmitted to you and your family, as well as some other life-threatening diseases like rabies. In addition, laws will vary from state to state, and in some areas you may actually be breaking the law with your attempt at housing these wild critters. Lastly, while cute and potentially cuddly in the beginning, these are wild animals and most will eventually turn into unmanageable pets. The raccoon pup in the above picture is no doubt cute, but as he matures that cuteness will be replaced as his natural instincts begin to take over. As a friend who does a lot of wildlife work put it, he will be an “unmanageable little jerk.”

 

I’m going to cheat a bit with this week’s case and use one of my own dogs as an example. A little over two years ago the dogs at our house were giving us more stress with their health conditions than could be imagined. We were in the early stages of diagnosing Emma with degenerative myelopathy (see the homepage for more on Emma) and Maggie had just undergone an aggressive surgery and oncology workup after a Grade III Mast Cell Tumor diagnosis (see article).

One Saturday during all of this I was grabbing my coffee and getting ready to head out the door when I looked down at my then 14-week old puppy to see her outside right toe pointing nearly backwards. I couldn’t believe my eyes. What could have happened to cause this precious little package to have such a terrible injury?

Off to the clinic we went to determine how we were going to fix the toe of this little puppy. As I am apt to do with my own dogs I immediately thought the worst and started a complete diagnostic workup which included x-rays. I will apologize for the quality, as these were taken prior to my photography days and “fancy” camera equipment:

A closer look at the offending toe showed that it appearred to have been whittled down to a point:

For a comparison here is what that joint looks like on her good foot:

What I had on my hands wasn’t a horrendous injury but a developmental defect. Very likely, early in life she suffered some trauma to the end of the second toe bone which resulted in resorption of the end of the bone. Because of it being out at the end and not bearing a lot of weight the toe luxates (pops out of place) with no pain or problems.

Over the last two years not a lot has changed with the toe, but with that being said it has to be protected when out hunting. Without a tight joint to hold it in place it is prone to constant trauma and if she is not booted the area gets severely irritated in less than a half-day hunting.

I wanted to use this case to compare it to the discussion on hip dysplasia. Belle has an orthopedic problem causing an abnormal joint, sounds familiar right? The difference is that the likelihood of hers being some type of heriditary problem is next to zero. Too often people want to lump genetic diseases, congenital diseases and developmental diseases all in one category and that simply is not the case. A genetic disease is one written in the DNA of the dog and can be passed from generation to generation. A congenital disease is one a dog is born with but is not always genetic. So, all genetic diseases are congenital BUT not all congenital diseases are genetic. Similarly a developmental disease is one that occurs during the growth process. Here again, this may be genetic, congenital or influenced by outside factors like environment, injury and nutrition.

Back to Belle, it is a running source of banter from my wife that I think that the little dog is perfect. My response is that just like when Achilles was dipped in the River Styx and had to be held by the heel leaving one vulnerable spot; so it was with Belle when God was creating her he had to hold her by that one little toe to dip her in the perfect bucket. My sceptical wife scoffs at this explanation and points to the wonder dog being tormented by song birds in the backyard.

I cringe at the thought of guaranteed hips, or health guarantees in general. It isn’t that I’m against doing all you can to assure you are producing the best dogs possible, its just that there are no guarantees with living things. I realize in today’s world a breeder of high-quality, high-priced dogs almost has to have a health guarantee. With that being said I’m not a big fan of them. Too often owners take them to mean there is an absolute guarantee their dog will not develop the “guaranteed” against health conditions. Also too often those same owners haven’t read the fine print of the guarantee that may discuss returning the dog, euthanasia, replacement value, etc. The unfortunate reality of health guarantees is that by the time a problem has developed or been identified you are no longer dealing with a guarantee on a piece of paper, but rather a living thing to which I hope you now have an emotional attachment. This makes sorting out the details of the terms of a guarantee a very delicate and often anger-provoking situation.

I don’t have all the answers to how to deal with this situation, but if I was a breeder, I would jump through every health clearance hoop (i.e. OFA, PennHIP, CERF, genetic testing, etc.) to show potential puppy buyers that I am doing everything in my power to produce for them a very healthy puppy. They could take that information and make an informed purchase decision, but in the end they would be making a contract with the dog they purchased…for good or bad.

That lengthy introduction brings us to a young, sweetheart of a little labrador I saw earlier this week. Despite her breeder and owner’s best efforts, her preliminary OFA films had come back with dysplasia of the left hip. I was seeing her for a second opinion and a retake of the films.

She was a petite and well-muscled little dog. We sedated her to get the best possible view of her hips. She was not sedated for the first go around and so we hoped the sedation would allow for a truer picture of her hips.

I zoomed in on the hips so that you can take a look at what they looked like:

In the above picture her left hip is on your right and is the problem hip. In the image below I have illustrated the differences in the two hips and the problem locations with the left hip joint. The red arrows show a lack of contact on the left side with the “socket” of the ball and socket joint, the right hip (your left) shows a more normal hip joint. The brown line is placed over the reminents of a growth plate (it is a faintly distinguishable white line in the above image). The yellow line is drawn from the two points of coverage of the socket and in a good hip the “yellow” line should intersect the brown with >50% of the brown line on the side of the dog’s body. As you can see the right hip (your left) has very good coverage, where the left hip (your right) has very poor.

I decided to illustrate this case for a number of reasons.

1. Guaranteed hips aren’t always guaranteed hips.
2. This dog was very well-muscled and extremely athletic. She had NO symptoms of hip dysplasia. It was a diagnosis made by an x-ray and may never actually cause the dog problem…though she will be at risk. It is this reason that hip dysplasia is NOT always a death sentence or career-ender AND it is also the reason that ALL dogs should be x-rayed regardless of their athletic ability. You won’t ever know the truth unless you look.
3. Is this genetic and should she be bred? That’s a tough one since it is clearly confined to only one side. It is possible it was related to an injury the dog had early in life, this dog had suffered a very long fall during a crucial stage in development, it is possible as a result there was an injury to only the left hip.Are you willing to take that risk? I’ll be honest here in that I don’t know that answer and there are a number of factors that should be taken into account.
4. A lot is made about bad x-rays making “good” hips bad, or clever x-rays making bad hips good. To a certain degree both statements may be true. Truly bad hips are never going to be made to look good and really great hips will never be made to look bad. It is the borderline good or borderline bad hips that can be affected by technique, positioning, etc. In the top picture the dog appears slightly slanted across the frame, but that has to do with her positioning in relation to the film and my crop of the picture not a rotation of the dog on the film. After multiple x-rays of the same dog by different veterinary clinics producing the same left hip problem it is fair to say this dog has an issue with just the left hip.