Saturday, July 18, 2009

Bad news....

     Ginger has been limping off and on for 2-3 weeks.  She doesn't seem to be in pain when she limps - she always plays, loves, eats, etc ferociously, she just does it with one leg in the air sometimes.
     We took her to the vet Wednesday:  her knee cap pops out (Patellar luxation).  Any of you who know Jerry W....... yes, same syndrome.  Apparently, it's a combination of the groove it sits in not being deep enough, and the muscles pulling at not quite the right angle to hold it in.  
     No treatment really, unless it gets to be where it's out the majority of the time; then we'll probably have surgery to deepen the groove a bit.   For now, we just let it pop in and out as it will.  Try to monitor her play when it's out so she doesn't twist it wrong.  Other than that, we don't have to restrict her activity at all - we can let her be her crazy little Ginger self.
In fact, last night we walked 2 miles at Radnor Lake - she didn't limp once!  Occasionally, other walkers would stop to pet the girls.  EVERY time, as we were walking away, Ginger would bounce up and down like, "Yea!! Somebody loved on me!! Life is wonderful, I'm so happy and so cute!!!"   I think the walk really helped us realize she'll be ok - whatever happens.
Other vet news: 
-Ginger weighed in at 4.0 lbs, and Abbie at 4.7 (the paper says 4.3, but Mark's pretty sure he heard the nurse say 4.7 when they were being weighed).  Doc says they're probably done growing....we'll see.  
-We started them on heartworm meds since we've been going to the dog park.  Better safe than sorry.
-Doc says it's still ok for us to leave there food down 24/7. The biggest reason (other than weight control) to do schedule feedings is for scheduled potty-time.  But since they can go in the box whenever they want, we can let them eat when they want.  All four of us are spoiled!!!!