Doodles with Special Needs

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Comment by Maridith Woodward on February 4, 2010 at 6:18am

Thanks so much for everyone's kind thoughts. Margot is doing well. I was actually worried that we didn't do the right thing when we put off the surgery, but she is doing great on her medication management right now. It is the middle of winter and I have not had to give her a pain pill in over 2 months now. She has been on Glycoflex Stage III chews and I am adding Grizzly Salmon Oil to her food and it seems to be really helping. She is back to her full length walks without having trouble getting up later on. We do watch her play activity. She's a puppy and can corner on a dime, but pays the price later. I doubt this will last forever, but I'm glad she doing well until both she and my human daughter get a bit older. I do have an x-pen so I will definitely use that when the time comes and I'm so glad you told me that Rae. I took the surgeon really seriously about the crating and wouldn't have used it if you hadn't said that you did. And, I did notify breeder. They indicated that both dogs had already been retired. So, hopefully no other dogs will need to go through this unnecessarily. Thanks for the support!!!

Comment by Jacque Reynolds on February 3, 2010 at 1:46pm

Merideth, I am so sorry about Margo's diagnosis...if you have not already done so, please notify your breeder. In the best case scenario, the breeder will be supportive and helpful, in the worst case, at least the breeder will be on notice not to breed the parents of Margo again.

I am so very sorry that you, and she, are suffering with this diagnosis. I pray that you will find some helpful answers.

Comment by Rae on February 3, 2010 at 1:26pm

Margot - I'm so sorry sorry to hear about Margot. We had a golden retreiver that had double hip surgery at 4 months. We could have held off but since it was so severe, 4 different vets told us that the pain would get so bad she probably wouldn't be able to walk by 6-8 months of age and was already in pretty bad pain. We also had two very wild dobies at the time. So we set up an X-Pen in a corner of our family room and put her crate in the x-pen along with a tray for food and water. It was hard but, trust me, Margot won't feel like being crazy for the first few weeks after surgery. We both worked so we had to rush home (30 miles round trip) everyday at lunch time to take her outside for potty using a support for her newly fixed hips. Samantha lived a pain free life for 12 years and did a great job in training Rozee our oldest Doodle. Best of luck to you. I'd love to hear follow-up from you.

Comment by Maridith Woodward on January 9, 2010 at 1:42pm

Margot just turned 1 year old on Christmas Day and she has been diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia. She is too young for hip replacement surgery, but I would like to get an idea of what we can expect. I know they can only do 1 hip at a time which will extend the recovery to 3-4 months. We were offered another surgery for younger puppies, but declined. I have a 4 year old daughter and Margot is still so active. I couldn't imagine keeping the two apart and Margot crated or on a leash for 4 months right now. I'd appreciate any info or advice anyone might have.

Comment by Debbie and Toby on November 16, 2009 at 5:23am

Toby has just been diagnosed with epilepsy. Had seizures Friday and Saturday. Normally been very healthy, no issues. Is on phenobarbitol now since Saturday. We switched his food to Orijen 6 fish formula the beginning of October. He started having what we thought was anxiety in October, but now it appears they were the same symptoms as mild seizures without the convulsions. Now we wonder if he has an intolerance for high fish protein, as we were asked were their any recent changes in his health or diet. It's probably not food related, but has anyone had this happen after changing their diet? Does anyone know if high protein food could be related? Any help or suggestions would be very welcome.

Comment by Heather on June 17, 2009 at 6:11pm

Maya has been getting accupuncture since last Nov for her seizures she had back then. She only had 2 so I am not sure if the accupuncture is helping or if My's seizures were a fluke thing.

Comment by Fozzy G on June 17, 2009 at 5:07pm

I'm an acupuncture student, and I would most definitely say dogs respond very well- but you have to keep up with it. Good Luck and can't wait to hear on the progress!

Comment by Mary on June 17, 2009 at 4:45pm

anyone getting acupuncture for seizures for their doodle? Toni just started this week.

Comment by Andy & Sharon (Boomer, Shayna and Mariner) on January 9, 2009 at 1:00pm

Just reading through some discussions, it seems to me that some of our dogs have a "primary" special need and "secondary" special needs. Mariner is a good example - right now his primary special need is his seizures and secondary is his sight problem. This has changed since we first got him as his sight has improved drastically (or he has adapted extremely well) and his seizure have become more of an issue.

Can we also have a discussion about how the special needs have affected their behavior and personalities?

Comment by Andy & Sharon (Boomer, Shayna and Mariner) on October 31, 2008 at 2:36pm

Mariner has been with us a year this weekend. It is hard to imagine what t was like before he came into our lives.

It has been amazing to watch him develop and overcome his difficulties.

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