Whats Wrong With Copley

Who knows?  We have been to two vets and had a few tests to see what has been going on with him.  You can read about his epic hike where he refused to walk here.

We learned a few things.  First is that he does not have amazing hips (shocking that a vet would finally agree with me after I have been saying this for years).  The orthopedic surgeon does not think they are currently causing him any problems.  Apparently they do not look too bad and he has good range of motion.  So while not helping with any current problems we have learned that I was totally right that Copley is going to have some arthritis problems in his hind end when he gets older (I hope much older).

Second thing we learned is that he has knee pain in one knee.  Everyone agrees this is probably causing his problems.  It could be an auto-immune disease attacking his joints, or it could be a partial tare of his CCL, or it could be something else.

Whats our course of action?  We are resting him by not letting him run or jump and only taking short walks on leash (not that we took off-leash walks anyway).  He is on a pain killer and anti-inflammatory drug which seems to be helping.  In two weeks we will gradually resume normal activity and take him off the drugs.  If he still has pain we will test for the auto-immune issue.

The vets are all telling me it is extremely unlikely for a dog that small to partially tear a CCL.  I tell those vets that a lot of unlikely things happen in my life.

In the meanwhile Copley is doing good resting and has even learned to wait for me to pick him up onto the couch (what a smarty pants).  Our biggest problem is that when Ben gets home he rough houses, chases him and wrestles with him.  Spending all day carefully stopping your dog from doing anything only to find your husband roughhousing with him while you are not looking is a little but more than infuriating.