ANOTHER SETBACK...AGAIN

Marley has had recurrent front leg lameness intermittenly for a little over a year. It started with a sprained leg in Dec. 2011. After that, every few months Marley would become lame, limping with a front leg. Sometimes the limping was so severe she would hold the leg up and refuse to put weight on it. It seemed like it always occured on the weekend, so I would give her Rimadyl and watch her. Then usually by a day or so she would be fine. I've taken her into the vet a few times and they would do Xrays and say she sprained a toe.

A few weeks ago, she was having an accu/chiro treatment and the vet looked at her toe and noticed it was swollen. She thought it was broken so we went to get Xrays. Same old, same old. No break, just a toe sprain.

I went to another vet a week or so before the Shreveport trial. She felt Marley was suffering from a neck strain and prescribed steroids and muscle relaxers. Plus rest. I took Marley to Shreveport anyway because she was acting like Marley. She did great on Friday. Ran 2 clean runs. Saturday morning we noticed Marley seemed tired, a little off. I ran her in JWW and she was clean but a little slow for her. During her standard run, she just didn't want to run. Was slow off the start line. I noticed she started limping after the A-frame. I pulled her from the trial. I talked to the vet and she advised me to start her back on the steroids and muscle relaxers.

We went back to the vet on Thursday and the vet feels her neck strain is better and wants us to continue with her current therapy. She goes back in a week or so for some Xrays. Poor Marley is so good with being rested. She wants to go out to play so bad, but she is content just looking out the window....for now. I know she's starting to get a little stir crazy. Today she got on the treadmill and stood there. I turned it on for a few minutes and I think she was seriously disappointed when I turned it off.

I had entered Marley in Memphis in April. I pulled her entry and hope that she will be able to at least run agility for fun in a few months. I just want Marley to be ok, to be healthy. Hopefully, it's just a setback and Marley will bounce back as she always does.