Jasper's diary

[JudyN]

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Jasper and his mini-me mate E:

I thought I knew Jasper inside out, but I saw a new behaviour last week, when E, his 'sister', and my friend L came back for a coffee sitting in the garden in the glorious (but worrying) weather after a walk.

Jasper has never had any problem with other dogs visiting our house (once they've been introduced), as long as they don't approach him when he's on his bed. And apart from one very brief spell in his youth when he didn't like other dogs coming up when I was giving him a treat, he's not shown any jealousy or guarded me on walks. But when E jumped up on the bench next to me, J immediately stuck his nose in between us and was a bit agitated, sniffing E as if they'd never met before. It was pretty low key, and L hadn't noticed, but it was enough for me to suggest she stop petting J... I encouraged J to move away and encouraged E off the bench, and all was fine again.

A little later when I was standing on the patio, E jumped up on my leg to say hello and J was there again, sniffing E's nether regions and shoving his nose in between us. He then looked like he was thinking of humping E. Again, it was all defused easily, and I was proud of J that he hadn't got more grouchy. It was more of an 'Excuse me, E, what do you think you're doing?'

I don't think we've ever had a small dog, of the type/size to jump up on the bench or on me, over before, so I guess it was a new thing for J. Every day is a school day!

 

[JudyN]

Because of my stupid knee, I've had a couple of friends come round here to go for short walks and then come back for coffee and cake. Now, if I say to J 'We can't go yet, we've got to wait for a friend,' he goes to look out the front window, and howls and yowls. I can't decide if he's incredibly clever or just plain ridiculous

 

[JudyN]

Jasper was such a good boy today...

We visited the Post Office, which he loves as they give him gravy bones. Then we had a wander round a churchyard and he decided to lie down and chill for a bit, which was just fine by me. Then a big black cat wandered across the garden and sat down to look at us....

I'm still incapacitated with my dodgy knee, so getting up from the ground/floor is... interesting. I really didn't fancy struggling to get up, which might trigger him to lunge at the cat, as I can only hold him if I have a very secure footing. But if the cat stayed there much longer, J's brain cells were going to spontaneously combust. Luckily, I was armed with liver pate, and smelling that, J decided to pay attention to me saying 'Not for you' (a phrase that sort of evolved and he understands). The cat wandered off (phew!) and with liver cake held under his nose, I managed to get up (think Twister) and lead him away. He really showed awesome self-control, so got every bit of liver pate I had

 

[JoanneF]

How is his corn? Any change? Shame your knee isn't improving

 

[JudyN]

His corn's pretty much the same. I've neglected it a bit recently, to be honest. But it's not causing him too much of a problem - he limps on hard ground, though it's not bad enough to discourage him from wanting to walk a long way, and he's fine on grass or paths in the woods/park. Would help if he wasn't so grumpy about foot handling, and if he'd consider wearing boots!

The knee is getting better, but veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly. And it's had a relapse which is my own silly fault for trying to garden in the awkward spot behind the pond yesterday, defrosting and sorting the freezer, and then dealing with a delivery of a month's worth of frozen raw dog food this morning. And my tummy is getting flatter from all the exercises I'm doing. Who cares about a bad knee if my tummy's flatter?

 

[JudyN]

When you try to train your dog to tidy up his tennis balls and you inadvertently teach something else...

He thought of this all on his own, probably having a flashback to years ago when we would play 101 Uses for a Box. I'm now wondering about building on this - adding a cue, maybe even seeing if he can learn to stand in a bowl of water - which might be useful for washing feet... or something. I'd love to progress to a paddling pool for when it's really hot, but when I've tried before he's found them really scary with any amount of water. (Ponds and puddles are fine.)

BTW, I don't think the licking is anxiety - or if it is, it was because I'd asked him to wait while I took the photo and he was wondering how long he'd have to stand in a bucket for.

He can tidy up his tennis balls, but after he's done one it all goes wrong, and he'll drop them outside the bucket, or take one out of the bucket and drop it outside, or find something more interesting to do like stand in the bucket!

 

[Violet Turner]

Aww bless him he is so cute

 

[JudyN]

Muuuum, I'm bored, come into the garden and plaaaaayyy...

Cue a happy ten minutes with the ball chucker. I wouldn't say my aim is bad, and I wouldn't say my garden is overgrown, but I've bought 36 tennis balls over the last few weeks and I'm down to eleven. How can that be possible?

Muuuum, it's walk time!

So I get all togged up, open the door, ask him to come & have his lead on... and he just looks at me. Cajoling doesn't help, so I come back in again.

Muuuum, let's go into the garden...

OK, a bit more play then. Never mind that I am suffering from ball-chucker's shoulder. But no, Jasper just flops onto the grass, closes his eyes, and settles down for a snooze while I take the opportunity to do some overdue poo-picking.

Does anyone else's dog like sunbathing in the garden but insist that you come too? The back door's been open most of the day but he won't go out there on his own. At least it shows he likes my company

 

[BEF]

Sounds v

Does anyone else's dog like sunbathing in the garden but insist that you come too? The back door's been open most of the day but he won't go out there on his own. At least it shows he likes my company

Sounds very familiar, Whisper will only go outside if one of her humans is out there.

 

[Ari_RR]

We don’t let Baby Miles out by himself, because we don’t have a fence. But certainly on hot days he is very much into tricking someone out to the back to play flirt-pole with him only to flop on the grass and lay there.

Which we don’t like at all - he gets bitten by tiny insects living in that grass, but once he lays down - there is no moving him, and so someone has to lift him up and carry him back to the deck. He is about 72-73 lbs now....33 kg.

Sometimes I wonder, maybe having a carryable dog is not such a bad idea after all

 

[JoanneF]

Sometimes I wonder, maybe having a carryable dog is not such a bad idea

It wasn't for carrying, but we have a motorhome that we use a lot, so size mattered. A lot.

 

[JudyN]

And there was me hoping that today I would get my Magic Injection and my knee would suddenly return to normal... Instead the consultant thinks it may have something entirely different wrong with it which may need keyhole surgery so has referred me for an urgent MRI (I had to reassure that it wasn't urgent in the sense that CPR is urgent, but was just because it's been going on for so long).

That's four different diagnoses I've had now: bursitis, tendonitis, Hoffa's fat pad impingement, and a torn meniscus And, as a result, been told twice that the exercises I've been doing may be doing more harm than good.

Sorry Jasper, you're going to have to put up with doggy-daddy walks a bit longer

 

[JoanneF]

Given that it is what it is (whatever that may be) I bet you are hoping it's

Hoffa's fat pad impingement

because that's so much fun to say.

Seriously, I hope they get to the cause soon, and you can start walking easily again.

 

[Mad Murphy]

OMG I can't believe you are still waiting for a diagnosis I would be .
Quite apart form the extra damage to your body theres the sheer waste of time and money its costing each time you get shipped off to another doctor or department.

I hope it gets sorted soon..

 

[JudyN]

I'm not sure if I've had rubbish diagnoses or just have a rubbish knee! Part of the delay is that they would rather treat it conservatively if they can - having just read the possible side-effects of keyhole knee surgery (and foolishly looked at the images ), it's got to be better to rely on the body's natural healing processes alongside rest, exercise, etc., but you do have to then give that plenty of time to work (particularly when you're of a certain age...).

I'm really not sure what the point of the X ray I had a few weeks ago was though, as it seems it neither ruled in nor out the condition they thought I had back then - the consultant reckons there's 40% chance I have that (Hoffa's) and 60% chance torn meniscus. I should open a book and start taking bets!

 

[JudyN]

Given that it is what it is (whatever that may be) I bet you are hoping it's because that's so much fun to say.

Not half as much fun as 'anterofrontal tibial plateau depression with bone oedema' which, according to the letter the consultant sent my doctor and copied me in, there was a slight suspicion of in the X ray. It's just as well it wasn't that though because I'd never remember it!

But I found out this afternoon that I have a torn meniscus and need keyhole surgery. So much for all those months working on fixing the wrong thing, particularly trying to get my leg to straighten out when it had a bit of torn meniscus stopping it as effectively as a door wedge

Guesstimate of 3-4 months wait for the op, unless I can have a cancellation - which are quite common over the summer as apparently some people would rather go on holiday than get their knee fixed

 

[JoanneF]

Not half as much fun as 'anterofrontal tibial plateau depression with bone oedema' which, according to the letter the consultant sent my doctor and copied me in, there was a slight suspicion of in the X ray. It's just as well it wasn't that though because I'd never remember it!

But I found out this afternoon that I have a torn meniscus and need keyhole surgery. So much for all those months working on fixing the wrong thing, particularly trying to get my leg to straighten out when it had a bit of torn meniscus stopping it as effectively as a door wedge

Guesstimate of 3-4 months wait for the op, unless I can have a cancellation - which are quite common over the summer as apparently some people would rather go on holiday than get their knee fixed

Fingers crossed for a cancellation then. Then legs crossed just because you can.

 

[Mad Murphy]

Wow , hopefully it will now get treated soon..
On the upside OH had the same and had the keyhole surgery 10 years ago hes 62 now (as of yesterday) and we often walk 10km per day without problems. Hope that gives you a little hope of lovely future walks with Jasper.

 

[JudyN]

Thanks @Mad Murphy , that's good to know

 

[JudyN]

Sigh. The last few nights when we've let Jasper out for bedtime wees, he's belted down the garden like a stone out of a catapult, and then spent half an hour or more barking at whatever needs barking at down the end of the garden. Calling 'sausage' usually gets him in eventually, but he gets so worked up and I don't want to overuse it. When he does finally come in, he's well pumped up and often wants to go straight out again, which of course we don't let him do.

It's not helping the cut on his toe, as bouncing around the rough bit of ground down the end often opens it up again (he's already knocked down a border edging made from a few rows of bricks).

Last night he was out there for almost an hour... So tonight, I'm going to take drastic measures and once it's dark, will only let him out into the small side bit of garden, enclosed by a bit of puppy playpen. I can foresee strong complaints and a lot of dirty looks and whingeing later!

Otherwise the cut on his toe is doing OK - it doesn't look swollen any more, there's no sign of infection, and I'm sure it would heal over if he'd just stop doing bat out of hell impersonations.