weekend from hell!

Ever had a weekend where you felt like the gods hated you?

That was a weekend last month

I was so looking forward to relaxing that weekend. Work had been a bitch, this is supposed to be our down time, NOT this year! The weather was going to be horrid, so was going to have one of my rare, quiet weekends. Gossip was away with Kari, so planned on working on finishing taking down my 55 and dealing with my salt water tank, maybe go see a movie.

Saturday morning at 4ish, my roommate knocks on my door telling me her hubby is
worried about Grins. .first thing that went thru my mind was OMG, how'd he
manage to overheat as an indoor dog?

Back story. . 5 yrs ago, Grins suffered a devastating condition called "Monday Morning Disease", or "running
your back off". It is caused (amongst other ways), by over exherting yourself. I thought he was in great shape, thus why I entered the "International Invitational", the premier event for ASFA, not realizing I had a dog who would push himself beyond his body's ability. I learned the hard way that weekend, that I have a dog who is beyond insane for the bunny, and who would not listen to his body when his body said enough. IOW, he runs like a Greyhound. Greyhounds can run themselves to death and I know he will, now.

At that point, I had no clue what kind of disaster I had, as every other dog I'd ran, would pull up if their body said stop.

In going into azoturia, he also caused himself to overheat, resulting in a week at the vet's, and a huge vet bill. Since then, I have been very careful with him in the heat, as he is, even at almost 8, a full speed ahead dog who will race up and down the fence line with his son, even in 90 degree weather, so he gets brought in the house and forced to be sedate.

I knew it was going to be horrid the day before so he became a house dog Friday night. When I went to bed at 10, he was fine, bouncing at the gate, Grinning at me. And next thing i know, I was racing down stairs to find out what was wrong with my dog.

I got to the dog kitchen, and he was sprawled out, stiff, head cocked sideways, legs straight out in front of him. Afraid he was seizuring, I did not touch him. A dog who's in the midst of a seizure can bite you, not meaning to, even the best behaved dog in the world, and so I was not going to put myself in danger. I knelt near his head, called his name, he wagged his tail. . ok, not a seizure.

Put a leash on him and tried to get him up, and this is where he scared me to death, he started spinning, like an alligator death roll. We got him calmed down, which he did almost immediately after I touched him and decided to get him to the ER, and ran to change clothes. When I came back down(no longer than 5 mins), he was up on his own, head tilted slightly, wagging his tail, leaning against Jim.

We put a harness on him, and rushed him to the vet, where after a thorough exam, a chem screen, cbc, tick panel, heartworm test, he was diganosed with more than likely having 'veteran vestibular disease'. . in fact, as they walked him away from me, the vet says he's normal, I said I know, but you should've seen him 45 mins ago.

When he gave me a grin coming back to me, I knew he was better. All signs of the incident were gone

The thought is he tried to get up, and when he couldn't, he panicked, and thus the rolling as he kept trying to get up, when hsi body failed to do as he wanted, he tried to get up, and it became a nasty circle. He's a muscular, active dog, while a dog not in as good of shape as him probably could not've done what he did. It was over and done with in about 20 mins, with the only residual affects is being very sore from slamming into the door frame.

A vet friend told us Vestibular disease that it's more common in the hotter months in his experience, and this has been one hot damn August.

We are keeping him in the house, not just the dog kitchen, he's behind me in an xpen right now. . .we are watching him closely, but he's back to normal antics. While it's hot, he will not be allowed outside unsupervised, and unfortunately, his time out unsupervised is going to be totally curtailed. Pack behaviour can be sparked by something like this, thankfully his old dog compatriots all ignored him. . .but if he'd been in a pen with a bunch of punky young dogs, he could've been hurt. Or worse.

It's hard to think of Grins as a veteran. . .but he is. . .from what I've learned, sometimes it never reoccurs, and I'm hoping he's that way. It was damn scary. . .

Then Sunday morning, got woke up at 5:30 by everything in my room shutting off. . 1800 customers, not even all in the same area of Baltimore, without electricity. . it's too damn hot for this crap, especially with two dogs we're watching closely(Grins' aunt is sick). Thankfully it only lasted 4 hrs, but omg, I was never so happy to jump in the shower and wash grime off of me as I was today.

The light at the end of the really bad weekend is that Gossip picked up another point under Virginia Lyne, who really really complimented her. Since Kari camped out in horridly crappy weather, including a tornado watch, 60 mph winds, i'm glad something good came otu of it.

Thankfully, the following weekend was nice, and calm, a beautiful practice with Gibbs & babies, and RELAXING. The heat broke last weekend(but it's making up for it this weekend).

First racemeet of the season this weekend, coursing next weekend & a show! Going to be busy!