Springer Spaniel problem

Proc

Sorry to bump an old thread.

Just thought I'd say that Archie has been doing absolutely fine. He had a couple of operations to repair a joint, had some medication and within 4 months he was back to almost normal self. No problems doing half-marathons with the missus, or days out chasing me around on my quad bike.

Things were going great anyway until about 6 weeks ago. We were up at Eastnor park and there had been the Big Chill festival the weekend before. A lot of the park had machinery etc there packing up so we went to the furthest lake that was quiet. I threw his ball into the lake, he jumped in and landed on a large boulder just under the surface of the water. A few very loud yelps so I jumped in to pull him out.

I could see straight away his leg was broken. So, we rang the emergency vet (it was a Sunday) and they met us at the surgery. Half an hour later X-Rays confirmed that his elbow joint is badly broken and required specialist skills. They gave him some real strong medication to relieve the pain and make him very docile for X-Rays. He just lay there motionless but every time I spoke his tail would start to wag

So here I am again with a half-bionic extremely expensive pooch. He's recovering well though so hopefully back to normal again soon.

Here he is a couple of weeks ago feeling a little sorry for himself:

lizzyb1812

Thank for the update - shame about the current setback but apart from that he seems to have had an amazing recovery! Well done Archie/you/vet :T

Polmop

Great news on the update, shame about the leg though but that will heal.
Must be costing you a fortune

Proc

Polmop wrote: »

Great news on the update, shame about the leg though but that will heal.
Must be costing you a fortune

Thanks for the kind words both.

Aye he's costing a fortune. Total vet fees over the last 2 years are getting close to £10,000. But when I wake up in the morning and see him stood next to my bed with his face resting on the edge of my pillow just looking at me I know he's worth every penny!

Polmop

Proc wrote: »

Thanks for the kind words both.

Aye he's costing a fortune. Total vet fees over the last 2 years are getting close to £10,000. But when I wake up in the morning and see him stood next to my bed with his face resting on the edge of my pillow just looking at me I know he's worth every penny!

OMG hope you have got a good job

vax2002

What do you feed him on ?
The craze at the moment appears to be dried dog food, which has very little natural oil in, hence why it is dry.
It is made from old bread returned to shops with a few chemicals (vitamins) chucked in.

Springers are in our blood here and they do need a really good diet to avoid joint problems, add some omega3 oil to his food now and again, give him the odd tin of cat food made from oily fish or even better if he will eat it, some boned mackerel or tuna .
These problems in my opinion are getting at dogs a lot earlier and all I have noticed is most I know with a dog with bad joints feeds them oil less dried food.
Even vets try to sell you the stuff, but it is miles away from the dogs natural diet to eat all wheat products full of what we call E numbers and food colouring.
Try him on some fish treats, even if it does not help him out, he will enjoy the good food and after all, they are worth it !

Proc

vax2002 wrote: »

What do you feed him on ?
The craze at the moment appears to be dried dog food, which has very little natural oil in, hence why it is dry.
It is made from old bread returned to shops with a few chemicals (vitamins) chucked in.

Springers are in our blood here and they do need a really good diet to avoid joint problems, add some omega3 oil to his food now and again, give him the odd tin of cat food made from oily fish or even better if he will eat it, some boned mackerel or tuna .
These problems in my opinion are getting at dogs a lot earlier and all I have noticed is most I know with a dog with bad joints feeds them oil less dried food.
Even vets try to sell you the stuff, but it is miles away from the dogs natural diet to eat all wheat products full of what we call E numbers and food colouring.
Try him on some fish treats, even if it does not help him out, he will enjoy the good food and after all, they are worth it !

Cheers for the tips

In all honesty (and I'm probably going to get slaughtered for this) I've never really paid much attention to his diet beyond "this stuff looks good because it's got a picture of a really nice dog on the front". I'm not a fussy feeder which is great because he's definitely not a fussy eater.

I generally give him some dried food mixed in with a tin of wet food. Pretty standard branded stuff. He eats a bit of fish (I eat a lot of tuna so he normally gets a tin once every few days). On top of this he often gets any left over chicken, steak, beef etc from Sunday roasts etc. Sometimes a few vegetables thrown into the mix.

The fact that he's not a fussy eater is really useful when it comes to giving him his tablets. "Here you go Archie what's this?" throw him the tablet and he just eats it.

To be honest his latest accident he could have had bones made of titanium and it would have broke. As soon as he landed I just though "oh sh*t" and still feel absolutely terrible for letting him just jump in without checking it out myself first.

vax2002

The mixed diet will help especially the tuna, dogs are like us, they are what they eat.
They are such silly devils springers , how they land is a second thought and they have the road sense of a motorway pile up.
But would you be without him ?

Proc

vax2002 wrote: »

The mixed diet will help especially the tuna, dogs are like us, they are what they eat.
They are such silly devils springers , how they land is a second thought and they have the road sense of a motorway pile up.
But would you be without him ?

Haha not in a million years. My missus gets extremely jeallous. I'll pick them up from a run and I'll be picking Archie up, stroking him, talking to him loads and basically ignore my partner. She always says "I wish you'd greet me like that!"

vickyj

We have our baby springer Rosie who is now 5 and my husband frequently accuses me of indulging her far more than the children! She looks exactly like your boy with identical facial markings :-)
Springers have this uncanny knac of just being wonderfully childlike bless them. Very happy for u and Archie !!!