L and M Ranch

My vet isn't against surgery at all it's just his way of saying that when dogs are recovering from it don't forget that they have been through trauma. Treat them as such during recovery. I am using therapeutic ultrasound on him now as well. Twice a day along with the flexibility exercises. He seems better today than he did yesterday. He seemed more sore yesterday than Friday which I would guess normal as I'm usually the same way after a visit to the chiropractor. Thanks.

Thanks everyone! We'll keep a close eye on him and if this isn't working we'll explore the surgery route. Would be nice if he didn't have to go through that though! My vet always says surgery is basically controlled trauma.

Thought I would give everyone an update on Jag. I took him to WY yesterday and had a chiropractor/massage therapist work on him. She found a spot right between his shoulder blades where he was completely out. She was able to get it back in with some work. He was so sore there that he would fall over on his side if we touched right on that spot after she worked on it. Within 30 minutes or so though he was starting to put weight on the left leg again. It's going to take some time to get the muscle to build back up in his shoulder but as long as we can keep it from popping back out he should heal. I have some "exercises" to do with him several time a day to help with that though. This morning he was already trying to lope while putting weight on it. He still has a pronounced limp and he's on restricted activity for quite awhile but I'm excited to be headed in the right direction finally! Thanks.

Thanks Sue. Was Celt able to put much weight on it once he "warmed up"? Jag has been on Rimadyl for over 3 weeks now. I have taken him off a couple of times and didn't see much of a difference in him but my vet felt it would help him anyway. Now that he's on Adequan I'm cutting the dosage way down. He is putting a little weight on it now which is an improvement but still carries it up and out the side a bit if he's going faster than a walk. It's just hard not knowing if we're headed in the right direction with him or not.

How long after tick season would signs of TBD show up? We had one of the coolest summer's on record and only had ticks for the month of June and he was on Frontline. Is it a blood test? Nancy, what made you decide to try surgery on both dogs? Did the xrays show any bone chips in the joint? Laura, can you email me some suggestions for chiro's as I'm not finding anyone up here. Thanks! lmhicks@gwtc.net We got the report back from Kansas State University on the xrays. They saw just what my vet did. Some extra bone growth on the back of the humeral head of the left shoulder (basically a bone spur) but didn't feel that should cause pain as there weren't any chips and the joint looks great otherwise. No OCD type of lesions of any kind. They recommend going with an ultrasound now to check for soft tissue injuries. My vet suggests giving him another two weeks with the Adequan and see if we have anymore improvement with that before going to CSU. It is proving to be really hard for me wait this out as I HATE seeing him in pain. Also, I have him in the house and just out for short walks (off leash but by himself). He seems worse after he's been laying around for awhile and kind of "warms up" once he's been moving. Thanks.

Thanks everyone! I'm going to start him on Adequan today as it can't really do any harm and will most likely do him some good at least somewhere in his body. I live in a very rural area and don't know anyone that does dog sports to ask about a Chiropractor. I tried to google one for Rapid City (our closest big city) and have had no luck. Any suggestions? I'm sure I can find one in Denver but that's 6 hours away and would be tough to get there very regular. I'll look though as it may be the only option for my area. Thanks, Laura

Hello everyone. I have a 7 year old male that has become very lame in the last month. Grade 5 on a scale of 1 to 5. It has progressively gotten worse since Christmas. He was helping move some calves from one pen to another and went to jump a feedbunk (from on top of a snowdrift) and pile drove into it. It wasn't a pretty sight. He seemed fine almost immediately though. The only thing I could find was a split toe nail. There was some redness with that for a few days so I put him on antibiotics. That got better. Within about a week and a half of hitting the feedbunk he went from a slight head bob to three legged lame. We've done xrays and they are being sent off to Kansas State for further evaluation as my local vet said he's only finding a bone spur on the back of the left shoulder head. Really didn't think it would cause this level of pain in this dog. (We call him the energizer bunny because nothing slows him down!) Does anyone know if bone spurs could come on this quickly and cause this much pain? His shoulder joint looks great mechanically so vet doesn't think it's a case of wear and tear but trauma. Doesn't surprise me with Jag! I'm contemplating putting him on Adeqan while we wait for the University to get back to us. Any thougths on this? Thanks for any help.

The updates from the finals (scores and blogs) are so much fun. Thanks to all that are doing this for those of us who couldn't be there!

The entry form for the L & M Sheepdog trial on July 16th and 17th is now on our website (www.lmstockdogs.com). We will also be adding the entry form for the Silver Spring SDT on July 18th and 19th at Union Center, SD in the next week as well. If you have any questions or have trouble getting it to open please contact me at lmhicks@gwtc.net .

It's been a tough winter to get many pictures. The weather has really warmed up and we've melted some snow off though so will try to get some new ones in the next week or so. I don't know anyone real close to Custer that could help but there are several us within a couple of hours of there if you'd like some help. Most of us that train in the area will be running next Monday. Look me up while your there and I'll do my best to get you headed in the right direction.

I'll be running there as well as my son, Dustin. It's a lot of fun. It usually starts first thing in the morning but not starting until 1 this year. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. My guard dogs aren't leash broke and I only have one that I can catch easily. Although my youngest son doesn't seem to have any trouble getting any of them to come to him! They aren't ever near the house really as the sheep aren't pastured real close to the house/kennels. He's never been attacked or even really "played" with by the GD's so not sure where he's nervousness with them is coming from honestly. As soon as we get some of the fall cattle work out of the way I'll try bringing some ewes in and hopefully I can get my older GD to come along. I'll try putting them in my "round" corral so no one can escape. I may even just take a good book and hang out there for awhile before I try working. Thanks again!

Hello everyone. I have a really nice year and a half old male who is tons of fun to train. He has one big issue though. He's VERY worried about the guard dogs if they're right with the sheep. When I started him last winter I used my goats and some feeder lambs in a smaller area near the house. So the guard dogs aren't ever there. This is how I generally start all of my pups by the way. I started taking him out to the pasture to help this summer. He's absolutely stellar as long as he knows where the guard dogs are and they aren't right on the backside of sheep when he's trying to move them. He'll work around them but speeds up to blow by them or will try to go the wrong direction to avoid them. I kept thinking time would just "fix it" but it doesn't seem to be. My guard dogs have never been mean to him at all. They can be a bit playful but they seem to read in him that he's nervous and actually leave him alone. He doesn't have this fear of other breeds of dogs that are unfamiliar. Anyway, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Congrats Robin. Looks like Bev had a great weekend as well.

This is just super you guys! Thanks so much for the support towards the finals. If you have any questions, just holler. If you'd like your names listed in the program we really need to have the sponsorship's no later than Thursday of this week. We'll continue to take sponsorship's up to September 5th and names will be announced with "your" team as well as being listed on the website. Also, we give 2 tickets for the entire trial to each sponsorship. So, if your doing it as a group would you please let me know who you want those sent to? Thanks again!