Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Unfortunately things don't always go as planned. Tani has been on rest from agility (and many other activities) for 4 months now, she gained a lot of weight and lost practically all of her muscles mass. I was really excited when I was told that she could start training again and those few tunnels meant a World to both of us.
I cannot describe the pain in my heart when she cooled down after training and the little leg that we put so much effort in was in the air again. I think I just cried for ages. In the back of my mind I feared that this would happen all along.
We went to another orthopedist and did all exams again. Everything looked fine, he found that she was just a bit sore and attributed it to a spasm or soreness after training - or that she remembers the pain. We ruled out all the really scary possibilities again - patella, cruciate ligaments, everything that came to mind. So he suggested trying another training to see if it happens again.
After this training (which was literally 30 seconds of running between tunnels to a static toy) I decided to do some proprioceptive excercises as a part of her cool down routine, just to help her if the problem was really in her head. She changed her striding in ladder walk two times in the beginning, but afterwards she was fine and after that training she didn't limp.
Then a few days ago I went to EO to support my friends who were running there. And I figured I'd take Tani with me and hope to have her checked by a therapist who was working there. And that was a really good decisision. She checked her very thoroughly and find that a lumbar vertebrae was slightly out of line. This can be a result of compensation for the injury she had in tran. abdom. muscle (shifting weight on one side all the time) or something that could have happened at the same time as it was almost on the same spot. Anyway, she was able to fix it and she said she would expect her to feel a lot better in 3 days.
I observed a huge difference in Tani since we did this. She looks 10 years younger! She is running around bringing toys, her movement is light and elastic, I think I almost forgot what it looks like. I am very hopeful that this is all now and that she can finally be healthy again.
I am writing this because I wanted to point out: if you ever, God forbids, have a dog that is injured - get a proper diagnosis, without that everything you do is not going to help! Don't be afraid to ask around, best results can be obtained if several specialists work together (I so wish we had a clinic where we could work with a manual therapist, hydrotherapist, chiropractor and maybe acupuncture specialist together). Unfortunately it is not possible in Slovenia but well, that's why we seeked advice abroad.
Huge thanks to all 7 specialists who are/were working on our case, specially to Tace Allen-Hunt and Helena Potfajova. I really hope that all goes smoothly from now. Whatever happens I know one thing: I will never give up on Tani!
