Kona Blues

Poor Kona.

As many of you may know, Kona had developed a chronic limp whenever she would run at the park, which was at least once, mostly two times a week back in Petaluma.  Then she'd spend the other 5 days of the week pretty much laying around the house and playing with Ami.  Since we've been here in Maui, we've been getting out to the beach 5 or 6 times a week.  Lots of running, ball chasing, surf crashing... and her limp just got worse and worse.

We finally got her to a vet here.  After hearing our saga, performing an osteopathic examination which allowed him to zero in with a very specific x-ray, he was able to identify the problem and provide a treatment option.

Apparently, in her front left leg, her ulnar bone is slightly longer than the radius, which is causing pressure and pain on the elbow joint.  All the exercise has exacerbated the condition, inflaming the joint.  So she was given some heavy duty anti-inflammatory meds and has to start a new Rx (and, needless to say, expensive) food.  But the hardest part (so far) is that she is on what we are calling "bed rest."  We're supposed to keep her off her leg as much as we can - no running, no jumping, very little walking.  Ideally, confined to a small area where she can pretty much only stand up, turn around and lay down and then out for potty breaks, but always on a leash and not more than 20-30 feet of walking.  "No free roaming."

Poor Kona!

Even tho we are constantly telling her what a good girl she is, we think she thinks she's being punished for something.  We keep telling her to lie down & stay.  We go out for pee brakes, she's on leash and Ami is not.  Ami, as you can perhaps imagine, needs to go out and do something every day.  So one of us leaves with her, the other stays home with Kona, who cries and doesn't understand.  It's kind of heartbreaking.  And this is only day 3.   The initial recommendation from the vet was 4-6 weeks of this kind of restriction. 

Poor, poor Kona!

Apparently with this kind of condition there is a good chance that rest and time may solve the problem.  If not, there is a surgical intervention -cutting a small section out of the ulna to shorten it.  But that has lots of other daunting ramifications - even longer recovery time (8-12 weeks of strictly limited activity), risk of infections or mis-healing - not to mention the cost.  We're not at all sure this would be a viable option for us.

Yikes.

So we are trying to do this right now, as hard as it is on Kona (and Ami, and us).  Hoping this is one of those short-term pain things that will pay off in the long run. 

Poor Kona.  Please send soothing, healing thoughts her way.....