What's scary is that the reason he was started on daily rimadyl is because he got overexcited a few times (as in jumping up and down in circles around me for hours) and injured himself. So far, he doesn't appear to have any muscle weakness (he's still an absolute ox) and has full range of motion everywhere but his right knee. I have heard from many people that when a labs back legs start to go, it's pretty much over. When he hurt himself, he fell down and was unable to get himself back up on his own, even with coaxing. It was terrifying, and I called in sick to work and immediately rushed him to the vet (and I work nights). It's happened twice now, he was only seen the first time, the second, we were just told to keep him in the rimadyl indefinitely and that it's just mild arthritis, but it sure doesn't look mild... however, my doc calls mine mild, too, and I know what it feels like to me...
I don't know... I really hope it's just a cough... he's a trained hunter, attack/defense dog, therapy dog, and working on service training (because that's really what he does anyway). And of course, he's family. He's our baby. Our giant little old man puppy. I know that's a lot of oxymorons, but it suits him. He's short and stout (little), weighs at least 20lbs more than his parents from what I know (giant), will be 14 in August (old man), and still spends hours of his day digging gigantic holes, jumping all over the place, is always down for five mile walks and any other adventures we throw at him (he recently learned to love escalators). That last part is the puppy in him. He frequently jumps all over the furniture, etc... he's nuts. I'm planning on putting him in agility courses to burn energy and give him mental stimulation.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk