Great news CJ , very happy to hear Vince is showing some good signs !
Best wishes for continued recovery!

 Quote: Betty Waldron

Baby steps all in the right direction!

YESSSSS!

Glad that you are seeing some good changes.

Pred. side effects, at least for humans, is restlessnes & often sleeplessness. Not sure if it is exactly the same for dogs.

Great drug is you want to stay up & clean the house at 2 in the am. :-) I've been on it in higher doses for allergic reactions & it has kept me moving at odd hours.

That’s really interesting Anne. I'm sure he'd have cleaned out that toy box had I opened it. I'll have to think of something constructive for him to do should we experience that again.

We've had a very welcome break in our weather and spent the majority of yesterday outdoors. Went about half way into one of our flatter 3 hour treks which ended up around 2 hours at a much slower pace, taking a couple of breaks along the way.

He almost looked normal for a few minutes and Bob said I think we're getting our boy back. He really wants to move though so we just played it by ear as we kept going. His back was a little roached and his movement was quite "floppy" or "trompsy", hard to explain, but he just doesn't quite have complete feeling back there yet and seems to be using other muscles.

I can't believe how reactive I was though. Carefully avoiding any of the icier spots, thinking he may slip and fall. He didn't and it was all good. Boy did he sleep good last night.

It was such a great day though and has really given me a renewed appreciation for those small things that we so often take for granted. A simple hike like that and there was so much more to take into consideration and even more that I was just so thankful for.

Yup, these things definitely happen for a reason.

This is wonderful improvement to read!

Connie, this is his fourth day on the higher dose. Another full dose tomorrow too and then down to one the next morning and five mornings after that. I just can't believe how fast this stuff is reacting.

There hasn't been much decrease in this head shaking though. Could he just be sensitive to what's going on in there? It seems worse than it was when I initially asked my vet to look at it.

And I was wondering about this cold and wind maybe getting in there? He's very prick eared, they're almost always straight up and our wind chills have been pretty nasty.

Any thoughts on this?

A week ago:

 Quote: CJ Barrett

On top of all this, he'd been doing a bit head shaking so I asked the vet to check his ears. He had a grass seed lodged deep in the left canal. The vet said he'd have to put him to under in order to get it out. Said he had to go deep in the canal with a metal tool and there could be no movement. It's not infected and he didn’t see any immediate problem allowing me some time to think about it. ...

Today:

 Quote: CJ Barrett

... There hasn't been much decrease in this head shaking though. Could he just be sensitive to what's going on in there? It seems worse than it was when I initially asked my vet to look at it.

I would call the vet tomorrow.

Good advise Connie, thank you. And it was these two things in particular as to why I've been kind of holding off.

 Quote: CJ Barrett

They took x-rays and removed the grass seed from his ear. However, she said it was so deep she ended up puncturing the ear drum. Said it should completely heal within about 2 weeks but in the mean time nothing is to get into his ears. No drops, no swimming.

And this was last Wednesday:

 Quote: CJ Barrett

We talked about a few other things; specifically he’s doing a lot head shaking and the ear with the punctured drum is sagging quite a bit, not all the time just droopy once in a while. She grabbed at a few straws but wasn’t sure what would be causing this.

She didn't really seem to know why he would be doing this. Said it should be cleared up in two weeks. Maybe I should just give him another week.

I would probably call because of the perceived worsening.

Meanwhile I'd probably look inside for now with my flashlight (and also sniff) and reassure myself that I see no inflammation down there, smell nothing, see no reaction to my manipulating the ear flap to look and touching the side of his head, etc.


All JMO. I have ear-infection obsession.

LOL.. you're just the best. I went and did a little look and smell and felt around for sensitivity. Came back to give you my results and was going to complain how difficult it was to see down his huge ears...and there’s the flashlight. OMG can you ever see a lot more with a flashlight.

But no, I see nothing and smell nothing. He actually smells really fresh. Stuck my nose right in there and he had no problems with me flipping the flap back.

He may be feeling some healing that might be causing him to shake. I'll give it a couple more days maybe and see if it doesn’t decrease.

It's not all the time and his paws aren't going anywhere near it. It's just he will look right at me and do it. Quite purposeful, 4 or 5 times a day.