Good News Re Magic

Thanks again to everyone who has pm'd, emailed etc.

Well, there is good news on Magic. He went to see Kieran yesterday and extensive x-rays and shoulder fluids were taken. We've not yet got the results of the shoulder fluids yet. However what the extensive x-rays show is that nothing has broken, even in the wrist area. He is however in a great deal of pain.

Marushka, the sports physio came round with the vet this morning and she feels that it is the nerves that go from the neck to the shoulder that are bruised and there is impact on the wrist area due to this. IE very similar to whiplash. So she has started a course of magnetic and laser therapy and given me various exercises to do with the shoulder and a cold pack.

Subject to a further assessment and ongoing monitoring we anticipate Magic will return to his sporting hobbies after about a month.

Meanwhile the baby rhino, Smartie, got taken to puppy flyball training. He has such a herdy eye he gets quickly distracted and obsessive by dogs moving around him, so Michelle thought we should start doing some age appropriate training in these conditions to sort out this problem now. Jordan handled him and we had the second team in one lane with netting while Smartie used the other lane to run and fetch a ball and do a recall without keeping a collie eye on the other dogs. It was a great success as he soon started to focus on what he had to do and stopped eyeing and trying to chase the dogs in the other lane. He watched the rest of the training without lunging at the dogs running up and down and is a lot calmer around other animals. I'll start doing some pre-agility puppy training as he seems to benefit from doing a little more than obedience.

Magic Update

Thanks to all of you for your messages, emails, PMs etc. Here's an update.

I took Magic to see Kieran, the orthopaedic vet yesterday. I know Kieran really well as he reconstructed my cats paws when they were crushed and she has become one of his lecture case studies! The cat that would never walk again now climbs trees, jumps walls, catches mice but all her digits were reconstructed and pinned.

Kieran did an examination of Magic before talking to me or looking at the emergency vets x rays - he always likes to talk to the animal first. He confirmed that Magic's shoulder is very painful and there is a great deal of trauma. The x rays taken by the emergency vet don't show a fracture but I could tell he wasn't impressed by them at all and she didn't take shoulder fluids. What he discovered doing this examination is that it is the wrist area that is the cause of the problem. Interesting as just before we went Magic was lying beside me on the chaise lounge and I was doing Tellington Touch. I noticed when he was very relaxed that I could move his shoulder but when I touched his pads this was very painful.

So poor little Magic has to have more x rays on Weds. I don't want this but I feel and he feels better to know exactly what this is rather than treat the symptoms and return him to sport with a problem that we haven't discovered.

I am really annoyed as the emergency vet cost more than my caravan and we need to
redo the shoulder x rays and do the wrist. Why the lower leg was not done as procedure I do not know. So he is booked in with Kieran on Wednesday. He's off to Marushka, the physio this afternoon.

Please continue with positive thoughts. Magic is on very high pain relief but still wagging his cockerish tail and playing with his toys.I feel just awful.

Vicki took these lovely photos of Magic on Sunday. It wasn't one of his winning rounds but it does how the form he had that day. Please let our talented little dog carry on doing what he loved.

UKA Thatcham Success and Devastation

We were at UKA Thatcham this weekend. Due to mug not being able to tow the caravan and it needing to be serviced, I decided to commute to Mapledurham for the 3 days of the show.

I was determined to use the show to get Jordan and Magic running as they were before Crufts as both seem to have lost confidence in each other. The show started off disastrously. Day parking is behind some trees and you can't see the rings. Toilets are quite some way away. You can't exercise the cockers near the river.... So the first day we missed 2 runs and 3 course walks. We've only ever done this at big KC shows like Thames. In the end the show sec said best to park by the rings. Problem solved.

We started off with some training runs and then for real in the steeplechase. Magic ran really well but stopped to do an archaeological dig for a treat from a previous show but Jordan got him to carry on. Unbelievable he was 2nd - only 6 seconds behind Nancy Hudson's impressive, technically perfect and fast round. If Magic hadn't stopped he might have beaten that round!!!!! It was then that the penny dropped with Jordan - that Magic is a very fast little dog, who covers a lot of ground in his long stride, who is also very accurate and at home in tricky courses and fast flowing courses. The only thing is keeping him going by sound to stop him leaving the ring and sniffing. A 4th in Gamblers followed - except Magic jumped the last fence and ran straight into the Thames. Then came the revelation that Magic was no longer novice steeplechase - he was now senior!!!! Just when I wanted flowing steeplechase courses to promote the partnership!

The next day Jordan was up for it with Magic. The senior course was one of the nicer courses at this level but still tricky - several Es came. Magic flew the course - running with great speed and accuracy. He was 1st!!!! Jordan was really celebrating. Especially as he came 2nd in the Champ steeplechase with Rupert, only points of a second behind Virginia Harry's Zoe.

Then one of the worse days of my life came.

I still don't know how this happened. We took all 3 dogs for a walk and play at lunchtime. I'm encouraging Jordan to take Smartie off on his own with a ball to build up that partnership. They must have been 400 yards away from the cockers. Magic had his ball and Rup was sniffing. I told Jordan to get Smartie off the field of charf onto the edge of the field as it was a bit brittle. I still don't know what happened next as I was picking up Rup poo. I looked up and Magic was holding up his left leg in a classic dislocated shoulder position, wagging his tail with Smartie's football in his mouth. Smartie was miles away. According to Jordan, Smartie pointed and rammed Magic. I'm wondering if J kicked Smartie's football and Magic landed awkwardly in the charfy,uneven field that I had told Jordan to get off.

I gave Magic arnica and checked him but there was little forward movement in his shoulder. I decided to drive him to the emergency vet in Guildford, not Reading and we arrived at 1.30. The vet told me that he probably had a fracture and it was likely he would never do flyball or agility again. Jordan was in tears, I was in tears. I blame myself for this happening. Smartie can be like a little charging rhino and you have to stop these charges verbally or by a whistle as he just keeps going and Magic doesn't seem to get out of the way or hold his own like Rup. I often keep him on a lead if Magic has a ball or walk both separately, while we are sorting this out. It's not happened in the last 4 weeks and I thought that behaviour had gone.

Well, we left Moo for an x - ray and went home in tears, extremely anxious. Dunno what I'd have done without Michelle form the Dream Team who kept in touch. By 9pm we were out of our minds waiting for a text from the vet. Finally at 10.30pm the x rays were done, so we drove over for 11.30pm to collect Magic.

Well, the good news is that there is no obvious fracture. But Moo is still in considerable pain and holding his shoulder at an odd angle. The vet said 10 days off but I feel this is a month at the very least. I'm now waiting for the vets to open as the orthopaedic specialist is in today and our physio is gong to slot Magic in as an emergency. I can feel a hot spot at the front of his shoulder that I think the physio will be able to work on.

Positive thoughts for Magic, please.

Flyball Glastonbury at Stockbridge

All of us at the Dream Team were looking forward to Easter. Three open teams and one starters team launching the season, mostly with dogs new to flyball. However I decided not to run Rupert in the starters as the forecast wasn't good so we arrived on the Saturday.

Having spent Friday in the sunshine 40 miles away, It was a real surprise to arrive on the Saturday and see a field knee deep in mud. The Jets took one look at my van and I had to park it miles away from the rings in a farm yard!!! We then staggered across the mud with Magic to be measured. This was a real pain as we were late and the measuring took place just by the rings, so mad cocker stood on tip toe and barked and barked and measured 12" not 11". Back we went in the mud. It was only 8.30and already Jordan was covered in it, Magic was grey and it was all the way down my wellies.

There were 2 rings and both were OK - just. Understand the Starters were cancelled at lunchtime the day before. As the rings were surrounded by this mud - there was nowhere to move them if it got worse.

We launched the new Maddogz - Magic, Mawgan, Tia and, as Kip wasn't there Wellie and one of our staters dogs Zen joined the team. The first race Magic ran down and stopped and was eating a large piece of sausage - got cocker in the lane!!! We then cleared out the remaining sausage and treats from the starters the day before. From then onwards Magic, Mawgan and Tia really came together as a strong team of 3 dogs made to run together. Tia and Magic really complement each other well as Magic doesn't chase back in after Tia and Tia is quite focused going in after Magic. It's nice not having to run 4th leg. Wellie was his usual reliable self.

It was good to chat to Mark Peck from Cambridge as Magic was gong to join forces with his father, Drake, and run as a height dog for Cambridge in the multi breed on the Monday. Drake in one team, Magic in the other. I was so excited!!!

By the afternoon we were borderline about racing, the rings were so bad. With more rain forecast, we weren't sure if we would race the other 2 teams the next day.

Well, Magic got his flyball dog award presented and we came 2nd in our division - would have won if it wasn't for that sausage!!!! But it was announced the tournament was cancelled for the Sunday and Monday. It took 4 4X4 to tow off the team minibus - I'll upload photos when I get them!!!!

We arrived home with mud everywheere. We hosed Jordan down at Stockbridge but he was disgusting. The dogs were. The van was and soon the house had mud everywhere. I am still washing clothes, dog blankets, and scrubbing the van.

Sunday we drove to Verwood to buy a caravan off an agility person. I arrived terrified with an armour of positive mental attitude. Armed with this I towed it out of a narrow entrance, down country lanes, petrol station and arrived home. Shame!! I could not for the life of me reverse it in our driveway. In the end the man up the road with his 4 sons came down and we pulled it in the driveway. So I am booked on a towing course and fitting a mover.