Limping All the Way to Five

Our first black Labrador Retriever, Blackberry, had health problems. He started having seizures between 6-9 months of age. We discovered that he had epilepsy and successfully treated his condition with phenobarbital for 9 years. The bad news is that it slowly destroyed his liver. We made that trade-off because alternative medications were much more expensive. So, we lost Blackberry when he was 9. I still think it was the right decision. Blackberry lived a happy life. He was the center of our family and even part of the community. Everyone seemed to know him. Neil was once exercising Blackberry in the Saco River in Biddeford and a school-aged girl with a fishing rod passed by them and commented to her father, "That dog's name is Blackberry." Neil had never seen that child in his life or since. When the UPS man would arrive at our house, he would hand us a package and look in through the door, saying, "Hi, Blackberry!" 

Despite this condition, he had a pretty healthy life, but he was constantly on medicine, had his blood tested every 6 months and even had an MRI when he was a year old. The last 8 months of his life he took several large blue pills a day to help with his damaged liver. I only remember that they were extraordinarily expensive and might as well have been made from pure gold. In the final weeks and days of Blackberry's life his skin and the pads of his paws started to break down -- all a complication of his damaged liver. When we put Blackberry down, it was the right time and I have always felt good about letting him go. He had a wonderful life and he truly enriched our lives as well.

After Blackberry died, I was like a child with poor boundaries. I would walk up to anyone with a Lab and say, "Can I pet your dog? My dog is dead." Like any dog lover, I pined away for my deceased dog and looked forward to having a new black Lab -- a healthy black Lab who wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg and wouldn't be the source of worry. 

We got Drake 9 months after we put Blackberry down. It wasn't long before I suspected that something was wrong with Drake. He would limp...a lot...on our walks. He would limp enough that when he was still small, I would pick him up, all wiggly and squirmy, legs and tongue flailing, and carry him home. The limping would come and go, though, like flipping a switch. I later learned that was a common sign of elbow dysplasia, a condition from which Drake suffers. I have blogged about his condition before and what we do to try to make accommodations for him. Here's a video of Drake after some hard play when he was only 4.5 months old. It was pretty obvious that he didn't want to use his elbows. He was already in a lot of pain.

I confess that I was slightly devastated about Drake's diagnosis. Two sick dogs from the same breeder. The breeder refunded our money, but we're obviously done with her. I know that he's a dog and not a sick child; I'm not that lost! But, I really wanted a healthy canine friend. Neil has loved and tolerated both Blackberry and Drake, but in truth, he wouldn't have a dog if it wasn't for me. I was so uneasy about inflicting another expensive dog on our household budget, not to mention my growing emotional attachment to him. I was sick over it. 

I wasn't sure what to make of the situation, but somewhere along the line I decided that it might mean that Drake would only live 5 years; then his pain would be so significant that we would need to put him down. You know how you make things up to make yourself feel better? Establish rules and "facts" which are, in fact, not rules or facts? Yep. That's what I did. No one said anything about 5 years, but in my mind I was prepared to let Drake go at 5 years.

Drake turned 5 last month and he is still with us, of course The winter was very hard on Drake's elbows. His daily swimming was not always possible this winter in the extreme cold. Instead, we would go to the beach and I would encourage him to walk in the water (even when it was 15 degrees outside), dig in the sand, or just be a good boy and wander around. Truth is, there is really no slowing Drake down. The sand was often rock solid in the cold temperatures and Drake wants and needs a tremendous amount of exercise. I unwillingly gave in, many times, and we'd finish our trip to the beach with Drake limping to the car. Here's a video of Drake taken 2 weeks ago. His limp isn't always this severe, but we see some version of this daily now. 

Drake's in a lot of pain now. We went from giving him pain medication on an "as needed basis" to every day. That didn't make a difference. Then we upped the dose. No difference, still. So, we're at the beginning of the next phase of his condition. His exercise has been restricted to swimming only. Next week we're going to have a new set of x-rays done and figure out what is around the corner for Drake and his elbows. He's as healthy, robust, and strong as ever, but those elbows are sick, weak, and increasingly frail...not to mention always painful. It's not a great combination for a dog whose energy level is over the top. We'll see where this next journey takes us.

Oh, little Drake.