Frankie Update...

Hi everyone,

Wanted to keep those who were interested abreast of Frankie's recent health 
problems.

Took Frankie to the vet today. After picking him up from doggy day camp he 
was limping quite unhappily, favoring is back legs some. He had had some 
mornings a few weeks ago where his front legs were a bit stiff upon waking, 
so we wanted to get him worked over. This morning, though, he'd been moving 
just fine with only minor problems on his back right hip.

The orthopedic and neureological exam were just fine, but he showed pain in 
his hips. The x-rays showed de-generation, most likely arthritis. He's now on 
2 weeks r&r and glucosomine treatment. His rear left leg has a luxating (sp?) 
patella, too, so he might have future problems there. The vet is hopeful, 
though, that these problems will go away with some rest, though there might 
be future deterioration.

Unfortunately, the exam also revealed two other problems. Frankie has a heart 
murmor. Type 1 of 6, the most mild. They did a chest x-ray and an ekg. The 
ekg was normal, and the vet is looking over the chest x-ray tonight. From 
that we're going to decide if and when to have a vet. cardiologist do an 
ultrasound, and whether the murmor needs to be medically treated.

Also, the hip x-rays showed that frankie has a couple of bladder stones. 
She's going to do more examination of the x-rays tonight and talk it over 
with the other vets at the practice to decide how to treat them: either 
through diet or letting them pass or surgically removing them.

All this, and he had to lumps aspirated. The vet is not concerned about the 
vomiting the other day, as it was an isolated incident.

Ugh. He gets extra treats tonight.

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