Rudi and Kimber's Health

[Bob1955]

Despite his age Rudi has very few problems. A touch of arthritis in one front leg and the nerves to his bowel have shut down, making it difficult for him to 'go'. We've found that a couple of short walks per day help him perform. It took some time to get the problem diagnosed. He had several investigations including an MRI scan. It cost the insurance company £6,000. Kimber has an allergy to house dust mites so she has monthly steroid injections. We originally wanted to breed from them but the vet advised against it as it could be passed on to the pups. We have no fears about dysplasia as we had them both hip scored and they both have a score of 9. Rudi gave us a real scare a few weeks ago though. He was off his food, drinking and peeing more than normal and was looking very depressed. We feared kidney failure. Blood and urine tests gave him the all clear though and he was back to normal within a few days.

[jc24965]

Good advice from the vet not to breed from them. Best leave that to the experts who do all the necessary, hip, elbow and health tests, and who breed from younger, healthy dogs.

Any pictures you can post of your dogs? We all love to see pictures on here.

[LOVEGSD]

Rudi sounds like he's doing great, so glad it was nothing nasty recently....they sure know how to scare you.

Bless Kimber with her allergy, glad to hear that the injections help her.

[Bob1955]

jc, I've posted a few already in the Photo Forum. We had them both hip scored before we found out about Kimber's allergy. At the time she was just coming up to two and Rudi was just over 6 with no health problems at all. It would have been a one time only but we took the vet's advice and had them both neutered. Rudi's history we knew, we had his mother and a friend had his grandmother. With Kimber we visited the breeder at her home several times and she took us through the Pedigree (she was a vet nurse). We never even thought of breeding for profit, that's not why we have them.