Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Discussions

Hi Lou and Grey,

I'm glad you have a diagnosis at last! I know it wont be easy keeping him quiet, have been there so know what I am talking about, lol, but it will go quickly and I am sure you will both survive. Before you know it things will be back to normal and he will be running around all over the place.

At the moment Indy and Keeva are watching my son eat Ben and Jerry's Half Baked Ice cream, desperately trying not to stare but afraid they may miss out if they don't, lol.

Hope neither of you get too 'stir crazy'!
Take care
Tania, Indy and Keeva
x

Hi Tania,

Haven't posted for a while as were away at half-term but just wanted to let you know that Jed is doing OK.

He is still on the steroids but gradually tapering his dose off, he has remained stable throughout so hopefully he will be able to do come off them altogether within the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for the offer of meeting up for a walk, Jed has not had the chance to meet any other Slovaks, the closest he has come is my sister's Hungarian Vizla whom he adores so I know he would love to meet Indy and Keeva.

He hasn't got much energy at the moment, a short walk round his favourite field is all he can really manage. I'm hoping that once he is off the medication completely he will get back to his old self. As soon as he does hopefully we can sort something out.

I'm hoping that his food cravings will return to normal as well, he will honestly eat anything at the moment. Yesterday he managed to tear open and empty a whole bag of flour in my hallway whilst my back was turned putting away some shopping. He looked like he was in a snow blizzard, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!!!

Anyway love to you all
Emma and Jed

Hi Louise,

Really sorry to hear that Grey has been in pain again and that he is now effectively on house arrest whilst his shoulder repairs.

Obviously not going to be much fun for either of you but as you say at least you have a diagnosis now and know what you are dealing with.

Jed is still recovering from meningitis but is doing well so hopefully should be off the steroids soon. Main concern at the moment is his lack of energy but am just hoping that this will return once he is off his medication.

I saw your earlier suggestion of maybe organising a group walk at some point for anyone who wants to meet up.

Once Grey is fully recovered it would be great if you did, especially as at least a few of us will be missing out on the Hawkhurst funday this year.

Anyway love to you and Grey, we wish him a speedy recovery.

Emma and Jed

Hiya,

That's great news re Jed, Emma. So glad he's on the mend. Hopefully if Jed isn't on the steroids too long he'll be back to himself after he's finished them. I had to laugh re the flour incident! Sorry! bet it was a picture.

Thanks for asking re Grey. He's much much better after the first week of controlled rest. He has another 5 weeks and if we can keep it up like this I think he'll be ok. We go for his stitches out tomorrow so will see what our own vet thinks.

We're missing the fund day today of course. But we'd defo be up for a southern owners meet as soon as Grey is better. Would be lovely to meet you all in person.


Lots of hairy love.

Lou & Grey
x

Hi David, lovely looking SRH, can I ask which kennel she came from?

Following on the "damp dog" theme from the HWV section, some new pics of Purdey who is now 4 years of age.



and then, at the river - with Sarika



damp



to swim or not to swim



and with her flip flop



and David's girlie gundogs



It is fun round here.
Regards,
David

hey david!

How beautiful she is now and in fact the rest of your girlie gang. What's the third one? I think I missed you getting that one!

L
x

Hi Lou,

Thank you. I hope all is well with you and yours.

We lost our old bichon, Max, about a year ago. After he died the sitting room just didn't feel right with an empty sofa so HWV number 2 came along. She, Eszti, is now a year old and has fitted in perfectly. My little pack of girlie gundogs is now complete. (Quite like miniature schnauzers however!!!!)
xx

sorry to hear you lost Max. I'm not winning the arguments in this house to add another dog in. Will have to keep at it.

Hi everyone,

Hope you all well. Grey is still recovering from his shoulder injury. neverending it seems. We've been at home since mid April and slowly getting him to mend himself through rest on the advice of the orthopedic vets. Took him in for a nail clip under sedation and unfortunately came back limping again. So back to resting again. But he seems to be coming through that.

In other news was contacted by someone with a 10 month old slovak who needs a double hip replacement! Hopefully being a young dog she;ll be good as new. Does anyone know about the odds on hip dysplasia being genetic and can dogs with good scores be carriers? The pup is closely related to a friend's bitch who also has a double hip problem.

Hi Lou

What happened to Grey's shoulder? must have missed that. Poor boy, you have certainly had it rough with him.

As for HD, it is a bit of an odd one. It is genetic, but it also polygenic, meaning that the condition can be made worse potentially by environmental factors (poor nutrition, over exercise, etc.). HD is also odd in the fact that even generations of low scoring dogs can throw in puppies that have relatively high in comparison (to the low scoring parents) scores. Obviously, by using low scoring dogs persistently throughout generations the risk of HD and having puppies with high-scoring hips is reduced significantly, but it isn't impossible for HD to appear even so.

For the Slovak to have scores high enough to warrant a full hip replacement (mild HD can normally be managed without any surgery) it must have been severe. I'm curious about the breeding of the dog -- do you mind PM'ing me?

Hi Labradork!

It's a bit of a mystery re Grey's shoulder initially. He started screaming a few days before his birthday. Was unable to stand from lying or lie down on his own. Was awful. We took him to our local vets and they said he had enlarged lymph gland on his shoulder. Said it wasn't injury and they were worried. We started bricking it as his brother Gunner and one other dog from the same kennels but couple of weeks difference in age had both come down with mystery severe pain condition. So we intructed our vet to run all possible tests. Gunner's had turned out to be diskospondilitis. The other dog did too and then a third turned up (on here?) with some kind of meningitis. So we went all the way to Animal Health Trust and by then he'd made a recovery on anti-biotics. We started structured lead walks and small bits off lead. 3 days in to off lead he started badly limping. Then we went back to vets and this time sent to orthopedic specialists (now up to £5.5k on insurance!). They found he now had damaged ligaments on inside of right shoulder. So we had 6 weeks of rest (which we managed). he started to get lots better but life is boring. Then he went in to have his nails done as he wouldn't let me near them and with his shoulder seemed best thing. But then he came back limping. So we've had another week of rest. I think we can probably start structured lead walks again next week, but it means he has a really weak shoulder and will probably always be a problem for him as they are real ******s to fix.

In other news I was contacted by someone else with identical bite fault to Grey's. They went to same dental specialist. As usual breeder is not being nice about it (different one) and only offering to take pup back which after it has bonded is really ridiculous. And then I've heard some breeders are saying I should have just left grey's teeth and not done the treatment as it would have righted itself. This makes me so cross as anyone can see from looking at Grey's mouth that he still hasn't got a good mouth and if I'd left it would have been unethical as his overshot jaw was so bad it caused trauma to hard palette. Which causes pain and can lead to infections. Really ridiculous stuff.

Grey's really recovered now from his shoulder and is more or less (touch wood) back to normal. How are all the other slovaks doing? That last batch of pupsters on here must be all grown up now.

So how have they all turned out? Looking forward to hearing news about the hairies!

Lou & Grey

Good news about Grey. Must be a relief to get things back to normal...trying to keep them quiet for extended periods can be quite torturous.

Bo is ok...hyper and mad as ever. She is going to the vets on Monday to have a lump on her shoulder removed. The vet thinks it is just a fatty lump, but they won't know for sure until they remove it. I'm sure it will be fine as she is young dog but I guess we'll wait and see.

Hope it goes well. Doesn't stop you worrying though. x

Hi Lou,

Pleased to hear that Grey is fully recovered.

Jed has fully recovered now as well. Its been a horrible six months, the effects of the steroids were not nice at all.

He has been off them completely for a couple of months now and 'touch wood' no sign of a relapse. The physical effects are also going rapidly, what with the weight gain, loss of muscle tone and hair loss he did look a sorry sight for a while.

Now that his energy levels at back to normal he is back to his naughty best!! Its been a bit of a shock to the system after having him just laying around for the past six months. Not sure further obedience training will help though as I know full well that he understands every instruction and just want is expected of him just seems to think compliance is optional, bit like my kids really then!!

One thing that I have been dithering about due to his illness is his annual booster. Jed was due to have his in August but couldn't as he was still on a low course of steroids. The vet treating him said that there was no reason why we shouldn't go ahead once they were out of his system, I raised concerns about triggering a relapse to which they responded that it shouldn't but there were no guarantees!!

I have since been in contact with an owner whose dog had meningitis a few years ago and was on steroids for over a year. They are at the same practice but the specialist who they were referred to advised against any further boosters.

So far I have held off, obviously don't want to put Jed at risk from any nasties they protect against but if I did anything to delay his recovery or worse trigger a relapse I would be heartbroken.

Anyway I have since spoken to the lady who runs our local home boarding and dog walking service and a couple of other experienced dog owners who all advocate only vaccinating every 3 years!!!

If anyone has a view on this they would care to share I'd love to hear from you.

Emma & Jed X

Hi Emma,

I'm really glad to hear that Jed is on the road to recovery. Poor love. He and you have really been through it. I have a friend, Dawn, who has a slovak, Eva, that was on extensive steroid treatment for a similar condition. I need to go through my emails to see if you and I have swapped details before, so I can send you contact details. I also have a friend who helps run an immune related forum for dogs, and I know she knows lots about vaccinations in conjuction with this type of condition. At the time when we thought Grey's pain condition was possibly immune related the advice was to absolutely not vaccinate. I guess the issue is would you ever need to kennel Jed, when most would require up to date vaccinations. But you can find them that take dogs with, what's it called? nosodes? Sorry, not expert here. Have you checked out the slovakian rough haired pointer group on the social media site the face and the book?
great to hear from you and Jed.
x

hello
just like to say maggie is now 4 years old and luckly enough still hasnt needed the vet !

Any pics???

Good to hear from you, Ros. Glad to hear that Maggie is doing really well. It seems some of the dogs even from the same litter can fair so differently. I had a lady contact me from Maggie's litter with a bad bite fault similar to Grey's and got a full refund two years later. Also someone else from a repeat mating of the same parents later with another bad bite fault who went back for money back. One of the bitches that is Maggie's littermate has done really well in the shows and at trials has a high hipscore, but that said, she's recently been bred from.