Life is like a Rollercoaster

I've put off writing this story as my stomach has been in knots for the past 4 weeks while I've been playing the wait and see game.... wait and see how much longer I would have my MissMoo in my life.... wait and see whether miracles do happen.

On October 13 we went to Caboolture for a weekend of camping and the Suncoast Fundogs Double Header. We had a good trip up and I left the dogs in the car while I flipped the camper trailer out. When I went to let them out to put them in their crates I found Missy had discovered my stash of Chico jube lollies and had devoured the remainder of the packet. It is not the first time she has done this and it hasn't had any negative effects in the past. I wasn't especially concerned, just cranky at myself for having given her the opportunity to eat them. I figured she wouldn't much feel like running agility now with a stomach full of glucose lollies.

Well I ran the first class with her, open jumping and she was indeed sluggish, running clear but just overtime. So I pulled her out of the next run advanced agility. As the evening cooled I thought I'd give her another go in gamblers- usually her best event. Still sluggish and not really motivated so I called it quits with her for the night. I ran Jonty and Zoom in the remaining events and went back to camp to find Missy had thrown up in her crate. So the chicos had come back up. I cleaned out her crate and put a fresh bed in for her and tucked her in for the night.
She woke me at dawn with a little whimpering so I let her out, only to find she was disoriented and moving like she was drunk. I watched her for the next half hour and found she was getting worse; walking in circles, pacing rather than walking; she was bumping into things and was agitated and certainly seemed disoriented.

I talked to Glenn and my friend Sam and decided I'd best get her to a vet as soon as possible. I phoned a local to get the nearest vet's phone number; they directed me to the Brisbane Veterinary Specialists about 20 minutes away. So into the car and off we went. When we got there we met a lovely vet who helped Missy relax. She ran a battery of neurological and eyesight tests to come to the conclusion that my little girl had a brain tumour and it was causing blindness and the neurological symptoms and inability to coordinate her limbs. The prognosis was not good; it might be possible to operate on the tumour but it would require a CT scan and spinal tap to determine whether it was in a place and was of a type that was operable. She ran me through what to expect over the coming days or weeks but couldn't give me a timeline of life expectancy without a CT scan. She also said that there was a small possibility that Missy may have had a cerebrovascular accident, though she was lacking the head tilt or head turn that is most commonly associated with canine strokes. Her symptoms were more closely aligned with Meningioma located in either the cerebellum or forebrain. She recommended prednisone to reduce the inflammation and allowed me to take Missy home to decide if we were just going to continue with palliative care or whether we wanted to get a scan to decide whether operating was possible. As we were leaving the vet squeezed my hand and said "Hope for the best; miracles have been known to happen."

That day Missy continued to have petite-mal seizures. The next morning though you wouldn't have even know the previous day had happened. It was like I'd woken up and it had been a nightmare. Missy was up to her usual antics wrestling Jonty on the bed and bringing me her squeeky to play with. Our vet suggested that the prednisone can have this effect, reducing the inflammation a little, and reduced the blood flow to the tumour which in turn had eased the symptoms. His advice was to wait 10 days and see whether improvement had continued before deciding on the CT scan.

We waited and indeed the improvements continued. After the 10 days we returned to the vet and he found that her sight had largely returned and based on there not having been any neurological incidences during that time he reassessed her diagnosis. He now felt that it was most likely that Missy had indeed had an ischaemic cerebrovascular accident (stroke) that may have been induced by a diabetic seizure suddenly stopping the flow of blood to her brain. Nothing could be confirmed for certain without scans but in assessing her condition and the incidents preceeding the event, he felt this now seemed the most likely scenario. So we are still on the wait and see to reassure ourselves that the stroke was not caused by an embolism or thrombosis, but she is continuing to improve.

So a month after the event and my stomach is still in knots and I'm still watching her like a hawk. She has pretty much all of her coordination back and is active again. She is sleeping more and is a little less tolerant of the other dogs. But there do not appear to have been any major behavioural changes even though some brain damage must have occured. I find myself often replaying in my mind that moment with the emergency vet, hearing her say miracles do happen, and I get teary and think yes, they do.

Some links on brain tumours and strokes in dogs:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_meningioma.html
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/vascular_accident_in_the_brain.html
http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/06_Animal_Welfare/Neurology_Facts/Stroke.html
http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/docs/brain_tumor.html

ADAA Grand Prix 2007

It has been a while since I updated this blog. It has been a rollercoaster of a year as far as my dogs have been concerned. But this story is to report on one of the highs on that rollercoaster... the ADAA Grand Prix that was held on the last weekend of September in Uralla NSW. The Grand Prix is the "nationals" of the ADAA calendar- it is their premium event held over three days of competition with International judges, this year Karen and Peter DeWit of New Zealand.
I only took Jonty and Missy to the Grand Prix as Zoom has a soft-tissue injury that is taking some time to mend. We arrived on the Thursday afternoon and spent Friday relaxing and helping to build rings and unpack equipment. Friday evening saw some fun with the 24 weave pole challenge and the winner-takes-all steeplechase.


Saturday was the start of the individual and team challenges. This year there was the Medallion Stakes Final and there were four major challenges: the Individual All-Round Challenge with one round of agility, one of jumping and one of the game gamblers; the Individual Agility Challenge with one round of agility and one of jumping; the Individual Games Challenge with one round of gamblers and one of snooker; and the Team Challenge with two team games.



Our first event was the medallion stakes final. Jonty had won this event at the Grand-Prix in 05 and 06; we had to settle for second this year with a fast run over the agility course but 0.3 secs behind the cocker spaniel Maverick. Missy had a good first run but incurred 5 faults.

My next run was in gamblers under Peter DeWit. It was an achievable gamble challenge but the time would be tight requiring fairly precise placement when the horn sounded for the closing sequence. The time allowed in total was 56secs. Missy was my first run and had a lovely run with 31 points in the opening and good placment when the first horn sounded. She achieved the gamble in 54.95secs with 62 points. YAY! Jonty was a little quicker over the ground and required for me to put in an extra loop of hurdles in the opening with 34 points, but when the horn sounded we weren't in as nice positioning as Missy, but Jonty was flying through the distance challenge, over the last hurdle when damn, the second horn sounded indicating we were over the time limit for the gamble: 56.09secs. Bummer! Only one dog other than Missy acheived the gamble challenge- Monty. Jonty was placed fourth with April accumulating 36 points in the opening sequence.

The next event was the first round of the individual all-round challenge, agility, with Karen DeWit. Jonty had a great run to win the class in a time of 42.61secs, just 0.09secs ahead of Bobbi with Ian Weston. There were six clear rounds and Jonty was the third fastest dog over the course but both April and Magpie had incurred 5 faults each. Unfortunately Missy was eliminated when I miscommunicated a pull-through and she back jumped. It looked as if this year's Grand Prix was going to be a very closely fought competition in the Mini height category.

The next event was the pairs run for the Team Challenge. Jonty's team was Formula Pawed with Sophie and Jo Lewohl, Harvey with Sarah Jane Weston and Taffy with Heidi Bradshaw. Jonty's pair was Sophie. They had a blinder of a run and won the class with a combined time of 48.57secs. Missy's team was the Bravehearts: four shelties with Missy being the "old hand" and her other team members young and brave! Missy paired with Black Pepper to gain a qualifying certificate and a time of 50.47secs.

Starting to tire now, but round five, Snooker, before a dinner break. It was a challenging course requiring 47 points to qualify. Missy went first and had a mistake in the weaves in the opening finishing on only 9 points. Jonty went next and would you believe also had a weave error but had accumulated 16 points. But that would put both dogs out of the running for the games challenge.

The final event on Saturday night after a dinner break was Open Jumping; the first round for the Agility Challenge. It was late and cold by the time the little dogs were running. Missy was tired and ran steady in 44secs and had a rail down. Jonty was quicker and clear. He was placed fourth with the first four placings: Magpie 33.7, Maverick 35.5 , Sophie 36.4, Jonty 36.7.

And so ended Saturday and a few short hours later Sunday dawned. It was a beautiful day!

First class was Open Jumping for the Individual All-Round Challenge. It was a wonderfully challenging course, technical but flowing. Jonty ran first with a gorgeous clear round but alas the timing equipment failed- we'd have to run again. Missy also ran a really tidy round in 42.37secs. It was her best run of the weekend so far. Jonty had his re-run and posted a time of 39.23secs. There were six clear runs with Jonty 1st and Missy 2nd. That was the last round of the IARC... I figured Jonty had a good chance of doing well with two firsts both clear and a non-qualifying 4th in the gamblers run.

Next class was Open Agility for the Individual Agility Challenge. Jonty was up first and flew round the course, very pretty in 47.6secs. Missy was also clear but much steadier in 57.6secs. Course Time Allowed was 60secs. There were 3 clear runs with Jonty 1st, Peppa 2nd and Missy 3rd. That was the last run in the IAC and Jonty had two clears with a first and a fourth.

Third class was team challenge. Missy's team was place fourth coming into the run-off but unfortunately eliminated. Jonty's team was placed first coming into the run-off and ran clear and fast to keep that position. Go Formula Pawed! Mini Team Challenge winners!

Last run of the day was gamblers. Quite an achievable distance challenge so points accumulation would be important. Jonty run well with 37 points in the opening and achieved the gamble. Missy was pretty tired but still accumulated 32 points and achieved the gamble. Jonty placed 3rd and Missy placed 6th both with qualifying certificates. That certificate finished off Missy's AAGD2 title.

Sunday night was the challenge presentations.
Mini Individual Agility Challenge winner was Jonty
Mini Individual Games Challenge winner was Magpie
Mini Individual All-Round Challenge winner was Jonty and Missy placed 4th.
Mini Team Challenge winners were Formula Pawed: Jonty, Sophie, Harvey and Taffy.


What a fantastic effort by my little 'uns... awesome!

And so ended Sunday and a few short hours later dawned Monday, another Beautiful Day with just a fun game in the morning and then I was judging the advanced class.


The game was Four Corners with Karen DeWit and shaped up to be a lot of fun. Missy thought the game looked like fun and ran nicely for a qualifying certificate. That finished off Missy's MAAD7 title. Jonty, not to be outdone, had a great run with a qualifying certificate and first place. A great way to finish off three days of competition.

And so ended our weekend. All I can say is WOW! I have awesome dogs who give me so much pleasure. And now I look forward to 2008 and having Zoomy there and competitive. Below is a video with some of our runs from the weekend...



Thanks to Doidy for the photos. See more at http://www.pbase.com/doidy

See all the ADAA 2007 Grand Prix Results at http://www.adaa.com.au/articles/gpreport07.htm