elegy wrote:

snip
that's what i've been doing with the meds- if i know i'm going to take
her to run at my parents' (my yard is too small for good flat-out
running) i'll pop her a dose of pain meds that morning. on days that
we have class, i pop her a dose of pain meds. sometimes i see her lame
after running, but i do not notice any lameness after class. but class
is very low impact- even when i jump her, i jump her low.

to be perfectly honest, i don't know what difference the medication
makes because i've never *not* medicated her for class following her
knee surgeries. she may not even need it, and it's *me* who needs to
give it.
snip
Given that comment I wonder if you would be in a better position to
judge her needs and abilities if you see how she does in some mild
stress environments without pain meds. Without them she will be in a
better position to judge whether she is putting stress on herself and
will communicate it better to you. I would be careful about doing this
in activities with contact with other dogs, i.e., wrestling, where pain
might make her over reactive.

--
Bill Clodius
los the lost and net the pet to email

William Clodius wrote:
elegy wrote:

snip
that's what i've been doing with the meds- if i know i'm going to take
her to run at my parents' (my yard is too small for good flat-out
running) i'll pop her a dose of pain meds that morning. on days that
we have class, i pop her a dose of pain meds. sometimes i see her lame
after running, but i do not notice any lameness after class. but class
is very low impact- even when i jump her, i jump her low.

to be perfectly honest, i don't know what difference the medication
makes because i've never *not* medicated her for class following her
knee surgeries. she may not even need it, and it's *me* who needs to
give it.
snip
Given that comment I wonder if you would be in a better position to
judge her needs and abilities if you see how she does in some mild
stress environments without pain meds. Without them she will be in a
better position to judge whether she is putting stress on herself and
will communicate it better to you. I would be careful about doing this
in activities with contact with other dogs, i.e., wrestling, where pain
might make her over reactive.


Good point.

I was wondering something along these lines
myself. Back when I was at the tail-end of my
running "career" (ok, hobby :-), if I was
hell bent on getting my mileage in, I would
take an ibuprofin so I could go further.
Of course that increased the amount of damage
I was doing because I was masking the
discomfort at *exactly* the time my body
needed it as a way of telling me when I had
gone too far.
My understanding is, at least for humans, the
best time to take an anti-inflammatory for
that sort of pain is *after* the exercise,
NOT before it.

I'm uncomfortable with the notion of giving a
dog something that will further mask pain
(even more than their own natural exuberance
already does) prior to them being highly
active. They then have no way of knowing when
they're going too far.

I had no issues at all with any other aspect
of what was said (the classes, the
trials....fine. As long as its not
overboard), but this sent up a red flag for me.