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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