c a n i n e
An Unexpected Detour Gail Radtke presents an account of pit bull Porter who started having joint issues at the tender age of 5 months old, and how his guardian is adapting his environment and lifestyle to ensure it contains plenty of mental enrichment and appropriate physical activity
© Sam Gilbert
© Sam Gilbert
At the tender age of 1 year, Porter had his first elbow surgery
P
orter came into Sam’s life at the age of 8 weeks old as a healthy, happy, and adorable American pit bull terrier pup. Sam had met both Porter’s breeder and his biological mother and could not have been happier to bring Porter home and start raising her puppy. Sam works as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital in the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, Canada, and is well experienced in canine care. Porter was your typical happy, playful, and goofy puppy and Sam enrolled in puppy training classes right away to make sure he got the best start in life. During the next three months, Porter enjoyed an active lifestyle with his new parents and all the attention of being an “only child.” But when he was about 5½ months old, Sam noticed that standard puppy activities such as running, tumbling, and playing would leave him limping slightly on his front left leg. Not thinking it could be anything more significant than him just overdoing it and needing some rest, she continued to mon itor Porter for any lameness on that leg. But things did not get better. In fact, they got worse and soon, after any of these activities, Porter started to have more and more difficulty bearing weight on his leg. Sam took him in for an exam and had radiographs (Xrays) done,
34
BARKS from the Guild/September 2020
Porter and his guardian plan to continue enjoying their active lifestyle
which showed abnormalities (sclerosis) in both of his elbows. And so Porter’s journey had begun. He was prescribed Metacam (meloxicam), a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory (NSAID) medication used to treat pain, stiffness, and inflammation. His range of activities was also amended to avoid bringing on lameness, but Sam balanced this with enrichment ac tivities such as short walks with more sniffing, foraging for treats in the home and outside, and lots of stuffed food dispensers. Sam also worked on helping Porter maintain a stable weight by monitoring his diet strictly, so that he did not (and still does not) gain any extra body weight and add more stress to the physical issues in his joints. With the reduction in his physical activities, this meant making sure to keep his food consumption in check. Porter’s carefree puppy days had changed forever.
Preventative Measures Unfortunately, Porter’s condition didn’t improve over the next couple of months, even with all the preventative measures Sam had put in place, so at just 8 months of age, Porter was off to have a computerized to mography (CT) scan. A CT scan combines a series of Xray images taken from different angles around the body and uses computer processing to
