Fifty-Two Years Young

I happened to have the day off work today, so we took advantage of the opportunity and brought Louise into the vet to have her limp checked out. Dr. Sandhu was very thorough as he examined all of her related bones and joints in order to best understand what was causing Louise pain when she walked.

The current prognosis is that Louise, who is now about nine years old, seems to have arthritis in her joints. Her limp is noticeably worse when she first starts moving after resting but after moving around for a while, it improves. At times, it's hard to tell if she is feeling any pain at all given her enthusiasm. She still wants to go on long walks, has no fear in jumping up on my lap (if the mood strikes - at other times she just expects me to pick her up) and is generally mobile whenever food is involved. So yeah, she's still a typical pug. The doctor joked at one point that she basically got a free massage from him as he was checking her shoulders and spine. While she was initially nervous letting him examine her paw, by that time she was quite alright with him handling her.

We have some mild pain medication we can use as needed for those difficult mornings - a smaller dose than what would be reccomended but probably still an adequate dose to help get her started. As an added bonus, it comes in a tasty treat instead of a yucky pill so giving Louise a dose of goodness will be hassle free.

Of course, yesterday was Louise's day at the office and on our mid-day walk we decided to wander over and check out the much maligned Olympic Village here in Vancouver. Somehow, I'm sure that just including that phrase will increase the page hits on this blog as it is perhaps the most popular local news topic in these parts right now. Despite the bad press, construction is still underway and it does look like the area will be very picturesque. Certainly a great spot to host the world as they come to compete next year.

I took lots of pictures on that walk and hopefully I will get them online soon-ish. It's kind of nice to be working so close to the village as it is a great place for dog walks.