Lock Down

My poor little Rammy... he's on crate rest for at least 2 weeks.

Nothing obviously wrong with him, except he randomly yelps like he is in severe pain.  Yeah, it's a bit disconcerting!  I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with "sore neck".  She couldn't get any pain response from him and said that when a dog randomly yelps it is generally in the neck area (who knew it was so common?)  After I put my Google super powers to work I'm worried that he could have a ruptured/bulging/diseased cervical disk, which could mean 6+ weeks of rest.

I will admit that I feel like this is my fault.  2 years ago Rampage had a 'mystery injury' that despite multiple trips to different vets had no diagnosis.  Rest resolved the issue.  It was at that point that I decided to move him from 26" to 20" AKC and 22" preferred USDAA (even though I'd rather jump him 22" championship but USDAA jump heights are whacked.)  I swore I would never jump him 26" again.  I never liked how he looked at that height and felt he was not built for it.  Since dropping him down he has been injury free the last couple years but then I thought... "wouldn't it be fun to go to EO tryouts this year?"  Due to the minimal qualifications for EO tryouts he was eligible to enter.  I started jumping him 26" in class and he looked good.  I entered him in one day of a trial at 26" and he looked good.  But then he started running slower than normal in class (and he was never very fast there) and even slower than normal when we do things at home (usually the fastest there) and then the random yelping started.  Yikes!

So, definitely no EO tryouts for me and Rammy and he's down to 20" for good once he's back at agility (unless USDAA smartens up and fixes their jump heights, then he may do 22" again.)  I'm a bit worried that he won't be able to go to AKC nationals this year, but if he can't he can't.

Rampage is by far the hardest dog I've ever had to do crate rest with.  But it isn't so bad, he has his happy moments.

Day 2.  Give me strength.