Well, we had our first small setback. Zoe was suddenly lame in her back leg last week for a couple of days. Being the conscientious dog owner that I am, I promptly brought her to the vet to have her leg examined. It was determined that she had a small cruciate tear in her knee, but nothing is 100% certain with a manual exam. A second opinion and x-rays pretty much ruled out a complete tear, so that is a big relief.
To be on the safe side and prevent further injury, we treated both knees with prolotherapy, which is an injection that stimulates regrowth and healing. If this works, we may be able to avoid a future injury and surgery, which could potentially affect her agility career, not to mention general well-being. I decided this was the best option since she is an active dog and the injury appears to be minor at this point. Post-treatment, Zoe looks great and is showing no signs of limping or lameness. We'll continue to take it easy so that she can fully heal.
This was truely a humbling experience and taught me a lot about health maintenence with an active/performance dog. Hopefully we caught the issue early and we'll be lucky enough to escape reinjury or surgery. I already consider myself lucky enough to have good resources and have a relatively minor injury.
If anyone is more interested in prolotherapy, here is a good link with information:
med-vetacupuncture.org/english/articles/prolovet.html
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