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The journey back to fitness...
 Jackie Bromwich remembers
that bitterly cold afternoon at the end of December 2011 well. She was standing on the start
line, looking down at her collie Fern who was sitting there, eagerness etched into every line of her muscular
little body. Every ounce of her saying 'Okay, let's go. I can do this.' As Fern sailed over the last jump,
she grabbed her
lead and danced about, her eyes alight, but Jackie was crying. She couldn't stop the tears. She knew that this was
going to be their last run together for many months, possibly forever. It could be the end of a
glittering agility career that was only just beginning and possibly of life itself.
When I first saw Fern she was eight weeks old and living on a North Wales farm.
She
positively sparkled with energy, running around the barn, playing tug with tremendous
enthusiasm and utterly refusing to sit still and be cuddled. She grew into an absolute dynamo
of a dog - never still, full of energy, still refusing flatly to accept any form of petting,
but she was so quick to learn.
Now I've had many dogs over the years, but never in my life have I
had anything with such a brain. Fern adored clicker training and just soaked up everything I
tried to teach her. She produced challenges as well. She was incredibly independent,
assertive and manipulative, and once she was older, had absolutely no hesitation in imposing
her will on all the other dogs in the household, and using her teeth to enforce her authority
if she thought it was necessary. This did not always make her the easiest dog in the world to
live with, especially in a multi-dog household. However we worked hard on the training, and
Fern gradually began to settle and to prove her worth in agility.
She won out of Grade 3 in
her first season of competition, and the following year 2011, she qualified at UKA for the CSJ
final, the Tug-e-nuff final and the Split Pairs final, and had her first Grade 4 win. The
future was looking very rosy, but fate had something nasty waiting round the corner for us.
 In
June 2011, I noticed that Fern was a bit stiff when she got up in the
evenings so I rested her. When it didn't improve, I took her in to the veterinary practice
where I work. She was put on painkillers and rest. When she still didn't improve, she was
x-rayed. I was fairly shattered to discover that she had hip dysplasia with secondary
arthritic changes. There followed a few months of conventional treatment and keeping her active
to maintain mobility and muscle and keep her weight as low as possible to reduce any impact on
her joints. She also got joint protective supplements and a course of Cartrophen injections
(another joint supplement) and the occasional pain control medication when she was uncomfortable.
Fern, however, did not improve
Gradually she began to show more and more lameness
after exercise. Her hind gait changed to a choppy short striding action instead of the
fluid drive and extension that she previously showed. By September, Fern was becoming bored
with the periods of inactivity - and bad tempered as a consequence of constant pain - so she was
referred to Noel Fitzpatrick, known to television viewers as the Bionic Vet, at Fitzpatrick
Referrals in Surrey.
There Fern was x-rayed and had an MRI scan, and the diagnosis of hip dysplasia
was further complicated by the possibility of spinal pain due to a degenerated disc, and by a
degree of stifle instability. She had a course of shockwave treatment to reduce pain and
inflammation in her hips, along with physiotherapy and hydrotherapy to help build muscle. However, while Fern remained sound during her eight weeks of rest, as soon as her exercise
began to increase, so did the lameness. By the end of November, she could barely manage 20
minutes walking without being severely lame and her quality of life was deteriorating, along
with her temper.
 We returned again to Fitzpatrick Referrals, and this time she was given a
steroid injection into the hip joint, mainly by way of a diagnostic procedure, the idea being
that if the problem was the hip, the injection should give a temporary cure, although it was
not a treatment that could be continued long term. If she showed improvement, then I was to
return to the practice to discuss the possibility of a total hip replacement. Within 10 days,
the difference in her was remarkable. She was totally sound, went back to doing a full walk
with the other dogs, enjoyed some agility training and even managed to compete for the last
time at the UKA December show - carefully I might add and only when I was certain that the
smooth flowing steeplechase course was not going to set her a challenge beyond her
capabilities.
However, her improvement was short-lived, and by January she was once again
showing considerable lameness. Money was becoming an issue, as her available insurance had
been considerably depleted. I was coming under a great deal of pressure from various sources to
put her to sleep, and not to spend money that I did not have on major surgery, that may not be
successful on a dog whose temperament had become unreliable. On the 4 January, I
returned very reluctantly to Fitzpatrick Referrals, knowing that if hip replacement surgery was
going to be necessary, then there was a very strong possibility that Fern would face
euthanasia.
When Noel examined Fern again, she screamed with pain everywhere he touched
on her hindquarters. He told me that he felt that the problem was the hip, and she was
therefore a candidate for hip replacement surgery, but this was complicated by the previous
diagnosis of spinal and stifle problems. He also said that he could not guarantee that
surgery would cure her problems. However, when discussed, his emphatic and absolute rejection
of the idea of euthanasia, and his offer to allow me to pay by instalments the extra cost that
would not be covered by insurance gave me the lever to agree to the surgery. I will always be
truly grateful to him for this, as I came so close to giving in to the critics and making the
decision to put her to sleep.
 Fern had her surgery a week later
When Noel spoke to me afterwards, he
said that during the operation, it was obvious that the hip joint was very damaged. He felt
we had made the right decision to go ahead with the surgery. I collected her four days later,
and she was obviously very pleased to be home, although rather subdued, and she settled into
her crate rest without any problems. Initially she could only go out for toilet duties, and I
had to walk her with a sling round her hindquarters as the risk of dislocation of the implant
was high in the first few weeks, so it was imperative that she did not slip.
At her two week
check up, she was given the all clear to begin slow walking exercise, no trotting, and no more
than 10 minutes each time, but four times a day. This was to increase by five minutes a week
until 12 weeks post-op. It was obvious that Fern was not going to be the only one building
muscle. She also started physiotherapy exercises, to be performed three times a day. Over the
next few weeks, we seemed to do nothing but walk, walk, walk, but it was paying off as at her
six
week check up, the vet that examined her could not believe how well she was doing, and how much
muscle she had already built up. She started twice weekly hydrotherapy with Linda Nicholls at
Poppy's Pool, and we continued on the never ending round of walking and physio.
 In April,
Fitzpatrick Referrals were hosting a 3-day Canine Sports Medicine
Seminar with Chris Zink from the USA. I had been asked to provide demonstration dogs for the
practical part of the seminar, and I took Fern along with the others. She was used as a
mystery 'is there anything wrong with this dog' case, demonstrating a method of detecting very
subtle lameness. This method showed that she was not quite placing her full weight on her
right hind, although to the eye, she appeared to trot up perfectly soundly. The delegates were
all utterly amazed when it was revealed that she was less than 14 weeks post hip replacement
surgery, since she looked so good. Noel examined her again after the day's lectures and said
that he was very pleased with her progress.
Fern continued to make brilliant improvement and, by the end of May, she was
allowed back to normal off lead exercise. This was a huge milestone – my little dog who had
been crippled with pain after 20 minutes walking six months previously was able to run again and
it was so fantastic to see. By the end of June, she was well muscled again and back on her
normal exercise regime, so tentatively, and with a great deal of help from Bridgette Wyre who
had previously rehabilitated her own dog, Della, back to agility after major surgery, Fern
began agility training again. At first we concentrated on proprioceptive exercises, gridwork
and building her jumping muscles back up again, and once she proved she was capable, began
working on her re-training with competition in mind.
 Fern competed again for the first time in August, and was placed
2nd in
her class. I continued her training and she competed a couple more times during the autumn. Then at the end of December she was entered in the same show that had been her last show
prior to surgery. For me, standing on the start line at this show was a very emotive moment. Fern had made such a long journey and had been through so much since we stood in the same place
a year previously, and had come so close to the edge. Yet here we were, and once again she
waited, eager anticipation in every line of her body as she glanced to the jump, to me, and back to the jump again.
I led out, she ran, we danced the dance together, and she won the class, less than a year after
total hip replacement.
The
future?
Hopefully 2013 will be a good year and Fern will be competing regularly again. However, I will always be selective in the courses she runs and the condition of the ground. Watching her run free on walks, racing the other dogs, playing ball, in pain-free glorious
health gives me so much pleasure and I would not want to jeopardise this for any amount of
agility rosettes. But it's good to have her back!
Post note: Jackie has posted a video of Fern's
journey back to health following a total hip replacement, showing clips from her re-training,
and then from some of the shows that she did last year. Click
here to see it
Update...
To date, Fern has been competing really well this
year. She started off at UKA so that we could really build our working partnership again with
plenty of training in the ring, and I was thrilled when she won novice agility in May at
Mapledurham, and felt that we were really getting it together again. She won G4 jumping at
PADS at the end of May – a weekend of real highs and lows, as I lost a dog very unexpectedly
that weekend and then followed this with a G4 agility win in June. She has her first G5 runs
this coming weekend.
I am so thrilled that, not only has she recovered so
well that she leads a normal life, but that she is able to compete and win again at the level
she has which is amazing, considering that she is now part dog, part metal. She is a real
credit to both the surgery and the rehabilitation.
She is taking part in the display of agility by the
Fitzpatrick Bionic Heroes at Dog Fest in July, and we are both really looking forward to
demonstrating how well she is to the team that operated on her last year.
(10 July 2013)
 About
the author...
Jackie Bromwich
first became involved in agility in 1984, and has been
breeding Border Collies under the Foxtwist affix since 1987. She has competed and judged at all
levels in agility up to and including Grade 7, and has qualified with several different dogs
for most of the major finals over the years, with the exception of Olympia, where she has
always failed at the semi-finals due to terror and poor handling! She is also a Championship
show judge of Border Collies in the breed ring.
Jackie worked
for many years in a veterinary practice as a qualified Behaviour Counsellor, but had a change
of direction four months ago and currently works for the raw feeding company, Honey's Real Dog
Food.
She currently
has eight dogs, seven border collies and a Japanese Spitz, and has always enjoyed the challenge
of running multiple dogs in agility. She currently competes with six, the other two being
retired, but now she is getting older, feels that she would be doing much better if she could
run as fast as she could twenty years ago!
Pre and
post-op x-rays provided by Fitzpatrick Referrals. For more information about their services, go
to www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk
First
published 12 February 2013
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