Karma had a seizure, it’s five months since her last one.

Karma is in heat, only five months from the previous!

All dogs had their eyes checked by a certified eye vet and all looked good, no signs of eye problems.

This was especially good news because in Riva’s last eye exam in June 07 there were some suspicious retinal changes. This follow-up exam showed that the changes are not progressive and won’t affect his eyesight, diagnosis is now retinopathy. The worst case scenario was PRA, but according to the vet, if the changes had been PRA the progress of the retinal atrophy should have been evident by now.

Riva had an appointment with a physical therapist on Wednesday. I suspected that there might be something wrong because he was so one sided in flanking around the sheep and sure enough, his right side was a lot tighter than the left. This is consistent with his trouble in flanking to the counterclockwise direction where he would have to flex his right side. The probable cause for the soreness is Karma, who likes to play rough and to tackle other dogs at full speed . The good news is that the problem had not had time to develop into very bad. Riva seems to have responded well to the massage therapy and seems more relaxed now. I’m curious to see how much difference this makes in working sheep to the more difficult direction.

I got intructions on how to stretch him after more strenuous exercise to prevent similar problems in the future. We are lucky, a friend is a professional animal massage therapist and a very good one, too. She has also worked with the Finnish agility world championship team.