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Story of Georgie – from a pup to the present - The Background

Georgie was a “dog for Christmas” – that is I got Georgie on December 22nd 2004 from Manchester Dogs home. A dog had always been my dream and with 3 months of Garden leave before I started my new job, this was the ideal time for me to bond….

As soon as I saw Georgie at the dogs home, in a cage on her own, she threw herself at the front of the cage and Wagged her body (it is important to note that Georgie does not wag her tail, she wags her entire body when she is happy!) and I knew it was destiny for us to be together – How could she spend Christmas alone

Georgie was also known by other names (Devil dog, Psycho dog etc) as she was an incredibly aggressive puppy – she would use her razor sharp teeth on everyone she met, indicating that perhaps she had been removed from her litter too soon. But it was also noticeable that she did this more when anyone went near her back legs – something which in hindsight I wished I paid more attention to. But please do not misunderstand Georgie – she was not an aggressive dog – she was the opposite in fact. The friendliest dog anyone has ever met.

My bond with Georgie grew immediately. Spending Christmas with her was fantastic. She loved being around children especially and so I assume that she was re-homed from a home with Children.

Georgie grew up fast but was always the “wild one”. Running off when she was out was her speciality – normally to say hello to other dogs and people. So In February 2005 she was enrolled in puppy training. No help at all! Georgie was the dog who would refuse to return to her owner (when there were other dogs to play with) and when the owners had to swap dogs, you could see the fear on their faces of being given Georgie. But of course I loved her….

In April though the dog trainer came up with a great idea having had Georgie in his kennels for a couple of nights. When Georgie was around other dogs she was very obedient and calm. Maybe Georgie needed a partner? I scoured the Dogs home for a suitable partner but each dog I liked seemed to be suitable only for a one dog household. Eventually I settled on buying a puppy from an established breeder, a local farmer who owned a number of dogs and was breeding from his pedigree Labrador. And that is when Che came onto the scene. Che is the Argentine word for “mate” (as in Che Guevara) and what better word to describe what a dog should be.

Che was introduced to Georgie in May 2005. Once he got over the stage of trying to get milk out of her, they got on very well and still love each other very much

But back to Georgie. She was a very lively, happy dog – verging on the hyperactive so I would never have guessed that she had anything wrong with her. In fact if you gave georgie a bouncy ball to play with, she would actually throw it back at you to encourage you to play with her. And she would continue to do this for hours – until she was literally falling asleep on her feet!

She loves to walk for miles – Mentioning the “w” word (walk) was enough to have her in a fit of excitement… Alternatively she would “nudge” the coats to inform you that it was time to be exercised

But Georgie also had her problems – in fact she seemed to attract them. Not content with eating one of the girlfriends disposable razors (3 nights in the vets while they watched it pass through safely) she also got bit by another dog in late 2005 (a dog off its lead lunged at her in a local park for no reason)

But these problems only made the bond between us stronger – although having pet insurance also helped!!! As my 2 dogs grew up together they seemed very happy.

But something was wrong with Georgie.

Perhaps I should have noticed it earlier (easier to say in hindsight) but Georgie, the friendliest dog in the world would sometimes growl when you went near her back legs. More confusing to me was that if I went near her back legs she would often take out her anger on her little (now big Labrador) brother rather than me. At her annual vets check up in December 2005 she was declared fit and fully recovered.

By March 2006 Georgie’s eating habits had changed – we were now having to force her food. But at the same time she was also putting on a lot of weight

Whilst Georgie still enjoyed her walks and loved nothing more than chasing a ball, it was also noticeable that she was doing much less running when she was out – rather walking by my side whilst all the other dogs played.

By April 2006 she had put on a lot of weight and was also starting to drag one of her bag legs when she walked – in a swinging motion. This eventually led to my taking her back to my vet. The response of my then vet (“dogs only get fat because their owners feed them too much…” she is only a couple of pounds overweight” and the final insult when we declared that Georgie did not eat much was to say “that’s what fat people say with a cream cake in their hands) led to me changing vet.

In May 2006 the unfortunate story of what was really wrong with Georgie started to emerge...

Georgies Diagnoses

Having gone in for X-rays on her hips, I knew it was bad news when the vet said she needed to see me for a discussion about Georgie. On seeing the x-rays below my heart went through the floor. The extent of Georgies Chronic Hip Dysplacia (CHD) can only be fully appreciated when you look at other exampled of CHD in dogs compared to Georgies x-rays

Georgie, aged just 20 months had severe arthritis of both hips along with clear bone damage. If you look at the X-rays you can see that Georgies hips have formed 3 new sockets where the bone has worn away at the hips. .

Of those people who have seen Georgies x-rays, the typical response is that they don’t know how Georgie can do what she is currently doing in terms of running, jumping and her pleasant manner.

In late May 2006 Georgie was referred to the Liverpool University Small Animal Hospital who were specialists in dealing with these problems. The service was fantastic – On our first visit I never expected to spend 2 hours with the vets! It is here that I began to find about much more about Georgies condition, including the typical signs to look for (Follow this link) and what I can do as an owner to control the damage being done.

The options were simple: pain management or surgery. The shock for me was that the surgery would cost £4,000 per hip!

But before they could continue, we first had to tackle Georgies weight. The hospital also has a weight management clinic. Here we discovered that Georgie was not only a little overweight – but obese…

Georgies Weight

As I had already mentioned, one of the signs that we knew all was not well with Georgie was the weight gain.

As I pointed out to the nurse, once Georgie had been spayed (at 6 months) I had already decreased her food intake by 25% on what was stated on her current food (a high quality dry Dog food recommended by vets)

But as Georgie was not running / playing so much and spending a lot of time sat down due to the pain which she was in, she was burning off less calories, therefore putting on weight.

The solution was complicated by the fact that the easiest way to lose weight is to increase exercise. Due to Georgies condition this was not so simple. She needed controlled exercise whilst on painkillers combined with the use of a Prescription diet pet food.

Georgie was on a diet for a year - and as the above scan shows she reduced her weight by 4kg, but more importantly she reduced her body fat by 3.4kg. Much of what was fat had now been turned into muscle - assisting her hips and getting her ready for the surgery

To see the latest news on Georgie and her progress, click here