{"id":635,"date":"2011-12-20T20:52:43","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T04:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mordanna.com\/quigley\/?p=635"},"modified":"2012-12-04T15:33:53","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T23:33:53","slug":"rally-marathon-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mordanna.com\/quigley\/archives\/635","title":{"rendered":"Rally Marathon 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’m sitting here recovering from our 3rd annual Rally Marathon, which has been an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows. It’s difficult to put everything into words, but I do want to make the effort to write it all down so I can come back and read it later, and remember the days. Once again I’m so happy that I decided to collect all our trial notes in one place on this blog.<\/p>\n

Friday, December 9th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year we started out by celebrating our 200th Rally run after the completion of the Excellent B class. We stepped into a Rally ring for the first time on June 24th 2006 at the APDT trial held by Goleta Valley Dog Club, and that day we did not qualify. What a difference those years in between made – Quigley won this class and went on to place 4th in Advanced B.<\/p>\n

The Excellent class of the afternoon trial didn’t go so well, few dogs received high scores and there were lots of major deductions for many teams. We scored a 4th place with 79 points. Advanced was a little better, but we did not manage a placement.<\/p>\n

Saturday, December 10th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday was not a good day. Due to everything that happened after our Excellent run I don’t remember much, but we didn’t do all that well and lost 10 points on top of that because Quigley didn’t hold his honor sit. While we were waiting for our Advanced run, I suddenly noticed that something was very wrong with Quigley’s right eye. It looked discolored red-orange and the pupil was obscured. Our second run went a little better than the first, but still not all that great, considering that the course wasn’t difficult. I had looked forward to visiting with friends after we were done, but I packed up and went straight to the vet’s. To my disappointment the staff wasn’t very helpful at all, telling me that if I wanted to wait as a walk-in, I should come back after 2 pm. It was just after 11.30 am and I didn’t want to wait that long, so I called the eye specialist at City of Angels to find out if they were open. They were and agreed to see Quigley right away.<\/p>\n

In a way I’m glad it turned out that way, since not even the specialist vet knew what exactly was going on. Using our regular vet would only have things dragged out unnecessarily, like already happened once with his teeth, so I’m glad things turned out the way they did and went straight to the expert. The vet tech took his eye pressure, placed some test strips, the vet stained and looked into his eyes with about 5 different instruments. The verdict: there’s massive inflammation in his eye, and also some blood. He doesn’t have much (if any) useful vision in it at all right now. We don’t know what happened. The vet said if it was an injury, it would have come from strong, blunt trauma, like running into something hard, or falling on his head. I can’t recall anything like that happening.<\/p>\n

Blood was also drawn for testing, including signs of tick-borne diseases. If there are any suspicions, Quigley would be put on Doxy, but meanwhile the vet started treating the inflammation aggressively with Metacam, and Prednisolone eye drops every 6 hours.<\/p>\n

Sunday, December 11th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday morning I went to the trial with less worry in my heart, since Quigley’s eye seemed to look at least a little better and I felt in good hands after seeing the vet. Our runs went much better than the day before.<\/p>\n

Around the middle of the week Quigley’s eye looked better, but when I put in his eye drops Friday morning it looked worse again, so as soon as the office opened, I called the vet and asked if we could come in for our follow-up today instead of waiting until Tuesday. They squeezed us in for the afternoon because I was so concerned.<\/p>\n

Since the vet had assured me that Quigley did not need to be restricted in his activities and the $171 in entry fees for the 3-day weekend were non-refundable, I decided I would go and just have some fun with my dog no matter what instead of staying home and making him worry by stressing out.<\/p>\n

Friday, December 16th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I’m glad we went, because we did have fun, decent scores, and Quigley even won another first place in Excellent. After Rally we checked out the vendors in the exhibit hall with the conformation rings, where he had even more fun mooching for treats!<\/p>\n

Then it was off to the vet’s once again. They re-did some tests they had already done last Saturday, and since there was nothing new other than more blood, the vet (not the same as last time – I like both very much, but nice to have a second opinion!) suggested checking Quigley’s blood pressure and an ultrasound of his eye. Hypertension can cause eye problems, and she wanted to see what was going on with his retina.<\/p>\n

His blood pressure was between 179 and 182, and the ultrasound showed that a part of the retina is detached, probably caused by high blood pressure, but we don’t know that for sure. The detached retina causes bleeding, which is what’s so visibly orange\/red in his eye right now. Apparently some of the blood had dissipated earlier this week, but then there was another bleeding incident and it increased again.<\/p>\n

So for now Quigley is on medication to lower his blood pressure and we’d go to re-check that on Tuesday. Depending on the outcome his dosage may be adjusted. Then we continue for about 2 weeks, while still also using the eye drops and Metacam.<\/p>\n

We don’t know at this point what causes the hypertension, and if it’s just temporary or not, so I will probably take Quigley to a cardiologist for a check up in early January to see if there’s any underlying issue. The good news was that Quigley’s retina is not completely detached, which would require surgery quickly to preserve his vision.<\/p>\n

Saturday, December 17th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday was the long-awaited day of finishing our RAE5, and I was sad that poor Quigley’s eye problem was a dark cloud hanging over what should have been a day of untroubled celebration. I was sad about how obviously the loss of vision in his right eye caused him to lag during heeling, and to bump my leg more frequently than usual. On the other hand it was good to see that he had no trouble at all with the jumps and enjoyed them like he always does. Placing third in the Excellent class was an unexpected treat and launched us back into the running for #1 Parson Russell Terrier in the Front & Finish Rally Combined ratings for 2011.<\/p>\n

After the rally trial was over, we went to the photo stage in the conformation area for a professional photo with the judge. I had also brought along all the ribbons we earned for our last 10 RAE legs and the photographer had a really cute idea for posing Quigley and his awards. I can’t wait for them to arrive!<\/p>\n

Sunday, December 18th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally there was Sunday, our last day of competition in 2011. I could tell that Quigley was getting a bit tired, just like the previous two years of Rally Marathons. Nevertheless, he was in good spirits, entertaining his “fan club”. I went into the ring without any expectations or anxieties, since we had achieved all our goals for this year already. I hadn’t even looked at the score board after our run, so when we were called for 4th place in Excellent it came as a complete (but very welcome!) surprise. The placement added another 6 points to our previous total, and with a bit of luck it might actually send us into the top 10 for the Terrier group ranking. No way of knowing until all the results for the year have been processed though, which may well take until the end of January.<\/p>\n

At this point our future in competition is uncertain. As long as Quigley is physically able to work and enjoys it, I will not stop training, and of course there are many more goals I would like to achieve together with him. Several fellow rally and obedience people have assured me over this past weekend that even if the worst case scenario comes to pass and he permanently loses vision in his damaged eye, his career is not over, but I worry whether there is another serious underlying health issue causing this high blood pressure, and of course whether his vision will return.<\/p>\n

Hopefully my next update will be less dramatic and contain lots of good news.<\/p>\n

Scoreboard:<\/strong><\/p>\n

12\/09 T1 Exc. 91, 1st place \/ Adv. 86, 4th place
\n12\/09 T2 Exc. 79, 4th place \/ Adv. 89
\n12\/10 Exc. 75 \/ Adv. 86
\n12\/11 Exc. 82 \/ Adv. 90
\n12\/16 Exc. 92, 1st place \/ Adv. 91
\n12\/17 Exc. 92, 3rd place \/ Adv. 93, completed RAE5 title
\n12\/18 Exc. 91, 4th place \/ Adv. 90<\/p>\n\n\t\t