WAZZUP?

September 28, 2011
Redi turns 11 next week so this Monday we went to the vet for his vaccinations. At the same time I had some basic blood tests done just in case, because Redi is getting older. The tests were fine. Last week I noticed that Redi has a bump in his bum and I figured it was just a blocked anal gland. I asked the vet to check that, too. The vet said that Redi's anal glands were very full but that the bump was a perineal hernia which is quite common with not neutered, older males. She said that surgery is possible and mentioned the surgeon in their vet center, but she said it would be best just to empty the glands once a week and make sure Redi eats well-digested food (so that he'll produce as little poop as possible) and that he has lots of exercise. The vet also said that I should check the net and see more information there.
When I got back home I did some googling and found links concerning perineal hernias. All sites stated that the best thing to do is surgery, so now I'm trying to figure out what to do. I'll try to get some second, third etc. opinions and decide afterwards. Redi is only 11 years old, so his life expectancy is (I assume) a couple of years not a couple of months.

August 7, 2011
It must be some sort of a record to update the news at this point of the year for the first time but nothing really has been happening. Last fall we tried attending dog agility competitions again but found that Redis front can't take the hits from the jumps at his style so we were forced to retire from the sport. To fill in the void I took on canicross (or simply running with the dog). Or I'm nor sure if you can call it running, jogging might be more accurate. Redi's kept in pretty nice shape doing that and it hasn't hurt me either. ;-)
Yesterday we had an all breeds dog show here nearby (in Saarijärvi) and I entered Redi because we didn't know the judge Pekka Teini and I didn't have to pay any entrance fee for Redi (in some dog shows in Finland you don't have to pay anything for over 10-year-old veterans when they're entered in veteran class). The judge liked my versatile veteran very much and he made Redi Best of Breed and BOB-veteran with a really nice critique. We stayed for the big ring because we haven't had this honor too often. The result just blew me away. The BIS-veteran ring was over for us very quickly ("Thanks, but no thanks") but judge Lena Danker took the FCI group no 8 and she chose Redi amongst the six best, then excused two more dogs (other than Redi) and finally placed this old-timer the 2nd best in group number 8! I'm still astonished.

Wazzup in 2010