Hi Jerry 

The place we went for our little beach vacation is in Ontario, Can. So the info might not be useful for all but maybe for some of our Tripawds friends 🙂  It is actually on Lake Ontario, so it is so big that it actually look like the ocean. I even brought my surfboard as there are enough waves. There are few places that are pet friendly so it is very cool! We went to Sandbanks Provincial Parks and Northbeach Provincial Park (they are about 30 min from one another). In the park itself people can book camping spots but that was all reserved this summer so we booked a pet friendly hotel room in the neighbour town of Belleville (which has nothing interesting except the really nice dog park haha). It was about 30 min from the beach so super easy to access. 

Here's the blog of a guy who gives great information on these pet friendly areas: 

http://blog.bar.....ario-dogs/

Sandbanks has 2 pet friendly beach sections on their main beaches and Northbeach has 1 pet friendly zone in a little bay, no waves but super cute beach, nice sand, easy to swim, no wind, very nice! I just really loved. our experience. 

Anyway, anybody who would have questions could message me no problem:) It would be so cool to meet up with other tripawds eventually 🙂 

For the dog parks, it is an interesting question. My feeling is that dogs (and animals in general) do not care and do not even pay attention to it. It is all about the energy the dog is showing. So I believe that they are acting with Arktik the same way they would have when he had 4 legs. They don't pity each others like human do when they see our tripawds. Dogs treat Tripawds the same way they would with any other dogs. I think if a new tripawds would have change in its personality a lot and had lost confidence a lot, maybe that would show for example at the dog park, not because of the missing leg but rather because the shift in its personality. Everyday I am still so impressed by how resilient our animals are! They are so great

Arktik is howling 'Hi' to you and Sally!

Following up on the lack of appetite of Arktik we have had a rough 24 hours yesterday and today, but hopefully things will be better in the next few days.

Wednesday and Thursday, Arktik was eating better (I was mixing ground beef, rice with his dog food). But yesterday he barely ate and I could tell he was uncomfortable. I took him for a little drive as I had to run errands, I did not seemed over enthusiastic. When we got home, I thought a little walk would cheer him up but for the first time ever. Arktik did not want to go for a walk, we got started and the only thing he wanted to do was to go back home. Heartbreaking moment for me....

So from there obviously I started to get very worried. I could tell he was nauseated too, it looked like he wanted the food but that it was making him sick to his stomach. I kept watching him like an hawk last evening and I notice a bump on his snout, and under I realized the lump was on his gums (higher than the canine tooth)...So I was hoping this could all be due to an abcess. This morning I managed to get a vet appointment, we did a good physical exam. We haven't done blood work and x-rays for the lungs (maybe we will eventually). The first thought is the abcess would be responsible for his lack of appetite and general discomfort over the last fews days. 

Anybody has experienced similar situation? 

We got him started on an antibiotic treatment to deal with the abcess, the vet was confident it would treat it for now (in most cases) but one of the issue is that this is the kind of things often comes back (whether it is in 1 month, 6 months and more). When it does (especially if it is very soon after the antibiotic treatment) the next thing to do is surgery to remove the whole tooth with the roots. Fingers cross that everything will get better quickly and that we won't have to go through surgery (especially not so soon after ampu)

In the general exam we did, we found out Arktik was painful in his lower back. I suspected he was a bit sore from his hind legs lately (in the past 2-3 weeks) as he seemed a little bit more stiff, but it is hard to tell as he is still running, jumping etc. It is mainly when he is getting up that I noticed a difference. Any advice for this is also welcome. I just want to help him to stay as healthy and comfortable as much as possible. The vet thought he still look to be doing very well mobility wise, it is just subtle change that I have noticed. 

Hopefully I will get back to you in a few days with positive news! (Now we are both taking it easy as I did not sleep much last night being overly worried.)

Thanks for your input Jerry! What Arktik has certainly looks like what Wyatt had. The vet seemed pretty confident it was an abscess but in any case, our first plan is to try antibiotic see if it takes care of the problem (we should know in about 5 days) if it doesn't, Plan B is surgery. I keep my.  fingers crossed for the antibiotics to work!

Our routine with Arktik is usually about 2km (1.2miles) of walking/running (at his rhythm) in the field/wood trails. Of course we have our little adventures once in a while that add to it but this is our regular exercise load. Do you think this is too much? He seems comfortable usually when he is running, and he is still jumping easily to get up in my car for example or other things like that. It has just been for the past few weeks that I have notice he is a bit more stiff getting up from his bed. I figure I would give him some rest the a little while to see if it helps and also try to get an appointment in rehab (during the spring after surgery it was closed due to COVID). He is still very mobile and agile, I think it is just subtle changes that I have noticed and I don't want him to get worse. In terms of prevention, he has been on carthrophen injections for about 8 months now.

He seemed fairly comfortable today! We'll see in the next few days:)