We were all worried that Poppy would be really tired today after an evening at Dog club, but we were pleasantly surprised. Although her morning walk ended up with a carry home, as we probably went a bit far (to the Open Space and the exciting stream), but after a couple of minutes rest she was back up again.
We are starting to get to know her now, and gradually we will hopefully work out what Poppy enjoys and what she can cope with.
I am still desperately searching the internet for any new information about HMLR or as it is now technically known CNM - Centro-nuclear myopathy. This name was adopted in 2003 after some scientists in France identified the cause of the disease is basically a defective gene. Apparently they think that in one dog a spontaneous change occurred of this gene, making it "bad". Then with close breeding, the faulty gene was bred into the breed. It seems that if you breed with one faulty gene carrier then you will just get carriers, but if you breed with two dogs with the faulty gene then 25% of the litter will be clear, 50% will be carriers and 25% will have the disease.
I still have not found out much more than this with my searching, although one website I visited today reckoned that the disease stabilises at 5 months. If this is true then perhaps we only have a month more of total worry?
Poppy does seem to need to bark, more than our other labradors. We think this is probably because she is slightly insecure when she hears noises that she doesn't understand. Certainly high pitched noises like electric saws, and also bells seem to be a worry to her.
She also dislikes the hoover and the food processor, but tends to run away from these rather than bark. It is not surprising that she is slightly insecure, as obviously with her history, we do not believe that she had much socialisation prior to at the earliest about 14 weeks. Gracious I have known her 4 weeks now, and I would certainly say when I stop and reflect on her progress that there is no definite deterioration in her condition in this period. In fact I would say that there may even be slight improvements; she is standing up for her food now, which she did not do originally (in fact when she was first rescued she would not even eat, and when we baby-sat for her she needed to be spoon fed), she is very alert when she has the energy, and enjoys going exploring.
I still think that Dad's description of a clockwork toy running down is probably about right, we just may gradually be able to wind the clock up for a bit longer.
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