[anngie]

We have worried about Bandit getting winded easily and not having a lot of stamina for quite a while. We have mentioned it to our vet several times. This last week we took him in for an annual check and he seemed to have injured himself while running a couple of days before and slipped in the mud. He was playing with his brother.
He wasn't limping but we decided to have him x-rayed because he flinched when the vet rotated his hips and knee. They put an oxygen mask on him while he was under sedation. The vet has been out for health reasons since then so we really only know that his hips are fine and his oxygen level is 88. We think we remember saying that it should be 94 or above. Does anyone know? Bandit is 109.5 lbs now and is about 10 lbs overweight. We've cut back on the treats and amt of food.

 

[DianaM]

I'd take him to a different vet. This doesn't sound right to me. He definitely needs more exercise but you need to have some clear information from the vet on the oxygen and why he gets winded so fast. He could simply be very overweight (do you have a photo?) or something else could be going on.

 

[Spiritsmam]

Depends on how they measured Bandit's oxygen saturation. If it was using a pulse oximeter then I would ask them to run a blood gas (preferably arterial). Pulse oximeters can be inaccurate, and the value they provide doesn't tell you anything about how the oxygen is actually being used by Bandit.

 

[anngie]

This is about a yr ago. He has gained about 7 lbs since then.

 

[anngie]

The vet tech called and said the vet is going to call us regarding Bandit's oxygen level being low.

 

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Any news?

 

[anngie]

We did hear from the vet. He said unfortunately that the oxygen level is not an accurate reading. Since he was not there to do the x-ray an anesthetic was used which relaxed Bandit's tongue and made the level lower. His findings are that he does not have an ortho problem. Bandit is not limping now. He wants us to video tape him when he gets tired from running and also to buy a rectal thermometer to how high his temp is. Yikes, a 109 GSD might not like that very much. He thinks Bandit may be a dog who heats up fast and stops because he is hot. We will see. He is doing ok now. -