About 6 weeks ago, Oak the setter puppy and Tex got out for some time on birds. We had a great time and here are the pictures.
Tex getting on a Chukar!
Oak is a sweet boy and is progressing fast.
Teasing Tex with the dead bird you can’t see.
Nice puppy point!
Oak ain’t too happy about getting stickers plucked out of his ass.
This bird’s stock is plummeting fast. It did not end well for him!
AyA 4/53
Nothing unusual happened during the hunt, but afterword Tex was lame on his left rear wheel. I thought he had a sticker in his paw but could not find anything. He was ok after a day or so and we did not think much about it until he came up lame again after a romp at the dog park. A trip to Colorado Canine Orthopedic confirmed that he had torn the doggie equivalent of an ACL.
Holy Crap! He had to have TPLO surgery. This highly invasive procedure breaks his leg, re-aligns the joint and then bolts everything back together. It is amazing that someone figured this out but the bad news is that he is out of commission for 12 weeks! That puts him back in the field in mid-december. More bad news is that it cost a mere $3,600. I could have gotten 4 new dogs for that, but I could never look in Tex’s beautiful golden eyes and tell him that he is done. We love our dogs!
Tex is now 3 weeks into recovery. He is doing great and will be in the field and almost good as new before Christmas. The worst part of this is restricting a high energy shorthair to only leash walks for 2 months. He very well might lose his mind.
Poor Tex.
Birdhunter 
Oh no!! So sorry to hear about Tex. He’ll be back at it soon though. Great pics, awesome hunt!!
Thanks Tedd! Tex is not a very happy puppy right now.
Aaaarg, bummer about Tex’s injury…especially at this time of year!
Hi Sean! Tell me about it! He will get to hunt the last half or quarter of the season. How are you? Have you landed anywhere yet? Aren’t you and Bill headed to SD soon?
Great pics!!! However, I’m not sure about how excited I’d be to be on the business end of you gun taking some of those pictures when the birds start to fly! Sorry about poor old Tex but I’m sure he’ll be just like the dog version of the Bionic Man once he’s fully recovered!
Thanks Charles! There were no photographers harmed in the making of this post.
Best wishes for Tex’s quick recovery. He’s going to be chewing his nails when he realizes he’s missing three months of the bird season, but he’ll be back in form next year.
Thanks Jerry!
How is Tex doing today a couple years after the surgery? I am about to have this procedure done on my GSP and would like to know if Tex regained all of his mobility?
Hi Korbin, Tex is 98%! He hunts hard, runs hard and plays hard . . . with no complaints. The only thing I can see is some stiffness on cold mornings in the field. It is truly amazing surgery. It seems that is is terribly complex, be sure you have a top notch surgeon. Rehab is long but worth it. I am sorry that you and your dog are going through this. My advice is to get it done. Please feel free to email me (see contacts page) if you have any questions. Thanks and good luck.