Good luck for you all, thanks for keeping us updated.

Hi Ali
I'm new here & I was reading through your posts....
I wonder if poor Jake has anything inbedded in the cut near his paw...if its sore this could make him grumpy....As for his little face I dont know what to suggest...could it be the canine form of bells palsy...
I would change your vets...ask advice from your pet insurance company...they might suggest another vetinary surgery.

I am sending healing thoughts to Jake, maybe he might feel better.
It must be a nightmare for you & your partner...Vet bills dont come cheap & I guess its been a worrying time for all of you.
Wishing you the best of luck.
Thinking of you,
Calmwaters

I have just caught up with this, I hope you get an answer very soon, and that your lovely boy is gback to his normal self. xx

Hi everyone.
Thanks for all your thoughts and good wishes and suggestions They've all been taken onboard.
Just a quick update to let you know we're expecting the results of Jake's hypothyroid blood test either tomorrow or Wednesday and I'll post back here as soon as we know anything.

Good luck with the results, please let us know how Jake is.
Love+light
Calmwaters

Hello.
Well we just go the results back for Jake's hypothyroidism blood test and it's negative, although the vet did say that his levels were lower than 'normal' but not enough to class him as a primary hypothyroid case.

Their advice is that he is evidently otherwise healthy, which he totally is (even his face definately looks better than it was, although the muscle wastage is of course still evident - I don't think muscle has a tendency to grow back!) so he doesn't look any where near as 'shocked' as he did before, and we should keep an eye on him and look out for anything unusual. Back to square one really, but at least he is very healthy and certainly very happy
They also said they could carry on running expensive tests to try and rule out other causes, but again, because there isn't actually anything 'wrong' with him they really wouldn't know where to start and it could prove extremely costly (money is still a BIG issue for us) so we're going to have to play it by ear again and watch him for any changes in health/behaviour.
So there we have it - back to square one but nowhere near as worried as we were before!
Thanks again for everyones support and kind thoughts and advice.

Hi Ali at least you know what it's not!

If there is some visible improvement, things haven't got any worse and Jake seems well otherwise I would be cautiously optimistic

Please continue to update us on Jakes condition, your posts will prove very useful to others who might have a dog with a similar condition and I am personally very interested in keeping up to date with your little dog....

I hope Jake continues to improve .
Many thanks ...

Hi Ali

What a story... Poor Jake.

Have you tried joining an american labrador site and ask there? I'm a member of one, and perhaps someone else "over there" may have experienced the same thing.

I just wanted to add aswell.. When Luna was speyed a month ago, we got Rimadyl home as painkillers for the 2 following days.

So I think Rimadyl is used for a lot of "things"

Let me know if you want the link to the american lab site, and I'll pm it..

Oh well at least he's fit and healthy. I guess it could be worse.

Thanks for the updates.