![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Doggy issues
A few weeks ago, before the British snowpocalypse, Poppy came home from her walk limping. Mum gave her a little of Rocky's pain medication and the next day she was fine.
Post-snowpocalypse, the same thing happened again. Sis's Useless Fiance took the dogs out, as he often does (it's the only thing he's not useless at!) and when they returned Poppy wasn't just limping, she was walking on three legs. Again, after a night's rest, she was fine.
Poppy is the world's most loveable dog; I know all dog-owners say that about their pets, but she really is. She's half Jack Russel and half Chihuahua, cute as a button and she loves everyone. But that odd genetic heritage does give her some issues with running. She has a tendancy to drag the knuckles on her front paws when she runs fast, so she has little patches of fur missing and sometimes comes home bleeding a little. But this is something new. (That's Amber in my icon; I don't have a Poppy icon yet.)
Anyhow, last night Sis and Mum took her to the vet. They had the Useless Fiance take the dogs out again beforehand, in the hope (!) that she'd be showing symptoms for the vet's benefit. I get the logic, but wishing pain on the poor thing seems very wrong to me. And although she was once again limping, it didn't seem so bad this time.
The vet thinks she's somehow damaged her kneecap, and it's popping out of joint when she runs, then righting itself after some rest. He prescribed pain meds, and told us not to exercise her or throw the ball for her for a whole week. After which she's got to go back for a checkup.
This vet is asking the impossible. Not the no-walkies thing; we can not walk the dogs for a week. But Poppy is ball-crazy. She came to us attached to a ball (imagine a chihuahua puppy with a scarlet tennis ball bigger than its head in its mouth - that was puppy-Poppy) and she constantly plays ball. She'll bring a ball to anyone who sits still for a second. She'll drop one at your feet if you stand in what she considers a ball-throwing area. If you try to ignore her, she'll go get another ball and pile them up until you've got to throw them or risk a serious fall. And there's no way we can hide them all - she has too many. And boy is she good at finding them! Even if we did hide them, she'd find the hiding place and get all bouncy there, which I assume would defeat the no-exercise rule.
So I don't know what we're gonna do. Just make her miserable, I guess...
Post-snowpocalypse, the same thing happened again. Sis's Useless Fiance took the dogs out, as he often does (it's the only thing he's not useless at!) and when they returned Poppy wasn't just limping, she was walking on three legs. Again, after a night's rest, she was fine.
Poppy is the world's most loveable dog; I know all dog-owners say that about their pets, but she really is. She's half Jack Russel and half Chihuahua, cute as a button and she loves everyone. But that odd genetic heritage does give her some issues with running. She has a tendancy to drag the knuckles on her front paws when she runs fast, so she has little patches of fur missing and sometimes comes home bleeding a little. But this is something new. (That's Amber in my icon; I don't have a Poppy icon yet.)
Anyhow, last night Sis and Mum took her to the vet. They had the Useless Fiance take the dogs out again beforehand, in the hope (!) that she'd be showing symptoms for the vet's benefit. I get the logic, but wishing pain on the poor thing seems very wrong to me. And although she was once again limping, it didn't seem so bad this time.
The vet thinks she's somehow damaged her kneecap, and it's popping out of joint when she runs, then righting itself after some rest. He prescribed pain meds, and told us not to exercise her or throw the ball for her for a whole week. After which she's got to go back for a checkup.
This vet is asking the impossible. Not the no-walkies thing; we can not walk the dogs for a week. But Poppy is ball-crazy. She came to us attached to a ball (imagine a chihuahua puppy with a scarlet tennis ball bigger than its head in its mouth - that was puppy-Poppy) and she constantly plays ball. She'll bring a ball to anyone who sits still for a second. She'll drop one at your feet if you stand in what she considers a ball-throwing area. If you try to ignore her, she'll go get another ball and pile them up until you've got to throw them or risk a serious fall. And there's no way we can hide them all - she has too many. And boy is she good at finding them! Even if we did hide them, she'd find the hiding place and get all bouncy there, which I assume would defeat the no-exercise rule.
So I don't know what we're gonna do. Just make her miserable, I guess...