Sunday, January 17, 2010

the poor puppy

It's a good thing he thoroughly enjoyed himself during the big snow last week.
Because I think his ultimate undoing was chasing the sleds down the hill and getting run over once or twice.
Which resulted in a limp about 3 days later.
And a vet visit on Thursday indicating that his right hind leg is injured, hopefully just a sprain that needs to heal vs. a torn ACL or meniscus in that knee. Wow. Totally not the news I was expecting. But what came next was worse-the whole luxating patella diagnosis. We are just living for the right now and hoping he heals from this boo boo well enough to enjoy being a puppy for at least a few years. We are not "spend thousands of dollars on dog surgery" kinds of people. That being said, I cannot stand to think of him suffer. So, in the sage words of Dave...we will just wait and see. Little dude does have a grade 3-4 case in both legs so I get a stomach ache thinking about the future. Here you can find more info on luxating patellas, or trick knees.
At the vet's suggestion, I did call the breeder b/c this is hereditary and her in words--those dogs should not continue to be bred if this is the result. He was sympathetic and compassionate which is really all I can expect.
I welcome any success stories and happy endings. For now, the kids just know the injured leg is sore, we have not told them there could be a long term problem. And while Skipper sometimes holds up his leg for a few seconds, he is mostly his wild self. I am supposed to be keeping him calm but it's hard and I figure he should enjoy himself in the right here and now.
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2 comments:

Amy said...

oh no! poor skipper. both of angie's dogs had torn acl's (from leaping off the bed). they are bijon friese (or however you spell it).

keep me up to date on skipper.

kenandbelly said...

Oh, sweet thing. Sounds like he has a strong spirit. Best wishes. :)