A diary of my ‘ruff’ reality.
August 2023 roundup ?
As you can see from the photo, the month of August has been very tiring for Clover. From anal gland problems, to a bad belly, to a stung paw and an injured leg… there’s not much that Clover and I haven’t had to deal with together. It’s almost as though she knows I’ve begun writing this blog, and she thought “yeah, I’ll give you something to write about”.
The good news is, we seem to be coming out the other side. The stung paw has healed, causing no further issues. The bad belly was temporary and the anal glands have cleared up and given us both a break- thank god! The injured leg we are still working on. It’s so much better than it was, and it is really tempting to walk Clover slightly further again now because she isn’t really limping anymore. The vet said to do short lead walks for the next few weeks, so that’s what we have been doing. She can do 20 minutes quite easily now, I think she could probably do more like 30, but I know that I shouldn’t push her to go further, and risk setting her progress back. Although she isn’t really limping now when she walks, when she is standing she doesn’t put her injured paw on the floor completely, and she isn’t putting full weight on it. We’re definitely progressing, but there is a long way to go yet.
Clover, naturally, still tries to play with other dogs whist on the lead and with an injured leg. I have to keep the lead short, let her sniff the other dog and then move on… which she hates. Playing with other dogs is her favourite thing in the world and I’m preventing her from doing it. I feel so mean, and she probably thinks I’m mean too.
She also keeps dragging me to the park and expecting to be let off the lead as usual. Whenever we go to the park (without an injured leg!), I throw a ball for her. She gets very excited and jumps up at me trying to get the ball. I made the mistake of walking her in the park with an injured leg recently. Obviously, she thought we were having ball time and got very excited- which wasn’t good for her leg. So, I’ve been trying to avoid the park ever since, so that she doesn’t get too excited or start jumping up at me. This doesn’t sit well with Clover, who immediately makes her way towards the park whenever we leave the house.
So now, every time we go for a walk, we have this awkward battle where Clover tries to go in the direction of the park and I try to get her to go the other way. She’s very stubborn and refuses to come with me, and so instead she just stands in the middle of the road- which of course is great fun for me trying to drag her back onto the path before a car comes. We also can’t go and play in the stream at the moment because of her bad leg (she jumps in and out and does zoomies in it), so she’s p*ssed off at me about that too I expect.
It feels unfair that she’s almost being punished for hurting herself, but it would be more unfair to let her have free reign as normal, and to let her hurt herself more. So, for now I’m putting up with the grumpy side eye from her (yes, this is a Frenchie thing!). She sort of looks at me with a mixture of disappointment and disgust- as though she can’t believe how horrific her life is now that she must stay on the lead for a few weeks. You’d think I’d just told her that I’m taking her to the dog pound! I’m willing to put up with the grumpy side eye, if it means that she will be ok. We’ve also been playing games (carefully) inside and she’s been given lots of new bones to keep her occupied, and to ensure that she is led down and resting as much as possible. So, her life isn’t that bad really…
Anyway, hopefully her leg will heal soon and September is a new month which will perhaps bring less challenges… or more. I’ll let you know how we get on…
If you missed any of my previous diary updates, you can find them at ‘the diary of my ruff reality.’
Alternatively, head to ‘nobody warned me about…’ to read about the dog ownership topics that I wish someone had told me about before I got Clover.
Thinking of getting a dog? Visit my ‘top tips page’ for important things that I probably should have considered further before buying my floppy eared hound!
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*Disclaimer- I have no animal related qualifications whatsoever. Which begs the question as to exactly how much of my advice you should take. This isn’t really an advice blog- not properly. It’s more of a ‘these are my experiences- maybe we can all learn from them’ type of blog. You should probably seek actual qualified veterinary/animal behaviourist/dog dietician advice if you genuinely have any dog related concerns. I’m just here to share the things I’ve learnt in my three years of dog ownership. Some of which may be useful- some not.*
