Injured leg week… take three?
Truthfully, I can’t even remember where I had got up to previously with this. Those of you who have read my previous posts injured leg week and injured leg week take two will know that Clover’s back leg had been injured because she was chasing a Husky. She was running too far for too long and got too excited and then she was limping. I thought that she had pulled a muscle. After about a week or so of short walks on the lead, or no walks at all, it appeared to have healed itself….phew! All was well again. We had a few weeks of no issues, I didn’t really think much of it again and then BAM! She over-exerted herself again and came limping over to me looking all guilty as if to say ” I ran too much again and now leg is hurty.”
I phoned the vet who told me that the short lead walks had been the right thing to do previously, but that I needed to do it for longer for it to fully heal her leg. So, I did the short lead walk (or no walk at all) thing again for a much longer period of time. Obviously, this was much to Clovers’ dismay. No zooming round like a lunatic? No bombing it around the house? No playing with other dogs? She may as well have died and gone to hell. (Truthfully, me too because not only was I worried about her leg and dealing with the guilt of not letting it heal properly the first time, but I was also the victim of Clover’s ‘mummy I’m bored’ behaviour, having only been able to walk her for a very short distance.) BUT, a good few weeks of staying on the lead, only one walk a day and absolutely no running whatsoever and her leg was showing huge signs of improvements. She stopped limping, starting using the leg properly again and was even more boisterous than usual. We began slightly longer lead walks over the next few weeks, and then even longer than that. Finally, we were back up to half an hour walks again. I began letting her off the lead again and then she began chasing sticks, chasing balls and doing zoomies. We were fine. SHE was fine… or so I thought.
Why is my dog limping?
A few weeks later, with all being back to normal, Clover was playing with one of her doggy friends. Running, jumping, playing… just as they always did. But this time something was different. This time, whilst playing, something hurt Clover so much that she couldn’t put her foot down on the floor at all. When she came to me, her back leg was hanging limp. I mean TOTALLY floppy, just hanging from her hip joint, dangling above the ground. I immediately felt sick. It look as though she had broken it, with the way she was holding it so high off the ground and the way it just hung so limply in the air. She wasn’t even letting it touch the floor, let alone trying to walk on it. I picked her up and carried her to my car and carefully tucked her into her blankets in the back seat and she yelped. Not normal. Clover is a very chilled out dog. She doesn’t whimper or cry at any pain ever. Not when she’s had injections and other treatments at the vets, not if a dog is a bit rough with her, not if she hurts herself by running into the back door- (yes, she’s done that- multiple times). But that day she did. She yelped and she yelped loudly. She cried when I picked her up out the car again, and she yelped again when I put her on the sofa and tucked her into the blankets. She wouldn’t settle, wouldn’t lie down properly and she just looked really really sad. I was in tears. Frantic with worry, with guilt and with love. I knew as soon as I heard the first yelp that this wasn’t just a pulled muscle. I needed a vet. So, I booked in for the very next day to take her to be seen. I got her down off the sofa and put her on her cosy bed on the floor and wrapped her in her blanket… and that is how she stayed. Curled up, in a ball not moving. She didn’t eat dinner, she didn’t ‘kick off’ at me (as she usually does multiple times a day)… she just lay there.
I can’t explain how sick and sad this whole scenario made me feel. I felt guilty that I couldn’t instantly fix it for her, that I couldn’t make the pain go away and I didn’t know what she wanted or needed from me in order to make things even a little bit better. So, I just lay with her calmy, stroking her head and talking to her. I picked her up and took her outside to see if she needed the toilet a few times but each time she just stood looking up at me sadly, her back leg hanging as limply as it had earlier that day. I hated that I had let her leg get this bad, I hated that I had let her run around so soon and I hated that I was helpless. All I could do was be with her and wait for the vets the very next day…
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!
Subscribe below for notifications whenever a new diary entry is released!
*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.*
Proudly powered by WordPress
