Roughhousing has its price. ....and it's a hefty one.
Shep is always excited when I come home from work. On Tuesday, 710 let him outside to greet me and I got him all riled up. 710 doesn't allow Shep to jump on him, but I do - and he's good about doing it only to me.
When outside, after the initial riling, Shep usually does 3-4 zoomies around the perimeter of the back yard. But this time, he only made if a few dozen yards.
We assume ice / snow played a factor - and speed. You'd never assume by just looking at him, but the little man is wicked fast. In a matter of seconds, we should have seen him round a corner, but we didn't - and then we heard whining, then crying. Naturally, we ran to him.
At this point, Shep was holding up his paw and unable to put it down or bear weight on it. Immediately, I got on the phone and tried our vet - only open for one more hour, they had no openings, but made an appointment for the next morning.
30 minutes later, we were on our way to the emergency vet office - open 24/7. .....and there is a cost that comes with that, one we were willing to pay. While only 6 miles from us, as the crow flies, it takes 25 minutes. Or, eternity.
Relief came when I saw the vet tech. She not only knew Shep from our vet's office, for years she took care of Petey. While I didn't feel great, I felt better. I felt worse when they told us we'd have to leave him for 2-3 hour so the could do x-rays et al.
I wasn't as worried about a broken leg, because dogs do well with casts. I was worried about a torn ACL, which would mean surgery and rehab. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of that cost, but it was more the trauma of putting Shep through that.
As luck (?) would have it, he has some soft tissue damage. Enough for a week of drugs. Enough for no stairs for a week to 10 days (yeah, right), and no unsupervised walks (i.e. all outside time on a leash).
I slept downstairs with him two nights ago and last night (or today, as I draft this). He's FINALLY using the $120 dog bed we bought him, which has only been used for storing toys.
He's already on the mend. He limps, but now and then puts weight on his right paw. We took a small walk - five houses down and turn around. And he's still very very very very interested in squirrels. That could impede his recovery.
I'm feeling much better than when I wrote my post for yesterday. I was anxious and nauseated on the "what ifs".
710 is working from home this week, so that's good. We'll have to figure out next, as. don't think he'll be able to go to daycare with these kind of restrictions. Still...........I'll have to suppress his urge to get riled up with me. I can't live with that guilt.
Song by: the Surfaris
