01 April 2009

She blinded me with science. And bacon grease.


When you have animals, and I have a lot of animals, medical problems never go away. They might ebb and flow, but you always keep a special credit card that always has space for whatever the next thing will be. You might know the next thing, or it might just fling itself up into your face like bacon grease gone hot and spattery. You just have to be ready. And I don't even eat bacon. Vegetables, don't make much grease. Oh wait. But donuts do!

Wasn't ready for kitty. Hot grease to the face. Little spatter in the eye that makes you weep, unexpected charge on the card, and sad loss for our family hearts.

Ruby, we are used to her limpy ways and try to keep her out of the vet as much as possible. Thank you, my friend and customer vets who come to the barn for their personal recreation time and sometimes get put to work doing dog vet stuff. And cat vet stuff. But we don't make them do the horse vet stuff! Most vets, happy to stay either on the large animal side of the fence or small animal side of the fence and nary any fence climbing. Like not even give their own horse a shot. Makes them sad and queasy, even if they take apart dog insides and put them back together all day.

So Ruby is going to go be fun science project for the small animal vets today. No, PETA, not animals testing! Stay away from me with your firebombs! I don't even eat bacon! I felt bad enough comparing her to Guess Jeans the other day. Not selling her off for that. Ruby not for sale. She's a good dog. But, instead of going to work this morning, she has to sit all day at the vet office because the vets' friend the super dog orthopedic guy is coming to visit and they want to use her to make him really mad. Because they bet he won't be able to figure out Ruby either. The vet with the orthopedic friend, he gave up on Ruby long ago. Why, why, why, he wonders, do I still try to figure this out? You are such a horse person, he says. Always looking for that reason, when we suspect she's forever hinky. Just give her 2 weeks off and her drugs.

Poor Ruby. But it is a mystery, a dog who can be on 3 legs one day but not react to anything anyone dishes out looking for a cause. The vets all agree, whichever injury it is, same thing. Rest and drugs. We do that a lot. She did some agility last week, this week she's back on rest and drugs.

Actually today, since I told her where she's spending her day, back on 4 legs. Even got to go for a little walk on a leash. Spooky.

So, uh, can dogs fake injuries? I mean, come on. She was hopping for 3 days like her leg, it's broken. And then, poof. My leg, not broken.

We'll see tonight, when I get her back after super orthopedic guy gets done with her.

2 comments:

some random female said...

That Ruby, she's an enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, and tied with a riddle... or something like that.

Has no one whipped out the old "soft tissue injury" theory? Usually the next sentence is something like, "And soft tissue injuries take a very long time to heal... if they ever do."

Not to sound all negative. [Yes, I DO happen to have a dog with a supposed soft tissue injury, as you might have guessed.]

team small dog said...

Yes, this is the old theory, or tendonitis, or other shoulder bursitis that just comes and goes. The disturbing thing is how now every so often she screams though, and then can't bear weight for a while. Then is ok.

Rest and rimadyl, nothing much else to do.