Ruby did probably a total of 3 minutes of agility, jumping some tiny little jumps and running through the tunnel. I am so careful with her these days. A bit of frisbee chasing. Followed by 30 minutes of trotting through the forest. All legs were functional and we all had a grand time. The sun was out and the ice was melted, the dogs were all good, life was good.
Hell. Gustavo was even off of his forest walking leash. Many recalls, in the forest today. Life was really good.
Later that day, dramatic Ruby swooning and screaming and her right hind, high in the air when she tried to walk. Which was as far as the bathroom, where she wedged herself under the sink, to shake and moan and carry on. I gave her some drugs and figured to hope for the best. How does a dog injure herself relaxing in the heater chair?
Ruby spent much of her agility career rehabbing various injuries. I broke her a lot of times. Right front. Left front. Right front. Left front. Did her bad eyes cause the crashing, or did the bad legs? Poor Ruby. Her body just wasn't cut out for the sporty life. The drugs and crate rest regime was a big part of her agility lifestyle, and she's never been better since she became semi-retired.
Until today.
3 minutes. Of 8" jumps, and a tunnel. Careful, moderate handling for the sight impaired. Not a bar touched. It shouldn't have busted her chops like this.
I gave her drugs, I drug her out from under the sink and stuck her in a nice, soft dog bed. None of this helped, and we ended up at the nighttime vet. The good news from him, not a cruciate. I hadn't thought so, doing my jr. vet flexion tests, but a dog with it's right hind held way up in the air, totally not a pretty picture. Something is quite wrong with her hip though. She was very clear about that. The sounds she can make. Ruby is usually very quiet, and when she starts screaming like that, you know she's in pain.
We're going the route of drugs and locked in a crate to see if it goes away. An exciting, 3 legged leash walk to the yard to potty for a while. We'll give it some time, see if it goes back to normal. If it doesn't look better in a week, plan B will have to start. I don't even want to think about plan B.
We hate it when one of the team is out on disability. But it happens. But Ruby is my solid citizen, hardly wears a leash, lovely well behaved dog. The voice of reason to Otterpop's manic outbursts, and Gustavo's random bizarreness. We all NEED Ruby. We sure do hope she gets well soon.
Did you ever dream that you were a dog agility super champ except then it switched and you were at some germy, grungy, derelict seaside park in the dark and the carnies were actually drug addled zombies that were shambling after you with hammers and their big teeth? And then as you're trying to escape your way out from under their oily, horrible claws by clambering up a rat infested palm tree, you're all, this is about dog agility like, how?
13 comments:
Get well soon, Ruby.
Oh no. Sure hope she is better soon. Sending good thoughts your way.
I will tell Ruby. She needs good thoughts because she believes we are all the devil now and are poisoning her food.
poor ruby, poisons and pain and devils... we will keep all fingers and paws crossed here for a speedy recovery and no plan b.
valpig
Oh no. I hope she feels better soon. Diana
That's so frustrating. Really, it could've been anything. She might have slipped a little on a wet branch on the hike. You'd never know what it was, and just like people [e.g., me specifically] you don't know that it's been done in until you sit for a while and that's when it stiffens up. With Tika, sometimes I know right away; e.g., she blasts into a tunnel and comes out limping. Other times, she's fine when she goes into the crate but not when she comes out. It usually looks like it's one of her legs, but the vet thinks that she's got a little arthritis in her neck and if she tweaks things in just the right (wrong) way, it pinches the nerve and makes the whole leg/hip/shoulder hurt or a little numb or both. Any chance it could be something like that?
P.S. yes we had xrays of tika's neck and yes they used anaesthesia to do it, which didn't thrill me but I wanted the pictures.
Oh, poor Ruby. I hope she's better soon and that the rest and drugs do the trick. Sometimes these things take a long time to heal.
Yes, Ruby, TSD needs you! Get better quick!
poor little girly, some swedish masssage, perhaps? pate on the side? hot water bottle in the bed?
not to freak you out, Laura, but my little papillon did exactly this last month. He was walking in the kitchen, so were the other dogs. Walking I say, no running, jumping, or otherwise roughhousing. Suddenly little Mickey was screaming and hold his right hind leg way up high. Somehow, unlike all the other times when he's been tumbled about, this time I knew something was wrong. To end the story, his hip was dislocated. It took an x-ray to see. I still can't figure out how this traumatic injury happened from dogs walking in the kitchen. I hope Ruby is better soon, and doesn't have a serious injury. MIckey is recovering from FHO surgery.
Thanks for all the good thoughts, everyone.
Teri, your hip dislocation story freaks me out some.
If it doesn't look better in a few days, I will have radiographs done.
She is bearing some weight on it today, but still has it up quite a lot and when she does bear weight on it she walks all freaky deaky-sucked up, low hind end and shuffly, uncomfortable walk. I was finally able to convince her tonight she could walk a bit to go to the bathroom, she'd been holding it since yesterday. So it does seem better, just not a whole lot better.
She is a lot less freaked out now at least and will rest quietly in her crate.
I really like Bachs Rescue Remedy when dealing with lay ups. Well, for me and the dog. I was surprised that it really did help me. Especially around the holiday times with relatives.
We all have our paws crossed for Ruby that she feels better soon.
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