May 28, 2012

• Luna’s Week Off

  While everyone else in enjoying their long weekend off from work, Luna is getting ready for an entire week off. And it’s breaking this mommy’s heart!

  On Saturday, when Luna woke up, she came limping out of her crate, highly favoring her front left paw. We checked for any obvious problems, but there was nothing we could see. We decided to give it some time, just to see if it would wear off. Sometimes her legs fall asleep depending on how she was sleeping, and it takes a little bit for all the blood to start flowing normally.

  As the day progressed, however, she got worse. It went from a slight limp, to not putting any pressure on it at all and hopping around on 3 legs. But as we massaged and manipulated that leg and paw, there was no indication of any pain. She was also just as lively as normal – listening to every noise around, trying to play, wanting to run (hop…) up and down the hallway after her ball. When it didn’t get better, we called the vet to schedule an appointment for first thing Sunday morning.

  Well, the vet loved Luna. All the vets do. They love how beautiful she is, they love that she just sits patiently on the scale while they get her weight, and that she’ll lay down in the exam room and let them do whatever they want to her. She did all of that this time, still not putting any pressure on her front left paw. Even in the examination, she showed no signs of agitation. The only indication she gave of pain was a slight tensing when the vet was manipulating the tendons and joints in that leg. She said how tough Luna is, even for a dog.

  The Xrays the vet requested showed that Luna has Elbow Displaysia, Arthritis, and joint problems – which isn’t quite normal for a dog Luna’s age. She’s 4ish. But since we don’t know her full history due to her being a shelter dog, there is some indication that something happened early in her life to sort of start these issues. It’s something that I can expect to be an issue in the future, although there isn’t really cause for concern in the amount of activity she does as a service dog. But, the vet said, surely this has been causing her pain before now, but she just never showed it. She’s one tough cookie. And she must have a very high pain tolerance, like her mom.

  But she is showing us now, which means it must be a pretty severe amount of pain. She must have done something that morning that just aggravated all this to the point that she couldn’t ignore it, although she is desperately trying to and is VERY angry that this means no jumping on our bed or playing with her ball. She is on some pain medicine, and might be getting more depending on what her bloodwork shows, and she has been given very strict instructions to take one full week off.

  From this picture, you would never know she is hurt!

  

  Here you can see her favoring that paw, not letting it touch the ground.

  

  This is how she has started sleeping – I wonder if its the most comfortable since it puts no pressure on that leg?

  

  And here are a couple videos (Video 1 and Video 2) of her hopping around.  (Sorry they are sideways – I didn’t think about that when I took them…)
  (Side note – to play the videos, I had to hit the Pause button at the bottom of the movie square, THEN hit the big play button that came up in the center)
  Even with a hurt leg, she still sits in front of the door before I open it and waits until I say she can go on the porch.  She’s so obedient!

  But it’s going to be a LONG week of “bed rest” for this hard little worker.

   

  • 7:01 pm
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