Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted by Animals at 5:59 PM Thursday, August 20, 2009

Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Trials and Tribulations of Life with a Dog

Posted: 19 Aug 2009 06:22 AM PDT

CarmiePortraitSmall Somehow, life with a dog is more complicated than life with a cat. At least, that's been my experience. Cats have their issues, of course - but dogs get into more trouble and seem likely to be injured more often than cats. We're speaking of indoor cats, btw. Outdoor cats are exposed to more disasters than I care to note, here. Our previous cat was an outdoor cat and he was always coming home with ... issues that needed vet care. Wabby is a happy indoor cat. She is growing old gracefully.

But, I digress. This post is about dogs and the strange things that happen to them, regardless of how careful you are with them. For instance, many years ago our Carmie went out to have a few minutes chasing squirrels in the backyard and came back in limping. I didn't think much of it, but when it was a bit worse the next day, we took her in to the vet. She had a cruciate ligament tear, something Dr. Larry discussed last year on this blog.

How did she do that? We don't know. Just running around the back yard, the vet said. How crazy is that? Carmie healed well, and quickly, and we put the incident out of our minds.

Well, yesterday I got a frantic call from my Colorado daughter - letting us know that the delightful Twiggy, her Greyhound, had broken her leg. Let me repeat - Twiggy broke her leg. How? Running around the dog park! For gosh sakes, how strange is that? Twiggy is a happy-go-lucky dog and loves running (she is a Greyhound) so who could ever imagine that doing something that gives her pleasure could result in a broken leg?

The scoop is that Twiggy has a Tibial Tuberosity Avulsion Fracture. You can see what one looks like if you click the link. Like Carmie's ligament tear, this happened just...while Twiggy was doing what Twiggy does, running around enjoying herself. The ensuing vet care and cost is well over $1000 - which shouldn't even come up in the conversation but - unless one has pet health insurance, that $1000+ will come out of one's pocket, and today, coming up with that kind of money is not easy.

Naturally, we all want Twiggy to get the BEST care and to heal properly. I wish I was in CO now, so ITwiggy-with-broken-leg could help care for Twiggy (help keep her rested while my daughter goes to work), but I'm not. I suspect she will still be on "less active" care by the time we get to CO in November. It's best, I think, to error on the side of caution, meaning Chloe needs to keep her quiet for a good period of time. No more running around the dog park this year!

Sad. But, there you have it. Our dogs can jump down from a chair (little dogs) and injure themselves. They can get rambunctious with our kids and ram their heads into a wall (ouch!), they can get stung by a bee or other insect and need immediate care, because they're allergic - and yet, who knew?

Life is always throwing tomatoes at us - just to keep us on our toes, I guess. I'll let you know how Twiggy does. She's such a sweet dog and so active, I know it's going to be tough keeping her quiet for the next six to eight weeks. Big, humungous sigh. 

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