Ever since we moved, Shelby's (our 3 and a half year old Rhodesian Ridgeback) separation anxiety has progressively gotten worse. We decided, after door frames, torn carpet and anxiety meds....that she should go to doggy day care. My mother-in-law is usually home during the day so we asked her if it was ok if Shelby spent the daytime there so that she can have a safe, and most of the time supervised, environment outside. This past Monday I was playing with Shelby on our bed. After I walked away I heard a loud thud and when I returned I saw our poor baby lying on the floor. She had fallen off! I had her get up, and walk around but I didn't notice anything wrong. I kept an eye on her, but only a little favoring of her hind side came from it, so I thought that she was just sore. On Thursday, the hubbs was playing with her and we went outside and she wanted to run, so we let her run her little heart out. We finished our evening and went to bed. Friday we awoke and didn't notice any discomfort in her so he took her over to his parents and off to work we went.
At 1PM Linda (M.I.L) informed us that she was limping really bad, and wasn't putting any weight on her leg. Crap. She called my sister-in-law, who is in vet school, for a recommendation. After informing her all the particulars she recommended that we take her to the vet for a check up and x-ray. Our vet just so happens to own the clinic and is a family member. So I made an appointment to see him. Once we arrived, despite hardly any limping, (my M.I.L. and I were joking that she was faking for attention) we described her symptoms and he went to work. He told us a number of things that could be wrong, but that we should get an x-ray just to check and make sure that there was nothing wrong with her hips, back, or broken bones. Once x-rayed he came in to tell us that she had nothing was broken and her hips and back are fine. Whew! He then said that we need to watch out for her Cruciate ligament, which is the ligament inside the knee. If that ligament is ripped, then it means surgery. Yikes. Hopefully it's just a pulled muscle, but we have pain meds and are watching her carefully. No running or craziness for the pup for a bit. Our poor baby! We are hoping for a speedy recovery. She already feels normal and wants to jump and play, but we are airing on the side of caution as she is still babying that leg!
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