My Poor Dog :(
I’m sure that anyone who reads this and has talked to me probably knows about my dog Pepper.
She is such a great dog and her favorite thing in the whole world is to fetch her ball. If you came into my home and threw a ball for her, you were her friend for life.
Last night when we were playing ball like we usually do, I heard her yelp and not her typical momentary yelp that she does when she’s not actually hurt. This was a yelp that I hadn’t heard from her before, but I knew right away that something was wrong.
When I went over to her, she clearly did not want to stand up and her right hind leg was stretched out and she was favoring it. I sat with her for a little while and then I got up and she got up as well, but she was clearly not wanting to put weight on her leg. I let her outside and she was able to get down the stairs of the deck, but she wasn’t able to get back up them. I had to go out and pick her up and carry her up the stairs.
This morning it was obvious that she wasn’t getting any better. I called up the vet and took her in. The vet said that she tore some ligaments or tendons in her knee. She gave me some pain medication for Pepper and told me to see how she does. Whatever it was that Pepper tore, it won’t heal on it’s own. I don’t know if it’s the muscle around it or what exactly, but that needs to get stronger to compensate.
If she doesn’t seem any better in 3 or 4 days, I need to bring Pepper back in for an x-ray to make sure there’s no broken bones or anything and then most likely Pepper will need surgery.
In any case, right now Pepper is in pain and there’s nothing else I can do for her. She’s been trying so hard to keep being as active as she used to be when what she really needs is to lay down and take it easy.
It’s breaking my heart to realize that the chances are pretty good that Pepper will never get to enjoy her favorite thing in the whole world anymore.
I’m also feeling a little bit guilty because I don’t think this tear happened all at once. I noticed that Pepper was not wanting to go up stairs unless she had to. I thought that she was starting to show signs of having arthritis being that she just turned 10 years old this month. If I had known, I would have had her taking it easy much sooner and maybe it wouldn’t have gotten this bad.
