A couple of months ago, we were walking our usual southbound walk, when Grace suddenly stopped with her left hind leg hoisted up. She began biting the bottom of her foot, which usually means that she has stepped on a sand spur or a thorn. I tried to feel her paw, but she pulled it away and growled at me.
We were directly across the highway from our vet's office at that time, so I waited for a big gap in traffic both ways, then helped her hobble on over. She is always happy to go in there - there are dogs and cats and animal loving humans a-plenty in there. I explained the situation to the person at the desk, and she told me to have a seat in the waiting room, which was full of dogs and cats and animal loving humans. Grace was happily soaking up the attention until we got called into the examining room. She got up and trotted to the exit door, effectively saying, "Look! See? My leg feels much better, let's get on with our walk." No such luck. We dragged her into the exam room. Dr. Davis could feel the arthritis in both of her hind legs. Grace growled at her as well. Doc gave Grace a shot and gave me some anti-inflammatory chewables to get us through the next few weeks.
She seemed better at first, but as time wore on the pain got to be more than the medicine could handle. Carmen and I took her in for the follow-up appointment. We got pain meds, one of which I have been taking for my arthritis for about six years, and a different anti-inflammatory. The vet took some x-rays, and recommended a surgeon. We got an appointment with the surgeon so he could examine her and look at the x-rays.
That was Tuesday. I took her to the veterinary specialists office, where a masked and gloved tech came out to get her. She tried to climb into my lap to avoid capture, but the tech prevailed and dragged her inside. About an hour later they brought her back out. She trotted to the car and hopped in. "See? I'm feeling much better. No surgery needed. Sorry for wasting your time."
This morning we took her back there for the surgery, to repair her torn ACL in her left leg. It was hard to let her go in there for an overnight stay. But this time she hopped on out of the car and trotted happily along with the tech, without a look back. Go figure.
Carmen has called to check on her several times. The surgery went well, no untoward circumstances, she is still sleeping peacefully as of this afternoon. I pick her up tomorrow, cone and all, and begin twelve weeks of keeping her calm and subdued, which will be at least as hard on me as on her.
