Remaining Paws-itive.

For those of you who keep up with my blog, you probably remember back in April when Dobby had to make a trip to the vet for an infection he had developed in his elbow. He seemed to be doing better after taking the antibiotics, but about a month after he finished taking the meds, I noticed he started limping again. Not as bad as before, but it was to a point where I was worried he had developed another infection and I didn\’t want it to get to the point where it was at last time.

I took him to the vet again, and they took some more tests and x-rays. They said there was definitely an abnormality forming on his elbow joint, and they wanted to send his x-rays off to a radiologist for another opinion. I was probably being dramatic, but for three days, I was worried they\’d come back and tell me that he had bone cancer. He got extra snuggles and treats those days, because I truly thought something really bad was happening.

Fortunately, they got back to me and said it wasn\’t cancer (insert huge sigh of relief!). They said he has very severe arthritis in his elbow, and the joint was starting to morph because of it. They said I would need to see an orthopedic specialist about next steps. So, after weeks of searching for someone close by who could look at Dobby\’s leg, the closest specialist we could find was at U of M in Minneapolis. I was less than thrilled about having to drive that far, but I was willing to do whatever it would take to figure out what I can do to help Dobby.

So, this last Wednesday was finally the day to bring him to the cities. We left nice and early to make it to his one o\’clock appointment. With COVID still going on, I wasn\’t allowed to go in with him, so a vet student came to get him from my car. Of course, they had to send a guy out to get him, and everyone who knows Dobby, knows he\’s very timid around new men. He refused to get out of the car until I told the guy to hide behind the car so Dobby couldn\’t see him, then of course he came out right away. Gave the guy a chuckle at least!

Overall, the appointment took about four hours, and since I couldn\’t go in and there weren\’t a whole lot of places I could easily go to where I could go in and sit, I spent the ENTIRE day sitting in my car. They called me with updates every so often so I would know what was happening, and I\’m glad they did that, or I probably would have gone crazy with worry.

Once he was thoroughly looked over, the vet told me that she recommended getting a scope done of Dobby\’s elbow, but it would only be a temporary fix to help ease some of his discomfort. She said he has advanced arthritis, and there is no way to really stop that from progressing. He also has elbow dysplasia, where a bone fragment is sticking out where it doesn\’t belong and causing irritation in the joint. She described it as having a pebble in your shoe, where you can feel it there, but it doesn\’t really bother you unless you do a lot of activity. She said the more activity Dobby does, the more it will bother him, but once he calms down and rests, the irritation should ease up.

In the end, I decided not to do the scope. It was really expensive, and since it was only a temporary fix, I didn\’t want to put Dobby through more pain for something that will just come back later on. The vet recommended some joint supplements to give him, and said he needs to take it easy with how much he is running and jumping around. So, he will no longer be going for runs with me. 🙁 But, other than that, he can go on living his normal life and I get to keep on loving him for hopefully a really long time to come.

It\’s been a long couple of months trying to figure out what was going on with my puppy, but I\’m glad I finally have some answers, and I know how to help ease his pain. I wish he didn\’t have the arthritis at all – especially so young – but I know it could be much worse. I\’ll take this over worst-case scenario any day.

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger