Ruff Week

The title isn\’t a typo, it really has been a \”ruff\” week here for Mr. Dobby. Last week, I noticed he had started to limp a little bit. He wasn\’t whining and didn\’t make a fuss when I checked his legs to find a pain point, so we assumed he probably just tweaked a muscle or something and was a bit sore. We took it easy for a week, not going for any more runs, and keeping our walks fairly short.

Then, on Monday morning when I woke up to let him outside, he was full on limping. He would not put any pressure on his leg, and his tail was tucked between his hind legs when he tried to walk, so I knew he was in pain. He had been licking at his paws for a day or two before this, so I kept trying to look at his paws to see if he had a cut or something, but never found anything. I tried to look again on Monday, but he was in so much pain at this point, he tried to bite me every time I tried to look. So, I decided it was time we brought him in to get looked at.

Luckily, I was able to get him in that morning, but since everything is all whacky now because of COVID-19, I wasn\’t allowed to go inside with Dobby. I had to call the vet when I got there, they came out and got him, and then would come back out to my car with any updates. I understood why they did it that way, but I still didn\’t like not going in with him. A few minutes after they brought him in, the vet came back out to my car and told me that his leg was so sensitive, they needed to put him under some anesthesia to get a proper x-ray.

At this point, I was really starting to get worried. For all those who know how we lost Zeus, everything leading up to his final day was pretty similar to what was going on with Dobby. Zeus also started limping, and soon it was so bad that he could barely walk anymore. Dobby could still walk, but it was clearly getting worse, and obviously my mind went to the worst-case scenario. Everyone I talked to told me that the chances of that happening again so soon were pretty slim, and I shouldn\’t panic. But Dobby is my little baby, of course I\’m going to panic!!

Eventually, they came back out with another update, and said that Dobby had developed an infection in his elbow. They said he had either been bitten by something — he had been fighting a bunch of muskrats lately — or he got it stuck in something and he jerked his elbow in order to get it out. Once he came back out to my car, I noticed how swollen his elbow was. I was so convinced that it was his paws, that I didn\’t even notice before they pointed it out. But luckily, it just required some antibiotics and pain meds and he would be good as new!

The rest of the day, Dobby was grumpy and sore, and didn\’t really have a lot of energy. Dan even came over later that night to hang out, and usually Dobby loves to see him, but he wasn\’t too thrilled to have any kind of company at that moment. He growled at Dan and kept to himself instead. So I knew he was miserable 🙁

We didn\’t walk at all for the next couple of days, but by Wednesday, he wasn\’t limping much anymore and he was starting to get stir crazy, so we went for a little walk. He was so happy to get back out there and he had a ball. Last night, he was even finally able to jump back up on my bed, so he must be feeling much better! 🙂

This morning, he seemed almost completely back to his normal self and I\’m so relieved. I hate to see him hurting in any way, shape, or form, and it was very clear he was hurting this week. From now on, I think I\’ll just wrap him up in bubble wrap whenever he goes outside. That\’s normal, right?

Hope you all had a less stressful week, and hope you have an even better one coming up. Get outside with those fur babies and enjoy that nice weather!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger