TheBanyanTree: Brokeback doggie

[Laura]

<sigh>

My Ziggydog, mister wonderful, the love of my life, has hurt his back.  Badly.  Or very well, 
depending on how you look at it.  For the last couple of months, I've been giving him an 
anti-inflamatory, hoping it would clear up, hoping it was just a strain.

Today, he got his medicine just before I bathed him.  He wouldn't shake off in the tub like he 
usually does.  Heck, he usually *glories* in shaking soapy water all over me.  Sort of a "if 
I've gotta get wet, so do you" attitude.  No shaking at all today.  I took him outside and put 
him down on the deck so he could shake off the water and drip dry a bit while I dried Puck.  I 
ignored Ziggy while I found Puck, put him on the table, and started drying him.  Puck takes 
a while to dry, because he has such a silky coat it tangles if I try to speed up the process.  I 
finally got him dry and looked around for Ziggy.  He was up on one of the deck chairs - 
standing, trembling.  I called him, and he just looked at me and trembled.  I called him a 
wuss, walked over and picked him up.  He screamed.  I was surprised.  I set him up on the 
table and he staggered.  That surprised me too.  He wouldn't lift his head, and his tail stayed 
between his legs.  Several times during the drying, he yelped, and once he screamed again.  
I was extra super careful not to lift his head too high, or turn him around too fast.  When we 
were done, I gently set him on the floor, and he screamed.  I turned around to open the door 
so he could go in the house.  He saw my leg coming at him and tried to turn and move out 
of the way, and screamed (he was not in any danger, I was stepping over him, but I guess 
he didn't know that).  He screamed when he hopped over the threshold.  He ran into the 
living room and screamed for no reason I could see.  Then he staggered again.

I called the vet, and they said they could see him in 15 minutes.  I washed my face, brushed 
my hair to get the extra fur out of it, and got Rob to help me with Ziggy.  Ziggy cried going 
down the stairs, screamed when the sliding door of the van startled him, and screamed 
again when he tried to jump up onto the seat.  I lifted him into the van.  He managed to get 
up in one of the seats, and sat very still for the whole ride - all three minutes of it.

I explained to the vet what had been going on, that he's been hurting for a couple of months, 
but I was hoping the Rimadyl would help allow the injury to heal.  No go.  I put Zig on the 
floor so the vet could look at him, and he just stood there, tail down, head down, back 
tensed, trembling.  I put him back up on the table, and he staggered.  Dr. Burns said he 
agreed, my diagnosis of possible herniated disc was probably right.  He gave Zig a shot of 
cortisone, with instructions to not give any more Rimadyl, to give dexamethasone instead.  
He also gave me three syringes of pain medicine, to try and make Ziggy more comfortable.  
I'll give him one now, one before I go to bed and one tomorrow morning.  After that, he will 
have had two doses of the steroid, counting the injection.  If he's not much better, then we 
have to think about more diagnostics, starting with x-rays.

If you have any to spare, Ziggyman and I could use a little doggy mojo, 'kay?

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com