Defense

The big guy has been not quite himself for several weeks.... the "incident" did not help matters and it got to the point where it was time to call the Vet... on Saturday, 3/6 I was at a conference and got home before my crew who was ice fishing all day... when I came in he didn't get up off his bed which isn't too different and about 45 minutes later Husband got home. Defense of course excited to see Daddy's truck got up quickly and it was all over but the cryin'. His back was arched in a NOT normal way and he was just crying crying crying. The crew in the truck heard it and thought it was an animal down the road. :( I wish. 

He's been crying when he gets to the top 2-3 stairs. He is fine when he goes down the stairs and fine when he is playing around outside but any sort of incline causes crying.  I called the vet that we went to this summer because I just have not had a great feeling with the one we've been using. They were able to get him right in the next evening... even accommodating Husband's and my work schedules AND letting us BOTH be in there with him. The vet came in and evaluated him and said that she is fairly certain he has torn both "ACL's" (or the equivalent of what dogs have) and has built up scar tissue but not enough to support his size.  

 

Now he is at the point where sometimes he gets up in the morning to turn around on his bed and he is crying... we have him on anti-inflammatory meds and last week we started him on pain meds. We were trying to do right when Husband wakes up and then again as soon as he gets home from school but we didn't feel like it was cutting it. The vet called again to check in on Saturday (so nice of them to keep following up) and over the weekend we added an afternoon dose. Sweet Heather was going to pop by today to give him his lunchtime one. 

We have another appointment on 3/31 for the full work-up of X-rays and checking to see if there is anything else that we might be missing. 

We know he's a big doofus but we sure do love him a lot and HATE HATE HATE the crying in pain. It's just too much for everyone :(