1:04pm, 1 February 2016
After his 6am visit in the garden, Jonesy headed for the stair gate to wait for his 'mum'. Somehow he stepped on the first step and got one of his back paws trapped between the metal frame and the first step. Seeing me coming towards him and thinking he was doing something wrong he tried to jump from the step leaving the trapped paw behind. The cries. screams and howls were heart breaking and must have woken the neighbourhood up. I was convinced he'd either broken his leg or pulled his hip out of its socket. I couldn't make a thorough examination of him as he was screaming and biting lumps out of my arm. Quick dash to the vets soon after and given choice of admission followed by an anaesthetic and xray or pain killing injection and sit on it until tomorrow. We chose the latter and have him sleeping on his bed at the moment. He can't and won't put any weight on the leg but seems more settled. Just keeping our fingers crossed but a lesson to us as to how we fit stair gates. We almost had a similar incident lately when he jumped on the garden bench and got his leg trapped between the bench wooden strips. Now that he's resting we intend to go right through the garden and house looking for any other potential traps. Really upsetting to see him like this when he was doing so well. Also a strange coincidence that it was two years to the hour when we woke to find our 16yr old Pickles in distress after a stroke, that also led to a rushed trip to the vets where he was put to sleep.
Tuesday 2nd Feb.
Thanks to everyone for their kind words of concern and reassurance. I felt Jonesy was showing some good recovery signs this morning, he wasn’t crying and was actually putting a little bit of weight on the leg. When we returned to the vets she was able to make a more detailed assessment of his injury which seems to be around the knee joint. She identified swelling around the knee and was leaning towards an xray. She then went on to suggest the various injuries it could be, one of which would require an operation. Word like “pins and plates” were being used. What ever needs to be done will have to be done but when I pointed out the more positive signs i’d seen throughout the morning, the vet suggested putting him on the floor to assess his movement. I was so glad she did this as Jonesy made a number of attempts to put weight on the leg and seemed to move the joint quite freely. She agreed that this was a good sign and stated that although he was 100% lame yesterday today he could be upgraded to 60% lame. Any further more advanced intervention has now been put on hold for another 48 hours and we’ll try him on an anti inflammatory until his next appointment. Back home and Jonesy seems to have adapted well to moving around on three legs for a lot of the time. We have had to put him on a long lead when in the garden as he still tries to run around. Its really difficult trying to keep a 16 week old pup fairly inactive but we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that we can keep him relatively inactive until his next appointment.
Thursday 4th Feb
He's still on occasions holding the leg up in the air preferring to stick with 3 legs but then he'll put it down and walk on it for periods. I think it just gets a bit stiff with all of the sitting around we're making him do. Hopefully there will be some marked improvement tomorrow when we return to the vets. Don't fancy having him knocked out for an xray. Thanks again to everyone.
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| Jonesy with sore paw off the ground and tail between his legs. |
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| Being the perfect patient and staying on bed rest.. |
Friday 5th Feb
Although i'm convinced that Jonesy is improving everyday, the vet is not so sure. However it was a different vet today and again she is leaning towards anaesthesia and xray. After careful discussions we agreed to sit on it until Monday. Interesting although she said that she would prefer an xray, she admitted that if a small fracture was discovered then she would only strap it up and prescribe rest. The improving signs are that he's putting more weight on it when he does walk and is now able to scratch himself with the damaged leg, he is also on occasions trying to get up on his back two legs, something that we keep having to prevent him from doing. I'm staying positive and believe its going to improve a lot by Monday but will probably be another 10 days before he's back to normal.
Sunday 7th Feb
In himself Jonesy seems ok, he’s still having his naughty periods and seems quite happy. However we are feeling a bit despondent and worried about his progress. He doesn’t seem to be putting as much weight on the leg although this might be a good thing as we know he is truly resting it. It must be so frustrating for him, he was really enjoying his new life. We had been going on lots of nice walks, we were taking him on bus and train rides preparing him for future holidays in the motorhome, we were even planning a short 3 day motorhome trip to wales in a few weeks. All of this is now on hold and all Jonesy can look forward to are his little walks around the garden. We are all trying to remain positive but unless he shows some significant changes in the next 24 hrs I’m afraid we’ll have no other option but to put it in the hands of the vet and let them decide whats best for Jonesy. Once again we are so glad we joined the Weltaf ‘family’ as all of your words have been so reassuring and helpful. Its nice to know that others also share our concerns and love for Jonesy.
Monday 8th Feb.
Well things are looking a lot better today. Saturday left us feeling a bit miserable at Jonesy's lack of progress but he did spend most of Saturday sleeping and resting. As a result there was a lot of improvement on Sunday when he was more active and able to walk with more weight on the knee. The vet feels that the swelling has reduced and is focussed on a section of bone on the inside of his knee. She feels this could be indicative of a greenstick fracture, and if so will probably heal itself in time. No need for anaesthesia and xray. We did actually take a video of him walking on Sunday to show the vet but she could see the improvement in the surgery. She again emphasised the need for rest and told us not to take him out for walks for another two weeks she also suggested keeping him crated for longer and to continue with the pain relief/anti inflammatory. So we are all feeling a bit happier today. One important point to make is that the nurse in the surgery was telling us that her whippet pup got its paw trapped in the cage/crate and broke its leg! I wonder just how safe stairgates and crates are with pups?
