Saturday, March 7, 2015

Phoenix Blunder. Sisters on Saturday


I mentioned yesterday about how we've been going to Thousand Acres a lot because it's been so sunny and that park is just awesome. We usually do a 3-5 mile trek when we go. About half way into it there's a trail that comes up that leads to a ramp with a "bird blind". The girls love racing up and down the ramp.




Here's Zoe running down the ramp to me. Phoenix was off to the side of it eating grass.


Phee heard me call Zoe and raced over because she always likes to beat Zoe back to me and I've got treats!


She was going so fast that she ended up sliding and went down on her right front wrist. She jumped right back up and continued running around so I had no idea she was actually hurt and because she seemed fine, I completely forgot about this. I thought these photos would make a funny sequence because of the surprised look on Zoe's face.


Later on into our walk we moved into the forest trails. Phoenix likes to go off the trails through here and check out things in the brush along the trail. I try to keep her from doing this because there are a lot of thorny bushes and blackberry bushes. She went into the bushes and I called her out and she was hopping on three legs with her right front leg in the air. Kind of like she had been poked by something. I checked her leg and paw out and couldn't find anything. I also didn't remember her falling on it so I didn't think about it. After I checked her out and told her she was fine she went back to walking on it like normal.

When we got home that morning every once in a while she'd hop around not on that leg and she kept trying to lick the back of it like she had been poked by something. I thought maybe she got stung by a bee. I still couldn't find any thorns or anything wrong with the leg. There was no swelling or heat at all. Other than her occasionally acting funny she seemed fine and then after a long nap she was totally back to normal.

The next morning we woke up and she wasn't limping and acting completely fine, so I assumed she was poked. We went back out to the park. The girls and I spent a few hours out there. They ran around and did their thing. We even saw Mr. N and Sage and stopped to chat with their moms. Phoenix never showed any signs of lameness or pain. She seemed fine.


When we got home, she didn't want to hop out of the car. When she finally did she didn't want to put any weight on the leg. So now I was sure something had happened but I still couldn't figure it out. I decided I would rest her and see how it goes because she is extremely fearful of the vet and I didn't want to stress her out if I don't have to. So I let her nap while I edited photos. Then I got to the sequence above and there it is. She must of hurt her leg when she slipped on the ramp. I think she might have also been poked in the forest. Two totally random events but they make sense.

So I've chosen to rest her versus a traumatizing vet visit. I think she probably bruised that leg and it's sore. She still has no swelling or heat in the leg and after a few hours of sleep she was back to walking on it like normal. We are going to take a few days off from the park and I've been only taking her on short leashed potty walks and carrying her up and down the stairs so that she doesn't have any extra pressure on it. I feel so bad that I missed that she was actually injured and then made her run on it the next day. I'm so used to Zoe being a total drama queen about things that I didn't really think about it too much when Phoenix was acting fine.

I'm hoping that after a few days rest she will be okay and if not we will be making an appointment with our vet. So far she seems completely back to normal but I'm keeping a very close eye on her and not letting her do much.

I really wish our dogs could tell us when something was wrong! 



15 comments:

  1. I hope Phoenix feels better after a little rest. Looks like they were having such a great time. Hopefully you'll be back on the trails in no time.

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    1. Thanks so much! I think she's on her way to being fine. She doesn't act like there's anything wrong now but I'm making her rest anyways.

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  2. Oh, hope she's okay. Rita slips and falls a lot here because of our hardwood floors. It's concerning and always takes a lot of the fun out of trying to get a good indoor game going! (How fun to see Mr. N. & Sage!)

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    1. I think she'll be fine with rest. She's walking on it okay but I don't want to push it. There's still no heat or swelling and I can move it without her showing signs of pain. So I'm confident she'll be fine in a few days.

      We know your pain about slippery floors! When we stayed at our inlaw's house, they don't have any carpet just linoleum and the girls hated it. We even brought in our area rugs and they were still very nervous about running around in there.

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  3. That'd be too easy if they could tell us. :-) Dante and Ziva will do the same thing, act totally fine after an incident and then squeak when I touch a certain spot.
    Ziva still tends to be my little accident prone gal.
    I'm sure she'll be fine with some rest! <3 It's nice you live so close the park!

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  4. We hope a few rest days will have her good as new. Those sure were some joyful shots!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  5. We had a similar instance this week. The pups were outside playing. Hailey screamed and acted hurt. The Man rushed over and carried her into the house. She was totally fine. We think it likely stung but was ok. Phod also had a limp one evening we were worried about, next day fine. Sigh! It would be easier if they could talk!

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  6. Poor girl! Hope she feels better. :)

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  7. I wish that same thing - that our dogs could tell us about what they feel. It's tough to know how much to let them do when they seem to be acting like nothing is wrong!

    I hope she bounces right back. I'm betting that she will!

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  8. It's so heartbreaking when they limp. I remember one time we let Isis out of her crate and one of her legs buckled under her. Rob and I both went to her and cuddled her and felt so worried and took her to the vet the next morning, and nothing was wrong at all. Maybe her leg was just asleep.

    With Mia, seeing her limp for the first time was my cue to start her on arthritis meds.

    Hope Phoenix feels better soon!

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  9. sure hoping that with rest she will be fine and will avoid visiting the vet!

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  10. I would do the exact same thing as you....keep her resting and keep an eye on it. I hope it continues to be OK. There's no way you could have known she really hurt herself, when she acted fine most of the time! Every once in a while our beagle will come up limping, and she's usually fine after a day of rest.
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

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  11. I feel your pain as Frankie is still lame after a long lay-off and if arthritis is the cause (as is most likely from his x-rays) I just have to keep trying various things to help ease the condition. I hope Phoenix recovers soon and is back tearing around with Zoe! It's no fun leaving anyone behind.

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  12. Oh poor sweet pup, feel better soon!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  13. I hope she is feeling better by now. A few summers ago Thunder injured his front leg. We think it happened because we had a drought that summer and many ponds were more shallow than normal and of course he just has to dive in them without a care in the world. Ended up that he had strained a ligament. We are lucky to have an ortho vet on staff at our vet. We treated him with anti-inflammatories and pain meds if needed.

    We continued to train and test but he would periodically come up lame until we finally decided to put a cast on it so that it could heal for once and for all and take the pressure off the ligament. He missed all hunting season that year but it did finally fix it. As I understand it could have been a lingering thing so we were glad it healed. Hopefully Phoenix won't need that kind of treatment. It was tough for Thunder to be always left home. :)

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