Duke has this really awful habit of circling around and stopping in front
of me when we're walking. Normally, this is merely an annoyance (I AM NOT
A MAYPOLE!), but I crashed into him good yesterday when he stopped in the
middle of an intersection, and stepped on his foot.

He seemed fine when I checked him over (on the far side of the
intersection), but was just slightly "off". Once we got home and he'd
rested up, he was gimpy as heck. I thought he'd sprained or maybe even
broken some toes, but his foot is cool, not swollen, and not tender. His
*shoulder*, OTOH, is very sore. His gait becomes more regular once he's
moving around, but the poor guy is really having trouble getting onto and
off of his favorite furniture.

He's going to hate being left at home while I walk the other two.
--
Mary & the depleted Ames National Zoo
(Ranger, Duke, Rhia-cat)

Mary Healey spoke these words of wisdom in
.4:

Duke has this really awful habit of circling around and stopping in front
of me when we're walking. Normally, this is merely an annoyance (I AM NOT
A MAYPOLE!), but I crashed into him good yesterday when he stopped in the
middle of an intersection, and stepped on his foot.
AWWWWW CRAP!!!! I so know the feeling. I stepped on Tuck's leg when he was a
puppy and I broke it. I felt so bad. It healed uneventfully, and I'm sure
Duke will too.

Speedy healing wishes.

Mary Healey wrote in
.4:

His gait becomes more regular once he's moving around, but the
poor guy is really having trouble getting onto and off of his
favorite furniture.

You dog abusing thug! (Someone has to say it.) I swear, I've nearly
killed or been killed by my dog and cat about a million times. It's
a wonder we're all still ambulatory.

Hopefully, the poor guy will soon be back to normal.

He's going to hate being left at home while I walk the other two.

Luce has a club she might loan him. And Harriet can always help him
develop his inner Bad Attitude. You might want to sleep with one eye
open tonight.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Shelly spoke these words of wisdom in
6:

Mary Healey wrote in
.4:

His gait becomes more regular once he's moving around, but the
poor guy is really having trouble getting onto and off of his
favorite furniture.

You dog abusing thug! (Someone has to say it.) I swear, I've nearly
killed or been killed by my dog and cat about a million times. It's
a wonder we're all still ambulatory.

Hopefully, the poor guy will soon be back to normal.

He's going to hate being left at home while I walk the other two.

Luce has a club she might loan him. And Harriet can always help him
develop his inner Bad Attitude. You might want to sleep with one eye
open tonight.


Oh my gosh, you can make even unfortunate circumstances funny.

M Healey wrote:
Photos of abused dogs forthcoming - they're both very, very flat.

http://pets.webshots.com/album/564192018ozvhno

Shelly said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I swear, I've nearly
killed or been killed by my dog and cat about a million
times. It's a wonder we're all still ambulatory.

I can't count how often in a day Rocky tries to kill me. His
normal MO is to walk along in front of me in the house and
then... stop. For no reason.

A more sophisticated technique occurs when I'm carrying
anything. Rocky thinks it's food, of course, comes from
nowhere, and plonks himself in a sit directly in my path.

It's a freakin' pair of scissors! To open my delivery from
Dell! Good thing I wasn't running.

Hopefully, the poor guy will soon be back to normal.

Yes.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"M Healey" wrote in message
...

Oh, you don't know the half of it. Now RANGER is limping. *sigh*
Mr.
Dreamsicle Dog is messing with my head

I had to go look at the photos to get the reference. He *does* look a
bit like a Dreamsicle (crossed with a red fox).

I spent most of our walk
staring at him, which he found just a bit unnerving.

The whole thing sounds unnerving. Those phantom "can't quite put your
finger on it" problems are insanity inducing.

but if Duke
needs a little Rimadyl or some such to make him comfortable, I want to
be
sure he gets it.

There's that, and it's my understanding that pain meds actually *do*
help with speeding up recovery rates. In any event, I'd absolutely get
them checked out. Hopefully they both just need a little rest and time
to heal.

The poor guy is breaking my heart (or what passes for my heart, at any
rate). Is Bad Attitude hard on the legs?

Well, it's not hard on the BA's legs, but I'd steer clear of him if he's
wielding any clubs.

Opposable thumbs. I'm just sayin'...

Miss Brown thinks that's funny, but she won't say why.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

"M Healey" wrote in message
...
M Healey wrote:
Photos of abused dogs forthcoming - they're both very, very flat.

http://pets.webshots.com/album/564192018ozvhno

Oh good grief! That Duke sure knows how to work the pitiful angle.
He's pathetic! Ranger looks like he's thinking about ways to work the
situation to his advantage.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Several years ago, my Duke had an incident with another neighborhood dog.
The two of them were hanging out in the park one evening, and Duke picked up
the other dog's toy. The other dog (a large beefy Lab) lunged at Duke (no
puny dog himself), and we had to hurriedly separate the two before injuries
ensued. I pulled back on Duke's leash because I couldn't reach the harness
strap in time. But I didn't notice at that moment that the leash was wrapped
down his chest and around the underside of his front leg, so in the process
of pulling Duke back, I wrenched his shoulder. Duke was OK at first, but was
walking with a bit more effort as we got back home. About an hour later,
though, Duke could barely get up and walk around the house. It was too late
to call the vet. So I gave Duke an aspirin, had him sit in front of me, and
draped an ice pack (a therapeutic gel pack I keep in the freezer for _my_
shoulder) over his shoulder. He yelped the first time I touched his shoulder
with the gel pack. I calmed him down and tried again. The second time, I
managed to hold it to his shoulder as he whimpered and whined. In about 40
seconds, though, the whimpering and whining ceased. He let out a huge sigh
of relief, and all the tension melted away from his face. About half a
minute after that, he gave me an effusive tongue bath as I held the ice pack
to his shoulder.

I kept the ice pack on his shoulder about 8 minutes. A few hours later,
while he was lying on the floor on his side with his sore shoulder facing
up, I applied the ice pack for another 10 or so minutes. This time he
welcomed it. I applied the ice pack a third time a few hours after that.
With that and two aspirin (12 hours apart), he recovered quickly. I called
the vet the following morning, but it was not necesary to take the dog in,
and by the end of the weekend he was fine again.

HTH
Chuck

"Mary Healey" wrote in message
.4...
Duke has this really awful habit of circling around and stopping in front
of me when we're walking. Normally, this is merely an annoyance (I AM NOT
A MAYPOLE!), but I crashed into him good yesterday when he stopped in the
middle of an intersection, and stepped on his foot.

He seemed fine when I checked him over (on the far side of the
intersection), but was just slightly "off". Once we got home and he'd
rested up, he was gimpy as heck. I thought he'd sprained or maybe even
broken some toes, but his foot is cool, not swollen, and not tender. His
*shoulder*, OTOH, is very sore. His gait becomes more regular once he's
moving around, but the poor guy is really having trouble getting onto and
off of his favorite furniture.

He's going to hate being left at home while I walk the other two.
--
Mary & the depleted Ames National Zoo
(Ranger, Duke, Rhia-cat)

Terri wrote:
This just showed up on my reader for some reason but I have to
agree. That is truly pitiful. Has Duke been reading Carmine's
"How To Look Pathetic and Win an Oscar" manual?

If he had, he wouldn't be showing the improvement that he has. Still
visibly "off", but he's getting on and off the sofa without a whimper and
is standing with his weight distributed equally on all 4 feet. I couldn't
get a vet appointment until Friday, so we'll see how it goes. Ranger seems
better, but it's a little hard to tell.

I was a Very Mean Hoomin and cut off all Duke's toeses (and Ranger's
toeses, and Lindy's most sensitive tootsie-toeses) AND took about a
Pomeranian and a half of hair off the Dukester. He's stoic about being
combed, but did seem to appreciate the massage portion of the torment. His
feet were cool and unreactive, as usual.

Nobody got a long walk today. I groomed/tortured dogs, mowed the lawn, and
battened down the hatches -- RAGBRAI came roaring through Ames today.
10,000 bicyclists (or something like that) and their support teams, and the
route runs a block from my house. They're expecting 30,000 people total to
drop by.