TessaAndSamson
New member
He jumped off the couch and let out a really high pitched cry. I look over at him and he has his front left leg out to the side. Now I NEVER hear him cry in pain, as we all know the EB has a very high tolerance for pain, so this was quite alarming. I rush to him and spread open his paw pads thinking it was a metal chip and maybe when he jumped off the couch it pressed itself in his paw pad. Dave is a machinist, he comes home with metal chips all in his clothes, hair, etc and they often make it on the floor. They hurt when you step on them (they are little spiral metal pieces) which I have done many times and I recently found one in Samson's paw but with that incident he didn't cry he just stood there shaking that foot, I took the chip out and all was well after that. So anyway I found no metal chip in his paw, it's his leg I realize that is bothering him. I start to freak out, this is the leg he broke at 6 months old that required orthopedic surgery. I've always feared what would happen if he broke that leg again, would they even be able to fix it again, what kind of crazy surgery would he need this time, just the idea of ANOTHER surgery was heartbreaking (he's already had 3 in his 5.5 years of life). All these thoughts are running through my mind while I am home alone late on a Friday night. I started to freak out because he was refusing to walk and put any weight on that leg. I called Dave and my mom, both of which told me to calm down and wait until the morning to take him to the vet because I was ready to go right that minute (my vet is open 24/7). So I decided to wait. Normally Samson sleeps in bed with me but I didn't want to do that because I couldn't risk him trying to jump off further injuring himself while I was sleeping. So I sleep on the couch downstairs with his dog bed laid in front of me. It was so sad, he was being so pathetic, he looked at me so depressed, didn't want to move. So the next morning I get him the vet as soon as they opened at 8am, I was feeling more optimistic because by the morning he would put a little weight on his leg. During his exam, my vet manipulated his leg in every direction and he never so much as tensed a muscle. So they determined it was a sprain/strain, my vet said I could have x-rays done to be 100% positive it wasn't broken but anything being broken was highly unlikely since he had NO reaction to the vet moving his leg around. I was SO relieved and he is doing much better now. They did however confirm that arthritis has clearly developed in that leg, there was clear popping and cracking in his elbow. Not happy to hear that but it was expected, the orthopedic surgeon that fixed his leg told me that he would definitely develop arthritis to some degree in that leg. I've always been particularly cautious with his activity for fear of him breaking his leg again but I feel it's quite apparent now that I need to be more cautious, like I think he needs to stop sleeping in bed with us. I lift him on and off the bed but he will jump off from time to time, can't have that anymore. Often I allow Samson to follow me upstairs because he will cry if I don’t but I think I will have to stop any unnecessary use of the stairs as well. I keep a babygate at the bottom of his stairs so he can’t go up and down as he pleases but I need to stop giving in to his need to follow me and just force him to stay downstairs unless it’s necessary for him to be up there with me. On another note, my back hurts! Sleeping on the couch Friday night was NOT comfortable and carrying his chubby butt around on Saturday was not easy!
Wow that turned into a long story, if you are reading this thank you for sticking around to read the entire thing LOL
Wow that turned into a long story, if you are reading this thank you for sticking around to read the entire thing LOL