On our last throw, Riley jumped up to catch her frisbee and came down on her hind legs like she normally does. There was nothing awkward about it except that I heard a "click". No verbal complaints from Riley, but it was obviously very painful and she was not willing to bear any weight.
I saw that nothing was visibly broken. I was hoping she would just walk out of it, but after giving her a minute there was no change. I was pretty sure it had to be a fracture since I had heard the "click". Damn it!
I loaded Riley into the van at 6:00 PM and called my vet to see if there was any chance of getting in that evening. I was too late and my vet is off on Tuesdays anyway so it was worth waiting till morning. However, I was on my way to my agility instructor's field to meet a new canine chiropractor.
Dr. N gave Riley a quick "field" examination and declared that she thought it was a torn ACL in her knee. I was very disappointed by this news as I would rather deal with a fracture (at least I thought I did) than a torn knee ligament. Bones often heal quicker and easier than soft tissues.
Can you find the bone chip?
For comparison sake, here is an x-ray of the uninjured hock joint.
The next morning, I took Riley to see my vet. Dr. C followed me out to the parking lot to get Riley and in a 1 minute "parking lot" examination stated there was nothing wrong with Riley's knee, but that her hock was the source of the problem. We took her inside for x-rays.
The bone chip is inside the "V" point.
Riley was wonderful for x-rays. Dr. C allowed me to help position her for each x-ray and to feed treats. The x-rays exposed a bone chip in her hock and Dr. C felt it would require surgery. He was not sure whether it should be screwed in or taken out so he referred me to an orthopedic specialist.
