Katie gave us a scare last weekend. She became very lame on her neurological hind leg. She was not getting around very well at all. Needed some support to go to the bathroom and could not climb the two stair steps that divide our house in half.
On Monday morning, I headed off to work as usual at 5:30 AM. Being so early, I do not have time to do much more than get ready. I assumed Katie was the same. You know what they say about A-S-S-U-M-E. Assuming makes an ass out of your and me. In this case, I think it was just me.
Spending hours at work and unable to check Katie really lets my mind go wild. Initially, I thought it was another busted toe, but then had second thoughts. Katie has some wildly, twisted toes and pays them no attention. Why would a swollen toe that is otherwise straight and tight be causing significantly more pain than the disfigured toes? So I started dreaming up all the bad possibilities and made Katie an appointment to see the vet at 3:30 PM.Time crawled, but finally it was time to get home. Of course, Katie is on her feet ready to go potty. I use a towel around her waste to support her while she squatted. Well, she tows me out to the yard and proceeds to buck and spin like a yearling (see video below for an example). I started to think I'm going to look silly at the vet. Sure enough. I looked like a fool. Dr. Toby had to search pretty hard to find some groin pain and suspects she just strained her groin. A groin injury can be pretty serious for a performance dog, but at age 12 and fully retired, we are not going to do anything different. She will still do her cavalettis and suck food out of Kongs everyday.
At least in this case, it was better to be a fool than right!
