The Hurt Locker

Archer is still on bed rest and that will likely continue for a while yet including missing his first show of 2010 which is in three weeks. We are thinking it is possibly panosteitis - it's an inflammation of the long bones in adolescent dogs, usually large breeds. It should self resolve once he past his 'teen years' and the bones stop growing. I've never had it in one of my dogs and have never heard of any of Halo's puppies having it.

When we were at the vet today the brave little soldier let out a yelp when she pressed on the thigh bone, he was very distraught and was much more lame after that - quite a dramatic reaction to a simple palpation. Since he was sore I had to lift him into the truck ... so we must get this resolved soon! He is scheduled for an x-ray on Wednesday and hopefully that will confirm the diagnosis and we can start him on an anti-inflammatory and have a plan of action. This of course means that he cannot come for walks until the inflammation is gone. I remember, and this makes me sound like a bad dog owner, that a couple months ago he did the same thing with his right rear leg, he would rest it with just the toes touching the ground. I thought it was a weird Archer thing because he'd bound off to play with Leeloo and no lameness was apparent. If it is pano it means that the inflammation in that leg resolved and is now in the other leg but is much worse. I feel bad for him but at least it's something we can help ease along.




Here he is trying to hide when he knew we were going to the vet. I'm just kidding of course - he thought the vet was a Most Wonderful Place because I fed him a cookie every 2 minutes and the vet gave him some treats too. The dog bed is on the couch because I was vacuuming so he got up there to nap and found a Most Excellent place to stuff his head. He's such a sweet boy and the vet said he was being a very Brave Little Ridgeback. Speedy recovery Puppy.