[Jaspermom]

Well, I have had my first ER vet trip, and please let it be my last!! Not to say the ER was bad, it was not, and the care was great and so were the vet and the techs. I just HATE it that my baby got hurt!

At 8:30pm, 5 month old Wosie was playing with us on the bed (I know... bad bad bad Glad) which she has tumbled off to the carpet at least a half dozen times and never had a problem. Last night I went to pick her up off the bed and she playfully backed away from me and slid off the side of the bed. It was almost comical watching her go down as her backside slid off, I tried to catch her but she went over soooooo slowly with her front paws catching the bed spread all the way down, I was CERTAIN there would be no problem until I heard the ki yi ki yi yelp of a pup in pain. Oh no!!

I ran around to the side of the bed to see her tail disapearing under the bed, and I knelt down and called her and she came to me. I tried to pick her up and she tried to bite me! I backed off and she climbed into my lamp crying and whimpering. My husband came running in and he knelt next to me and I talked soothingly to her and lightly petted her and she stopped crying, but was trembling and panting. I again tried to pick her up to see what the problem was, and she again tried to bite me and yelped loud. Oh dear oh dear. By this time I am starting to panic, my stomach hits bottom, and although there is no blood, I am sure something bad has happened. I feel faint, my pulse is racing, and I think I am going to throw up. But I pull myself together, and pet Wosie until she is calm (I should have told my husband to pet me and calm ME), and this time, bite me or not, I am going to take a look at her. She was completely favoring her right hind leg, and now she has started to have muscle spasms on her right side. OK, a call to my vet gives us the ER Vet number, a call to them, and off we go.

The YOUNG (oh my gosh, he's just a kid!! My husband thought him fully capable though, after our conversation, and told me the older I get the more aged biased I get, lol) vet takes xrays, and tells us Wosie apparently scraped her leg on the hard edge of the box spring and slid her tiny little patella off its' rightful place. She is having muscle spasms due to the strain of the muscles attached to the patella ligaments. So they put a splint on her, wrapped her leg in this huge bandage to isolate the injury, and I have an appointment to see her regular vet at 5:20 this afternoon. They also gave us pain meds for her (meloxicam) and suggested a daily dose for 5 days, and gave us the xrays to bring to her doc. They told me to give her pain meds when we got her home, but she had had morphine at the ER and I wanted to wait a bit before giving her more meds. I settled her in a box next to our bed (it's now 10:45) and in about a half hour she is crying big time. I figure it's time for the pain meds, and pick her up to comfort her, and she gets my finger in her mouth and this time draws blood. OK, now I am really going to pass out, and with the dog in my arms!!! OH MY! My husband runs to get her box, I put her back in, wrap a towel on my bloody finger and put my head down with an ice pack on the back of my neck. My poor husband!! He's got a hurt dog and a wimp wife!! Poor guy! But I recovered, gave Wosie her pain meds, and she slept pretty good for the rest of the night. This morning she is feeling much better, is hobbling around OK on her green leg (pretty bandage) and ate her full breakfast, drank a bunch of water, and did all her business no problem!

The ER vet says that in young pups, sometimes the splint will be enough to pull the patella back in place and heal everything. But he was also concerned that the growth plate in the leg was disrupted. My vet does his own orthopedic work, and hopefully we can get through this without surgery. I will write again after the appointment this evening.

Wish us LUCK, and please keep Wosie in your thoughts today!!