Puppy Paw Problems

Some of you may know that during high school I had a three-legged dog, named Doober when he had four legs and then nicknamed Tripod when he went down to three. Well, yesterday I thought I was going to have yet another three-legged pup. On Monday morning, Colby was mysteriously not using one of his front paws. When we would touch it, he'd yelp, and then something drastic happened: he didn't want to eat dinner. That's when we really knew something was wrong. At first, we assumed it was just tender from a long jog on Sunday, but then the swelling began, and it went from bad to worse.

Joy and didn't want to pay ridiculous amounts of money at the vet, but then again, we also wanted our dog to keep all four legs if possible. After some serious consulting (thanks Wightmans!), we decided to take him in to see what the vet had to say. Well, they said a huge number, and I looked at the vet and asked her to give me a worst-case scenario if we didn't do anything. She looked at me in horror, and exclaimed, "Honestly, he could lose a leg." At this point, Joy and I burst into laughter (Joy actually burst into laughter mixed with tears), and I explained to the vet that she shouldn't try to tell me dogs need to have all four legs, because I know perfectly well they can manage with fewer. The previous horror in her face escalated, and Joy says she's not surprised they didn't just take our dog from us and deem us eternally unfit owners.

To make a long and dramatic day at the vet's a little shorter, here's the run-down: Colby had to have an abscess drained, which resulted in an inch-and-a-half cut oozing with blood and puss. Fun. We told them we'd do this before taking x-rays or thinking about a broken bone, which is what they tried to get us to do at first. Well, so far we think we made a good decision. Colby has been home for 24 hours now and is recovering marvelously. Yes, we still carry him up and down the stairs and try to limit his activity, but he's definitely using his foot, and dinner is back to its previously esteemed position in his day, although now there are pills hidden amongst the goods.

Best (or worst) of all: Colby has to wear one of those silly dog collars that make it so that Colby's tongue can't reach his foot. He looks like Queen Elizabeth. The thing is huge, and he keeps banging into stuff and tripping over it. He's so silly. I've attached a picture so you can see exactly what we're dealing with. There's also a picture from when we get up at 5:30 in the morning to soak his foot in Epsom salt. You can clearly see how happy I am about it. I am such a puppy daddy, and at some level, I kinda love it. I just hope his foot heals completely and I can still go to Trinity in the fall.