This month we had Mother's Day and I celebrated by waking Mommy up a whole bunch of times in the middle of the night. I'm sure she was very happy. Then Mommy had her birthday and we took a hike. I posted about that already, so if you missed it, read on down past this entry.
The big thing that happened this month was that Mommy and I went up to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wisconsin. Everyone was there except for Mommy's youngest brother's partner. Too bad he couldn't come. My golden retriever cousin was there too, but he isn't allowed to come onto my property and I don't go onto his. Last time he came onto my property I tried to eat him which really shocked my Portie cousin Missy's daddy who had brought him over. He'd never seen me go all Cujo before and he didn't really believe I would. He does now!
Anyway, Missy came over on the first day and we played some runaround on the hill and follow each other and sniff games and Mommy and Missy's daddy commented on how we hadn't gotten to play in a long time because we were both getting old and it seemed like whenever we were together one or the other of us was under the weather.
Well, they spoke too soon because at 6:30 a.m. on the second day I was going downstairs and my hind end suddenly got all tangled up in itself and I wound up falling down 8 steps! I landed at the bottom of the stairs with all my legs in different directions. I managed to get back up, but my right rear leg hurt and I didn't really want to put weight on it. Mommy took me for a short walk to pee and poop and stretch things out, but I still hurt. She gave me a 1/2 a doggy oxy and then when her youngest brother woke up and came downstairs she borrowed his phone to call the vet (her phone doesn't get reception at the house). She was hoping there was a chiropractor in town, but there wasn't so she got me a regular vet appointment and off we went. The vet was very nice. He said I didn't have a concussion (Mommy knew that) and that I didn't seem to have broken anything (Mommy was pretty sure of that too). Mommy was afraid I had popped my right hip (which is my bad one) and when the vet went to check it I was all tense and then I was calm so we kinda think I did pop it a little and he put it back in place by doing the rotation thing regular vets do. My regular vet had done that once which is how we ended up with a referral to my chiropractor! The vet said I hadn't popped my hip though and then he did that toe test thing again that started the argument between my chiropractor and my regular vet about whether or not I had degenerative myelopathy.
He asked Mommy if my vet had talked to me about the lack of sensation that I had in my feet and Mommy told him about the myelopathy fight. He told Mommy he was an orthopedic specialist and asked, "Do you want a third opinion?" Mommy said sure and he said that he was sure it was NOT degenerative myelopathy because if it was I would at the very least not be able to wag my tail by now and I am a very good tail wagger. What he thought was happening to me was that I was developing arthritis in my back where I broke it a couple years ago. The arthritis is pressing on the feeder nerves that are leaving my spinal cord which is causing the numbness in my feet. It may also be compressing my spinal cord. He said that the reason I fell down the stairs was that I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and, since I don't quite feel my feet right, if I don't pay full attention to doing something, like walking down the stairs, my feet kind of just do what they want to and down I go. I have to admit that was true. I was so excited about being at the lake that I went down those stairs way too fast without a thought in my head except "Whoo hoo! I'm at the lake!"
Anyway, he told Mommy to give me more of my pain meds and my muscle relaxers and said he would normally give me an anti-inflammatory, but I can't have them because of my bleeding ulcers, so it ended up being a not so exciting trip to the lake since I was on pain meds and muscle relaxers for two days which meant I was loopy. I did get to wade a little and I took some short walks and a very short hike with Mommy. I also saw a deer and, on the last day Mommy and I went porcupine hunting which was a lot of fun. Mommy had been woken up by a strange noise the night before and she knew it was the porcupine that has been eating the house. Sure enough she went outside and caught him in the act. He didn't care a hoot about Mommy and even when she yelled at him and threw a rock at him all he did was raise is quills and stroll away.
So, I got to go into the woods and follow five different trails the next morning trying to find the porcupine. I found a big pile of porcupine poop, but we couldn't see a porcupine up in that tree and I found a great hole under a fallen tree with scratches around the dirt, which COULD have meant there was a porcupine in it, but we couldn't see inside. One trail led to the neighbor's outbuilding, which Mommy thought had porcupine potential too. The best trail I found ended up at a tree where I scared a chipmunk. I sat under that tree and looked up and barked occasionally and Mommy got all excited thinking I had found the porcupine. When she saw it was a chipmunk she said I was following the wrong rodent. Mommy decided that all five trails wound up crossing in this one general area so she went to the hardware store and bought a salt lick and put it where the trails crossed. She is hoping that Mr. Porcupine decides that the salt lick tastes better than the house. She then made a removable fence to block the part of the house that the porcupine was eating so that Grandma and Grandpa could put it up at night. Hopefully Mr. Porcupine gets the message and leaves the house alone, because if he doesn't, a hunter will have to be called in to shoot him, which nobody really wants.
Oh, if you are going to Wisconsin this summer be sure you have your tick meds on. Mommy picked up 16 ticks over 4 days and I got 10. Every time we stepped in brush that was higher than Mommy's ankles one of us would come out with at least a tick or two. It is going to be a bad tick summer.
1 comment:
OMD, the ticks is horribulls there too this year - worser than efur! This past Sunday when we hiked mom pulled seben off of me but nuttin on her. And I nefur woz in high grass or nuttin coz I always stay on the trail. But hey, mebbe it be a good thing you falled down those steps coz it maded you get a third opinion from a different V-E-T! Efurrything happens fur a reason but no funs to be loopy on your vakashun. Hope you is all better now.
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