So yesterday was Layne’s yearly vet trip and for the first time she registered in the “slightly overweight” category (as opposed to the normal/healthy weight range she’s been her whole life). I’m pretty sure this is because she used to walk with me, almost 2 miles like 3 days a week and then I got pregnant and felt sick and stopped walking and then when I stopped feeling sick I started feeling lazy instead and then just exhausted and now that I’m a bout 2.5 weeks from me due date let me tell you, I get winded walking around the block so 2 mile walks are out of the question. And so Layne porked up.
Also last night Jack spent the night at his GiGi and Poppy’s house (my parents) so I bought Layne a 99 cent squeaky toy at Target while I was running errands and was goofing off with her in the living room, watching her run around like a crazy dog. Good exercise, I thought.
So flash forward an hour, Nate and I were going out to dinner and he went to take Layne upstairs to her crate and she took about one giant leap up the stairs and yelped. We assumed she hit her head on the banister (it has happened before) but she squawked and squealed most of the way up. It was weird. When we got home Nate checked her out but couldn’t find anything specific wrong with her except that she yelped pretty much when you touched her.
She spent the evening yipping and yelping randomly when walking, sitting, or laying down (she was not limping, she was not favoring any of her feet, or sides to sit and lay on) so we figured she just stretched a muscle or something dumb while running around. Unfortunately this continued over night (apparently she moves around a lot at night, so there was a lot of yelping) and at one point when I got up to pee (the second time) she was standing in the middle of the floor when I walked back to bed and yelped like I stepped on her when I bumped into her (it’s hard to see a dog laying in the middle of the floor in the dark).
Nate said she refused to walk up the stairs this morning for breakfast so I called the vet and made a plan to drop her off. They had no open appointments but were interested in checking her out. She sulked around all morning, yelping sometimes, head down but still no limping and still didn’t seem to be favoring anything. Then when it was time to go she happily let me put on her leash and happily jumped into the back of my van. Without yelping. She squawked once when she laid down in the back but when we got there she hopped back out with no problem and when we were inside and I started rubbing her down, she was so intent on sniffing whatever she had found on the floor that she barely made a noise when I touched her back leg which had previously caused her to yelp horribly.
I debated all morning about whether or not to take her to the vet. She has a history of high drama when it comes to injuries. She will definitely yelp and cower if you bump into her in the dark overnight (which makes me wonder WHY she moves herself to the middle of the floor between the bed and the wall when I get up to go to the bathroom like she thinks maybe this time I’ll know she’s done it and see her before I step on her. I probably won’t). And I think the memory of the pain or discomfort is causing her to shy away from being examined or yelping when she does something like going up the steps (which is why she didn’t notice me rubbing down her previously sensitive legs while in the lobby of the vet’s office and had no problem stretching them out to jump into and out of the van, because she thought she was going somewhere fun).
All that leaves me waiting for the vet to call. I’m a little worried that sitting at the vet all day will just make her even more dramatic, but really that was our only option unless we wanted to wait til tomorrow and they sounded really judgey when I said maybe that would be a better idea so I went ahead and brought her in. I’m hoping they won’t find anything and maybe she’ll get an anti-inflammatory or sedative to encourage her to take it easy and not move it til whatever it is calms down.
