Kairo January Update - Part 1

It’s been quite an eventful January in the Kairo department of our life.

We started off the New Year with a trip to the emergency vet.  What a way to say “Hello 2012!”  On Sunday, New Year’s Day, we decided to take a loooong walk with the K-Man (and perhaps to walk by some of the houses for sale in the surrounding neighborhood – you know, just for fun, since they are either entirely out of our price range, or are in our price range, but overlooking the waste treatment facility, where I can only imagine the stench in the summer is unbearable).  After walking about two and a half miles, we were at a park close to home (actually, right by the softball fields we sometimes play on), and Kairo decides to take off after a squirrel, running full speed until he hits the end of the retractable leash.  He was then thrown back and to the side, completely wiping out on his left side.  And he didn’t get up right away and when he did, his leg was in a very odd position, almost like his hip was dislocated.  He gradually put his back left leg back down, but would not put pressure on it to walk.  He slowly hobbled/three-legged walked over to the bleachers next to the softball field.  At which point, G$ and I decided that since we were still about a half mile away from home, we better get the car to pick him.  So, I quickly walked home, grabbed the keys, and drove back to pick up my injured puppy and husband. 

Loving the collage feature on Picnik

We got back into the apartment and Kairo was still not putting pressure on his leg.  We of course started Googling and looking into emergency vets.  Apparently, a dog not putting pressure on a leg is in veterinary terms called a “lame leg," which was on the list of symptoms that justified a trip to the emergency vet.  We decided to wait a few hours to see if things improved naturally on the off chance that maybe he was just shocked.  No dice.  Around 6:30 or 7:00 that evening, we called the emergency vet, explained what happened and his symptoms, and they said we should bring him in since they would not be able to diagnose his problem without feeling the joints, etc.  So off to the emergency vet we went.  It was a relatively quick process, especially considering the price-mark up (almost 3x a normal vet visit!).  The one thing I didn’t like is that they took Kairo to the back without us, did the evaluation, and then the vet came and talked to us.  Maybe that’s normal with other vets, but with our regular vet, he does the examination while we are in the room. 

Anyways, during our chat with the vet, she said it appears he either sprained or tore his Cranial Cruciate Ligament, or the human-equivalent of his ACL.  Greeeeeaaat.  She prescribed him with an anti-inflammatory and pain killer pills and told us to keep him immobile for the next few days, then schedule an appointment with our normal vet for a check-up towards the end of the week to see how he’s doing.  Once again, greeeeeaat.  Oh and she also threw out the evil “S” word – surgery.  In the context of, depending on how he’s doing in a week, it’s possible it was a bad tear and he could need surgery.  Awesome.  Fear, sadness, regret for going on the walk in the first place…every bad thought we could have crept into our minds.  We got home and tried to keep Kairo calm.  He napped, and for the most part didn't move too much that evening.  G$ did some research on the surgery and found there are tons of sites explaining the expense ($2-3K), questioning the quality of life of the dog after the surgery, as well as stating that once one leg is done, there’s usually a good chance the other leg needs to be done.  Oh man. 

We wake up the next morning and if G$ and I did not witness "the accident," we would have had no idea it even happened.  The K-Man was back!  But being overly cautious, we were going to follow the docs plan of no playing, only walks out to the bathroom and back.  Let's just say that Kairo was none too happy when he could hear his friends playing outside at 9:00 PM and we kept him inside.  Keeping him from playing with other dogs wasn't too bad - we just didn't take him outside for playtime and daycare was of course out of the question.  What was difficult though, was keeping him from playing inside the house.  He had a lot of pent up energy and was over excited leading to donuts around the house - on the couch, up on the bed, like a crazy man dog.  And there was little to nothing we could do.  I kept chalking it up to him being better; however, G$ was more nervous that there was still damage.

We scheduled an appointment with our regular vet for Thursday after work and let me tell you, Thursday could not come soon enough.  We met with the vet, he cleared the K-Man, while also micro-chipping him (since we forgot to have that done while he was getting neutered).  And we went out for evening playtime that night.  We decided we would wait to take him to daycare until the following week.  So Crisis #1 averted.



Onto Crisis #2...which I will leave for another post. 

<3
K$