Poor broken puppy, part II

Well, it's confirmed. My poor broken puppy is truly broken. Six hours at the puppy neurologist/neurosurgeon on Friday, and an MRI* later and the vet showed me that Thor has a ruptured disk in his neck - the C6-C7 disk to be exact. What does this mean? It means that tomorrow evening, Turg and I drop him off at the puppy neurosurgeon and early Wednesday morning he has surgery. Then a few days of recovery, and then home, where I'm sure there will be weeks more of recovery.

The whole day Friday was extremely emotionally trying. Knowing that surgery is really the only option, there is nothing to do but to say that we can do all we can. Because if we do nothing, he will get worse.

Send happy juju to the puppy.

*I'll post pictures later of post-MRI shaven puppy. But here's the image - Thor with shaven wrists, looking like he has chicken legs and wearing Sherpa booties.

Poor broken puppy

Thor does not like stairs. He really doesn't. He's never liked stairs, but he's gotten used to (most of) them over the years. Thor does not have good traction on hardwood floors... he mostly bounces or bucks like a bronco and slides into place. Put those things together, and what do you get? Broken puppy.

Last Tuesday, Thor was trying excitedly to get up the 3 wood steps in our foyer to the living room. He didn't make it. He slipped, slid, Turg tried to catch him, and then tumbled to the floor. Then, the next day, we noticed that he started limping. So, we did what we normally do, and have him a couple of baby aspirin to bring down the inflammation. It didn't work. He limped more. Turg took him to the vet on Saturday, and got some anti-inflammatories and pain-killers (with opiates) to keep him calm. He seemed to be getting better, slowly.

He wasn't. It was masking things, but things started to get worse. Last night he was dragging his feet behind him. Walk walk draag. Walk walk slip. It was really hard to watch. We took him to the vet again to get x-rays this morning. The vet said the problem appeared to be neurological and not orthopedic, since he was getting worse.

So tomorrow, I am bringing him to the doggie neurologist (right? who knew) to get a work-up. Apparently, this doggie neurologist said that he's not surprised given the symptoms and the breed. Hopefully, that means that the treatment will not be bad.

Thing is, Thor is not allowed to have any food after midnight tonight. Which means he will not be having breakfast tomorrow morning. His appointment is at noon. That means I will be driving in the car with broken, grumpy, hungry, whiney puppy tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

My poor puppy.

Bizarro-World

Since Turg and I got engaged, my Dad has slowly but surely been getting used to the idea of the fact that Turg's not going anywhere. For a bit of background, my Dad has pretty much spent the last nearly 12 years doing everything in his power to deny that Turg existed. I would try talking to him about Turg, and be ignored. Turg would try talking to him, (you know, general pleasantries, like "how are you?") and would be answered with nothing more than a grunt. But we got engaged, and I got the generic Dad response of "Good luck to you."

Then Turg had hernia surgery. Ever since then, Dad has been incredibly concerned about Turg's well being - constantly asking how he's doing and if he's taking it easy, etc. Flash forward to this past weekend, Father's Day, watching TV:

Dad (thoughtfully): (Turg)'s a nice guy.
Me (cocking head like a puppy): *blink blink* Er?
Dad: Don't be too hard on him...

WHAT?!?! Don't be too hard on him?? I felt like I was in Bizarro-World, where no means yes and everyday is opposite day.

Under water

I am so busy that I am barely keeping afloat.

*gurgle*