When Your Baby is Sick

 WHEN YOUR BABY IS SICK

To those who are not pet owners, this may seem trivial. I can tell you that there are so many emotions going on inside of the furbaby parents when their babies are sick or hurt that it can make everything you do ache for them. First, let me make this clear. We are parents of real live human beings and yes we have been through tough times with them being ill or hurt. Also, there are others who have gone through worse times than we could ever imagine. For now, I just feel like writing about what emotions we are going through for our eldest doodle, Davis, who happens to turn 4 years old on November 8th.

This all started with a stiff limp to avoid putting pressure on his right front paw. Lately, he had this little limp after each full day of Doggie Day Care. After a day it got better, and both of us know how he is never still a minute there. He runs and jumps and really uses all of the energy in him. Afterwards, when we pick him up he is out like a light and usually naps more than usual the next day. He really does need to expend that energy level within himself. Our youngest one loves to run and play, yet does not seem to have as high of a physical energy level. Her energies are in the realm of barking. Letting us know when the mailperson, FedEx or other delivery service is bringing us a package or a neighbor has the audacity to walk or bike down her street. 

Back to the limp. In August, his limp seemed to be worse and did not go away, so we set up an appointment with Dr. Taylor, his vet. She took x-rays and after the radiologist read them it was determined that he had inflammation around a toe nail and that it looked as if at some point he may have injured that nail. We went away with anti-inflammatory meds and a supplement to help. As we were running low on the meds and supplement, Dr. Taylor and then one of her partners refilled them again. We were feeling confident once her partner told us that he totally agreed with her diagnosis. There were times that Davis was not limping at all and then times when he seemed a bit stiff after laying down for a while. Still...we could see improvement and we only let him run around our backyard and kept him from his favorite thing in the world...Doggie Daycare. We did not want to take chances that this would return until we saw nothing of a limp.

Fast forward to last night. All of a sudden there was no limp when he walked. It was hopping like a rabbit to avoid putting that front right paw down. We assumed perhaps he aggravated the toe area. He let us touch his paw. He even continued to play a little, although not as much, with his younger sister.

Sunday morning we both got up and could not go back to bed because of the worry about Davis. It just is not right to see your 65 pound doodle, hopping around like a rabbit or kangaroo when he had to move. I got his supplement (which requires a bit of food on his tummy) and a hard boiled egg that I make just for him. I also gave him one of the pills that Dr. Taylor gave us to keep him calm so that maybe he won't be trying to move around too much on it. That worked, although, in reality, we should have given one to Maggie Mae also. She still wanted to play and would now and then grab hold of his tail or an ear, as if to say, "Come on Davis, let's play." When Davis wanted to just crawl up on the sofa to be comfy, Maggie did not want to give up her spot so she actually made a  growl at him. We took care of that in a New York minute. Down she went and up came Davis. She knew that something was up and seemed to have a little more empathy for her big brother.

The Clinic is closed today, but we will be ready to call first thing when they open to get an appointment. If no appointment then we will have to be ready to go in as a Walk-in. If that means we miss our hair appointment with Shanon then so be it. That is at 2 and we don't know yet what we will be told tomorrow. We will have to let our hairdresser know as we learn what is going on ourselves.

It will be a long day of worry and to some people this may seem crazy. A parent just never wants to see their babies hurt. At the top of this page, there is Davis napping with his calming pill helping to relax him. Then there is a picture that shows the love and trust in his eyes as he looks at us. We just don't want to ever let him down.