It is Monday- so we must have a dog at the vet

and today it is Miss Tequila, the only one that the new vet had not yet met. I say new vet, but really, we have had her for two years. As you have probably figured by now, I have a bunch of vets, for different things, depending on what is going on, what my schedule is like, etc---it is hard being in this family and I swear to you, it takes a village of vets to raise my animals!

Anyway, when we got home last nite from Twister's appointment, Visit at Jodi's and shopping at Sam's, Rusty had gone home and Tequila was three-legged lame. Did I mention that we babysat Rusty, Jenna's old golden retriever, all weekend? He is a great dog. I know now that when he left around 6 pm, Tequila was fine. When we arrived at 7 pm, she was not fine.

She was a mess--more so than usual. She did not seem to hurt but her front left was not functional. She would bear weight on it, but it would collapse or she would not use it at all.

She has been at the vet all morning, where it was determined that the nerve that runs her front leg is damaged--the first thought was that she was hit by a car--not possible; kicked by a horse, also not possible; run into a tree (that was my idea as I know what a doofus she really is)--maybe so. The problem with that nerve is that it does not normally repair properly. Xrays showed that her leg bones are fine, and she refused to have her scapula xrayed but with no pain, it is unlikely that is the problem either. The vet is going to put her on a steroid in hopes that perhaps it is just swelling that is smooshing the nerve and it might rebound, but she told me not to expect that.

We are hunting a vet that does laser work on this sort of injury--and seeing if he thinks that it would benefit her. He of course would not be local and how interesting that this happened when we were seeing Troy-who does the laser stuff on horses

The good news is that this does not hurt. The bad news is that if she cannot control her leg, she may drag the top of her foot thereby tearing it up--in which case, removal of the leg is probably required. I do not think that will be the case with her as she can put her foot down, but maybe this gets worse over time? The other irony is this--Slater had a sign of bone cancer but does not have it, now Quila comes up lame and the vet's first thought was that she had it---the Xrays were to rule that out as much as anything. Great bullet to dodge, thank God.

Poor Tequila, I was worried for her loneliness...and now we have another issue to address.