So a couple of weeks ago our dog has been yelping and not using his leg like she should be. He doesn't jump, or even squat to go to the bathroom. We decided to bring him to the vet and they said he either had a broken toe or a sprained ACL. Either way, they would have to heal on their own. So they gave us some pain meds to give Buddy thinking it would get better.
A few days after the vet visit, he was being groomed and we told the groomer that he probably broke a toe. When DH picked him up, she thought it wasn't anything wrong with his toe, but rather possibly a disc in his back. A few days later he wasn't getting any better. He even lost his bladder control and was going over everything. We decided to bring him back in.
The vet thought he either had a hairline fracture in his leg, or tore or sprained his ACL. They wanted to rule out the broken/fractured leg, so we decided to go ahead and get an xray done. Everything came back good, however, it meant that he either severely sprained or tore his ACL. Since he couldn't hold his bladder anymore, they were more concerned that there may be some bigger underlying issue.
There are two ways to fix his ACL: Surgery which would cost $1400 or keep him in the hospital for 3 days and get a steroid drip to try and heal the ACL quicker. However, the ACL would eventually fuse back together, but he couldn't go on long walks and may get arthritis later in life.
What did we do? Option 3 - since Buddy had a UTI they couldn't give him a steroid because it would make it worse. They gave us strict instructions to give him UTI medicine, pain medicine, and keep in him his kennel for two weeks - 24/7 to get his leg to heal. Two weeks will be this coming Wednesday.
Since he has been on the meds for 1.5 weeks now, he no longer has bladder issues and acts pretty much normal, despite him being in his kennel all day. I think he is feeling pretty good and its kinda antsy to get out. I just hope he doesn't hurt his leg again!
Also, just going to throw this out there - we have somewhat thrown around the idea of trying to find a family who has more time for Buddy. So....if anyone wants a well trained Cockapoo, let me know. Its not that we don't like Buddy, he really is a good dog, we just feel we don't give him the attention he needs.
Anyways, he is pretty much back to his old self already....and I'm sure he will be even better once he no longer has to be couped up on Wednesday!