By that time I was working, so Ryan had to do the trips to Thompson. During my last days as a free woman, I taught RD simple commands like sit and shake. He was a fast learner. He also spent time playing with Kylie and Justin’s shepherd, Cash (our neighbours who named RD). We noticed a funny kind of scampering run during the outings, but did not become concerned. He ran with his back legs together, in a sort of hop. He really tried to keep up and did not advertise pain, so we encouraged the exercise.
I remember mentioning to Ryan to ask about the hopping run at the next appointment, but did not think anything would come of it. On his way home, Ryan called to recount the conversation with the vet. When Ryan asked about his run, the vet paid much attention to his hips and ended up taking x-rays. The results were not good. RD’s left hind femur (thigh bone) was totally snapped way up by the hip joint, a devastating injury for a dog. He also said that this injury would have required a lot of force to occur. For example: getting hit by a car, being thrown out of the window of a car, or withstanding some severe abuse. The itching motion I thought RD possessed was really him holding his leg up as close to his body as possible. Ryan gave me the options. We could amputate his leg, consent to surgery that aimed to not fix the problem but to reduce pain, or put him to sleep out of compassion. I could not tell what Ryan was leaning towards as I was sobbing by this time. This dog had been running/playing his heart out, not showing the slightest ounce of pain, which the vet told us he would have had a lot of. I hung up the phone and immediately called my mom, the only thing I could think of to do. As soon as she figured out that no one had died (she was not used to me calling crying so hard I wasn’t able to speak), she was able to provide some comfort. “Of course you will do the surgery”.
At that moment, she knew what I needed was not the adult mother-daughter relationship of telling me "you are grown up, you need to make this decision yourself", but the comforting reassurance of the decision I had already made in my heart.
There wasn’t any question.
Surgery involved removing the top part of the femur along with the ball joint of the hip. The hope was that a sort of pseudo-joint would form out of connective tissue and pain would be greatly reduced if not gone.The recovery was hard because he was not used to resting and that is what he needed to do for weeks. But, since being healed, there has been no trace of any problem except on days that are really cold or if he has had tons of exercise. Only then will you see the faintest trace of a limp. The surgery was a complete success. Those weeks were very bonding for us, he learned to be spoiled and that scrambled eggs are WELL worth being inside all day for.
Note: Of course he was neutered as soon as he was old enough, but there is nothing interesting in that surgery story :).
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