Poor Shadow!

My poor puppy is injured! She and Craig were playing fetch one morning earlier this week when all of a sudden we heard a gut wrenching cry from our little pooch. She was limping and cowering and crying and it nearly broke my heart. Once we calmed her down, we determined that her leg bones weren't broken but we knew something was really wrong with her hind foot.

So we crated her for the day and decided to call the vet at the end of the day. Well, we didn't get to calling the vet till after they had closed. Felt really guilty. She was still favoring the leg and avoiding putting any weight on it. We babied her quite a bit... but she mostly just kept to herself, hiding under the kitchen or dining room table. She even went to bed for a little bit, but eventually came to sit at our feet.

I had to go in early the next morning, so Craig got up and called to vet to get her in. Turns out she was a little bit better. She ate her breakfast and put a little weight on the foot. The vet says she's injured her ACL. So our poor puppy has a football injury! Right now she's on anti-inflammatories for a week. We'll help limit her activity to give it time to rest and hopefully heal.

We're hopeful that it's just a pull or a strain and not a tear. If it's just a pull or strain, she won't have to have surgery. She's only five years old, so we're hoping she'll bounce back pretty quickly.