Pop

I haven't blogged in awhile because nothing exciting has been going on in our household. Until now.

Thursday evening Cassie and Greta were playing in the yard, showing off for me like they always do. And all of the sudden, Cassie started screaming. Noises came out of that dog's mouth that scared me to death. Her right back leg was stuck in a weird position, she couldn't bend it to put it down. She was obviously in terrible pain. I layed her down and sort of gently moved her leg back and forth. Then POP. She stopped screaming and hopped up. Only to limp for the rest of the night though.

After a call to our former neighbor who's a vet, he recommended we take her in for some x-rays. He listed several things that could be wrong, from worst case scenarios to something we could deal with.

She paid a visit to the vet on Friday and spent all day there. The vet called me twice to update me. After a physical exam of her leg, he said it was her knee and she was obviously in pain. X-rays showed nothing though. So she came home with some pain meds and a prescription to avoid play for two weeks.

In an effort to follow the rules, the girls stayed inside Friday night to chill out and so we could watch Cassie better. After sleeping through a whole movie, ("Snow Dogs," with a cute border collie named Nana that reminded me of Cassie) Cassie started to stand up but her leg was all messed up again. She only whimpered that time. So I gently moved her leg around some, and then POP. Her knee was back in place.

Saturday I left town to visit my mother for Mother's Day, and decided to take Cassie with me so she and Greta could be separated for a day and avoid play. At 5:30 a.m., I got up to use the bathroom, and Cassie hobbled over to me on three legs. Her knee was popped out again! I did my usual moving it around some, and it popped back in.

Last night, our former neighbors came over, and T.J. the vet, examined Cassie himself. He said it was her kneecap that was popping out of place. He had a technical term for it, but I don't remember. He said it will keep happening and that we needed to have surgery done on it to insert a pin in her knee. T.J. says he can help us out with the surgery, just give him some time to get settled in his internship.

So now we're just on Cassie-knee-watch, waiting for it to happen again. I don't see much point keeping her and Greta separated when the last two times it happened she was sleeping. But we'll do the best we can to keep her from running and jumping on it. Which is pretty much impossible with her. Wish us luck.