Day 8 -
September 24th
What a night!
I took him outside at bed time for a last toileting. He
wandered round to the side of the conservatory, just for a last explore when
suddenly, there was a loud yelp and scream and he ran, three legged straight
into the house and in his cage. I ran in after him and took him out to look at
what had happened. He would not put and weight at all on his left front paw. I
could see no blood, nothing sticking into him and running my hand lightly all
over the leg produced no reaction in him, so I knew there was no cut or break.
He was calm and quiet, and I had no idea what to do. I phoned the vet. We talked
through what had happened and tried his joints. All seemed well. So she said to
take him in in the morning. I spent a while with him on my lap and then decided
to test the leg again. This time I was a bit firmer and squeezed gently along
the length of the leg. When I reached the paw he gave an enormous yelp. I phoned
the vet again and arranged to go into see her then.
At the vet’s I was greeted by the night nurse and we had a
few minutes wait for the vet to arrive. The vet decided an X-Ray was necessary
so he was taken from me by the vet and nurse and I had a 20 minute wait in the
waiting room reading the posters and leaflets about ticks, fleas, worms and so
on. Towards the end of the time I heard him yelping, then I was called back into
the consulting room. He was curled up on the table, giving me looks that made me
feel very guilty. We looked at the X-Rays. Nothing wrong there at all. No soft
tissue damage either. What they had found though was a tick that we had missed
the day before. It was between the toes, right near the joint. They said he’d
been a bit of a wimp when they removed it. He had laid still for the X-Ray
though and hadn’t needed any anaesthetic for that. They don’t like giving too
much medication to young puppies, but had given him a small shot of pain killer
in his leg. £235 of excitement, not sure if I can claim that from the
insurance.
He was still limping when we got home, but I could touch
his paw now. Interestingly, when a crane fly landed near him, he was able to
pounce on it OK.
We slept in till 8 am this morning. His paw is perfectly OK
now. He has had a good run round and seems to have forgotten last night’s
incident. Hopefully the tick and flea treatment I gave him yesterday will
prevent any recurrences.
Today’s traumas for him were not quite so serious. To
escape the horrible hoover machine he went out into the garden. Suddenly there
was a lot of barking. I rushed out see what the problem was, he was barking at
the side puppy gate. This cuts off the side passage from the front. I have used
that area to store some things I did not want puppy teeth in. Struggling through
this was the window cleaner. So Lewi had to come in and watch the strange man
cleaning the patio door and the conservatory. I stopped the hoovering while the
horrors were happening at the windows, I think that would have been a bit too
much for him.
He has been perfectly OK today, he’s obviously forgotten
last night’s adventure. I took him for a car ride this afternoon, just going to
collect some things from a friend about 4 miles away. He stayed in the crate all
the while as the friend has a dog.
After a week here in his new home, he is now very settled.
He’s going to his crate quite often when he wants a bit of quiet, so he has
accepted that as his private space. The problem is that as he is feeling more
secure, we need to be a bit firmer about defining boundaries. Consistency is the
key, I know, but I need to work more on shoe chewing for one thing. It’s not so
much when I leave my shoes out, it’s more when visitors arrive and he goes for
their shoes! Quite embarrassing really, it’ll be worse when he’s older. He does
seem to be learning about no go areas, the top of the coffee table or the settee
for example. A sharp No (or even oi!) seems to work, except when he is in a very
excited mood. It takes a few attempts to get him to obey then, sometimes, he s
quite defiant then and although he will stop, he immediately restarts. One thing
at a time is the way. He really does have an excess of energy at times.