Injuries and Your Diabetic Dog
As I mentioned in my last post, we had one other thing arise out of winter… My boys were outside playing in the snow and I heard this horrible yelp of pain. You know the one, it’s the one that goes straight to the core of you and says, “Your baby is hurt!!” Well, he was… Max was my stoic boy; he never whimpered, whined, complained or made a peep, until that day. Finn got a little overzealous wrestling in the snow and jumped on Max’s back end. I ran to where they were in the yard and Max just looked up at me and tried to walk…. on 3 legs. UGH!!!
Off to the vet we go…. He had a partial tear of the ACL. UGH!!! We all know the options, surgery, which I would have to drive 2.5 hours to do or rest it and hope for the best. I decided to go the “rest” route to see if it would heal on its own. If not, he would have to have the surgery anyway, so let’s try the rest option first. What does this mean? It means that I carried him for 8 weeks.
I had read that boredom was the biggest issue with this injury so I did some research to figure out what was the best way to do this. As I mentioned, I carried him everywhere. Out to potty, into the kitchen to feed him, I brought him water so he didn’t dehydrate, you get the picture.
Well, Finn wasn’t injured and still needed his walks, so I bought a stroller for Max so that he got to sightsee around the neighborhood. I lifted him out of the stroller at his favorite spots to sniff and “do his business”. Our biggest challenge here was that Max was Alpha and whatever he got to do, Finn wanted to do also. It took a few days for Finn to understand that Max had to ride and he had to walk. Sigh.
Max was just beginning to feel better and Finn decided that he was well enough to play. And, you guessed it, it happened again, but to the other leg. Really?!? Many of you have noticed hind end weakness in your pups early in the diagnosis, we were no different. I’m fairly certain that this was part of the issue in the injuries as Max was the bigger of my two boys so the fact that Finn could take him out of the game, not once, but twice, meant that something was going on. Enter Methyl B-12. I hadn’t started giving him this supplement before the injury, but I promptly ordered it and began adding it to Max’s breakfast every day. Methyl B-12 is used for hind leg weakness in our Diabetic Pups. It can be a total game changer. Max had stopped jumping up on the couch, so what I mistook for “Diva” behavior, was likely just Diabetic neuropathy. Had I noticed sooner, maybe Max wouldn’t have been so easily injured.
Now we were dealing with one new injury and one partially healed injury. I added some other items to my already extensive collection of “dog stuff”. The stroller was still used every day, now I added a Pak-n-play in the family room, a playpen on the deck and a Play yard in the back yard. I needed to be sure that Max got several changes of scenery during the day so that he could really rest those hind legs.
When my boys were tiny, I had a behaviorist come and work with us so that I didn’t have any bad habits to correct once the boys were older. She explained that dogs that are not mentally stimulated are the ones that get mischievous and cause trouble. So now I needed to find a way to mentally stimulate the two of them. I had some puzzle toys for them when they were puppies, but of course, they were in TX. So Amazon, here I come. I bought the puzzle toys that they were used to and a few others that they had no idea how to work. Mental stimulation coming right up, I hope. It worked like a charm, not only on Max, but on Finn also. By the time they figured out how to get the treat (diabetic friendly of course) out of the toy a few times, they were exhausted! Victory!!! Suffice it to say that it was the longest 12 weeks of my life. The upside was that by the time I got done carrying Max everywhere for 3 months, my core muscles were very strong. Lol
We developed a system, when Max was starting to bear weight, I would allow him to take a few steps on his own, on a leash, then I would say, “Mama help you?” and he would sit down and wait for me to pick him up and carry him to his next destination. It was a trying time, but well worth the effort to avoid surgery.
I am happy to report that Max recovered fully and never looked back! It was hard on all three of us, but it also strengthened our already strong bond. There is never a dull moment with a “Sugar Baby”!
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Until next time…