This morning we were all on the bed and it was time to feed the dogs breakfast. Hestia was particularly excited about it, and when I got up to go feed them, instead of going down the stairs like a normal dog, she thought she’d fly like Superdog and leap over the steps.
She immediately started shrieking, and shrieked until I made it over to her to pick her up. Then she stopped crying but she held her back left leg really tense and wouldn’t put any weight on it. So we called the vet and luckily they told us to bring her in right away.
So less than an hour after injuring herself, we were at the vet’s office. They first sedated her a little bit because she was so tense they couldn’t tell what was going on. They took some X-rays and it turned out she had dislocated her hip!!!! So they had to put her all the way under anesthesia in order to pop the hip back in place. It’s a good thing we never got around to feeding her breakfast so that she could get right under anesthesia immediately.
We were very worried about them being able to pop the hip back in place because apparently often there’s too much swelling and you can’t get the hip back in place. In that case she would have needed a surgery to remove the ball of her hip!!!! But time was on her side since we were so fast getting her in there, the tissues hadn’t had time to swell too much, and they were able to pop her hip back in.
She has to be on strict crate rest for two weeks, and she has to wear hobbles that prevent her from moving her hip joint too much. She also has several pain and anti-inflammatory medications to take.
Poor Hestia doesn’t understand why she has to stay in her crate and is looking at us forlornly.
Of course this overlaps with our planned trip to Disney coming up. The vet said it wouldn’t be good for her to be at the boarding facility because the room she’d be in was too big, and she’d have Alice with her who could injure her. Luckily our favorite vet tech offered to take Hestia to her house and watch her while we’re away. That way if she needs any further vet care, she’ll be able to get it right away. The tech also has experience with Japanese Chin, which is excellent! Hestia will get great care while we are away, I know that for sure. Of course this means Alice will be totally miserable being all alone at the boarding place, but I think she will survive.
It’s always interesting at the Morris house! But please be less interesting for a while!
Pictures are of Veronica holding Hestia in the vet’s lobby area, while talking with them. And a picture of Hestia in her crate at home. Hestia is a black and white Japanese Chin.
