Max turned 7 today, although he is a puppy at heart. He's the world's biggest baby and I just love him to death. Today The Boy and I are going to take Max to the park to let him play and by play I mean with other people. Max doesn't like to play with other dogs. He prefers people. I bought him some new toys and some special doggie treats for him to enjoy later.
The Boy says I spoil Max too much. It's true, I do. It's hard not to. I can't help myself. My poor guy has been through a lot the past few years. What can be so hard on a dog, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. A little over 2 years ago Max suffered from
Fibrocartilaginous Embolism or FCE. Basically, it's like a stroke to the spine. He lost use of his back right leg for a week or so. It was horrible to watch him deal with it. Normally Max is a happy go lucky kinda dog, always wanting to play and run around and eat. When this happened, all he did was lay down for days. He didn't want to play fetch. He didn't want to eat. He just laid there. He was depressed. Not even food got him excited. His leg would drag behind him when he walked and so that started to get scratched up and bleed. We had to keep it taped up until he was able to raise it off the ground when he walked. It was a sad sight to see him walking around with his leg dragging on the floor after him. I just wanted to follow him around and hold his little leg up for him. Slowly but surely, he began to regain use of his leg. It's still a little bit weak. He falls down a lot and sometimes his leg shakes when he's standing, but my little guy is a trooper! Within a week of his injury he was back to wanting to play again. It broke my heart, because we weren't supposed to let him walk a lot, let alone play, for a month or so.
Flash forward to June of last year. We had taken Max to the dog park to play fetch. Keep in mind that this is one of the first times I'd taken Max to the dog park since the whole FCE thing. I'd been wary of bringing him to such a big open space to run around in. I didn't want him to over exert himself and hurt his leg. I finally thought his leg was getting to be strong enough to go to the park. We had been there, playing fetch all of 5 minutes, when Max jumped up for the ball. He starts to walk back to The Boy and I when I notice he isn't using his back right leg. Yes, the same leg that was injured due to the FCE - the same leg! He wouldn't put it on the ground. He just kept it raised and was limping around on his other 3 legs. I was so scared. I didn't know what to think. Was it the FCE again? The Boy picked him up (which is not easy as Max weighs about 100 pounds) and we took him to the vet right away. The vet examined him and knew right away that Max had torn his little doggie ACL and would need
surgery. He had the surgery 3 days later.
As my little guy gets older, I worry about him more and more (Yes, I'm a big worry wort). His leg is weak sometimes and all of the injuries he has had makes him more susceptible to arthritis. He walks with a limp too. He moves like an old man sometimes. The Boy says I worry too much, but Max is my baby. I'm his mom. I'm supposed to worry.
