The Mysterious Limp Part 3

It was painful for us to watch Chili being so ‘unchililike’. I can only imagine how she felt. We cut back on her food but she still gained weight. How could she not? She couldn’t do anything. I played with her a little bit in the house but was very careful. I didn’t want to aggravate her leg. Here we were almost 2 months into this Mysterious Limp and we still didn’t have the answer. At what point do you just say, ‘stop’. We didn’t know for certain if it was panosteitis and I’d already put her through 2 sets of Xrays. Poor girly got sick from the sedative both times. Now I was considering another option. The vet suggested that she get an ultrasound on her shoulder. What to do, what to do... I didn’t want to put her through being sedated again, but what if this was the test that would give us the answer. What’s the best decision for Chili?

We decided to get the ultrasound done on her shoulder. As they took her in I wanted to grab her and run out, but I didn’t. Here I was doing something I knew would be tough on her. Sorry Chili. To make it worse, they had to shave a patch on each shoulder. Oh brother, what next. To my surprise I was able to go in and watch them doing the ultrasound. Even when she’s under sedation, Chili still manages to be cute. Every now and then her tail would thump, thump, thump on the table and everyone would smile. So, after all that, the verdict was....nothing. There wasn’t much to see. There was a point that maybe he could see something, maybe not, we’re not quite sure. Now I feel even worse. He took a few images of areas around her shoulder and said he would send them to a specialist to review. Yeah, sure, go ahead, I won’t hold my breath. I don’t really blame the vet for not being able to find anything, that’s just the way it was.

As we waited for the specialist report, I thought about how frustrating this whole process had been. It can be tough owning an animal sometimes, especially when they’re not feeling good. They can’t tell you what’s wrong and most animals will do their best to hide what’s hurting. You have to make your decisions hoping that you’re doing the right thing. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to find the answer right away, but most times, it takes a lot of money, worry, and research.

Ok, so the specialist report is finally here. I had to read it a few times just to absorb what I was reading. Blah blah of the blah blah, what? Mild degenerative joint disease and poor conformation of the coronoid may indicate coronoid process disease. What? Elbow CT or arthroscopy recommended. What? No, she’s 3, I don’t think so. I’m done. Forget it. There will be no more poking and prodding. I’m taking this into my own hands. Nothing has worked so far and I’m not putting her through anything else. We will observe her and see what happens. That’s it.

And observe her we did. It probably took another month or so, but she did get over the limp. It left as it came. It just faded away. In the end, after 2 vets, 6 therapeutic laser treatments, 2 sets of X-rays, 1 ultrasound, and 1 specialist consultation, oh yeah, and a lot of $$$$, it just went away. On its own. Admittedly, it could have been a whole lot worse and in the end Chili was OK and that’s all that’s important. When our animal has a problem we’ll spend almost any amount of time and money on the elusive cure. We do it because we love them, we do it because they depend on us, and we do it because we need them.