I had read that dobes were so stoic that they don't show pain but I didn't see it until recently. Mabel is 13 months now and we thought she was just going through part of her doberteen phase again by being difficult about basic things like sitting on command and jumping up on the couch. Turns out she has a tear in her ACL and we have no idea when it happened because she never showed any signs of pain until it started to hurt worse. She plays harder than any dog I've ever met and does take a few hard falls from time to time, but they never phase her. She hops right up and keeps going.
Now our vet says that we have to keep her inactive (ha) for a couple months if we want to avoid surgery. Mabel continues to try and convince me that she is fine. She has no idea why we aren't doing our daily activities like going to the soccer fields, playing frisbee, going to parks. Plus this makes me weary of taking her in public. She was just getting to the point of perfection with her alerts in public but now I can't take her places that I need her. Add in the fact that my wife is due in less than 6 weeks and we have an extremely stressful environment in our home right now.
I love how much pride dobes have, but I wish they would tell us when they were in pain in a more obvious way. My beagle acts like she got shot by a rifle every time she stubs her foot. Very annoying, but at least we know when something is wrong and can try and fix it. I believe the injury could have been less severe if we could have addressed it early.
Has anyone ever dealt with an injury like this? Mabel is on drugs right now for inflammation and pain meds to make her feel better but also keep her somewhat mellow (still more energy than 90% of dogs I know). We're considering getting some sort of brace to try and reduce the chances of her getting a fully tear. Any advice (other than telling me I should have seen it sooner because I promise I caught it early than anyone I know would have) on how to deal with this would be appreciated.
Here's a puppy photo because it makes me happy and I thought it might make you guys happy too.
IMG_0922 by Caleb Cox, on Flickr
Now our vet says that we have to keep her inactive (ha) for a couple months if we want to avoid surgery. Mabel continues to try and convince me that she is fine. She has no idea why we aren't doing our daily activities like going to the soccer fields, playing frisbee, going to parks. Plus this makes me weary of taking her in public. She was just getting to the point of perfection with her alerts in public but now I can't take her places that I need her. Add in the fact that my wife is due in less than 6 weeks and we have an extremely stressful environment in our home right now.
I love how much pride dobes have, but I wish they would tell us when they were in pain in a more obvious way. My beagle acts like she got shot by a rifle every time she stubs her foot. Very annoying, but at least we know when something is wrong and can try and fix it. I believe the injury could have been less severe if we could have addressed it early.
Has anyone ever dealt with an injury like this? Mabel is on drugs right now for inflammation and pain meds to make her feel better but also keep her somewhat mellow (still more energy than 90% of dogs I know). We're considering getting some sort of brace to try and reduce the chances of her getting a fully tear. Any advice (other than telling me I should have seen it sooner because I promise I caught it early than anyone I know would have) on how to deal with this would be appreciated.
Here's a puppy photo because it makes me happy and I thought it might make you guys happy too.
IMG_0922 by Caleb Cox, on Flickr