Hi Laura and Baka, I finally realized I had a similar (but not exactly the same) episode with my dog Tanzi in June. We had showed on Saturday and she was not quite as perky as usual, and had mild diarrhea. Got home, she ate as usual and spent most of the evening outside. At bedtime I called and she did not come. So I had to go out and find her (very large fenced backyard). She was unable to get up (she is 2 1/2). I helped her and she was very lame in her hind end (her GDC's are excllent, with normal elbows). So I called the emergency clinic and took her in. I had to basically carry her into the clinic. They gave her morphine for pain and told me it might make her vomit. Sure enough, it did - and up came a large pair of panties (not mine) rolled into a nice compact cylinder garnished with hair and grass, so it looked like a dead rat. Since I had paid about $3500 for her dam's treatment and surgery the prior year, related to swallowing an entire pair of pantyhose (not mine, again) in one piece, we had a few good yucks over all the money I had saved, and I took Tanzi home.
She was a dead weight and I had to set her down in order to open the front door. I could carry her if she was elevated, but I could not really pick her up from the ground. So I somehow got her just inside the front door (up one step) and set up an x-pen around her. Checked her at 7 a.m. and she had not moved and was not much better. She ended up going back to the emergency clinic in the afternoon - but now she was lame in the front! X-rays revealed inflammation of the joints. So they put her on Rimadyl and sent me home. By that night, she was completely normal again. And has been normal ever since. However, I just heard about a friend's dog who had to be spayed due to pyometra that had also resulted in peritonitis. From what I understand, she had lameness and swollen joints as well. I had been worried Tanzi might have been bloating and had heard that hind end lameness can be related to abdominal distress. So maybe the panties had caused that?? But what about that front-end lameness? It was almost like the inflammation was moving from joint to joint??? Whatever it was, it was brief in duration but it really scared me. Within 24 hours, she was fine. But at times during those 24 hours, I was worried that she might die. To see a normally incredibly sound and very active young dog, unable to walk, is scary. I hope all is well with Baka, but if you ever get more explanation I would love to hear what it was. We don't have any answers on Tanzi. I was thinking maybe the hind-end was due to the panties, and the front-end was just caused by straining to make up for the rear but I am not at all convinced. I am almost wondering if she had some weird virus? Sharon Montville - Firstrax - Colorado __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
