Saturday, March 31, 2007

The Vet

While Grammie was here yesterday, I took Murph to the vet. Pretty much as expected, it might be this or it might be that & $95 please. Ok, ok, Dr H was pretty sure it's anterior cruciate ligament strain of some sort. He recommended we come back and donate another $300 next week err I mean, have some Xrays done to determine the extent of the injury. Since he's gotten so much better this week, we're going to let him rest for another week or so and see what that does. If the ligaments had all been ruptured the leg would be much more floppy around the joint with nothing holding the parts together (like my precise terms?). If that were the case, he'd need surgery but since it isn't, I don't think there was much that could be done for him anyway. There doesn't seem to be much pain, it doesn't bother him for us to touch the leg, probing around the knee softly doesn't make him jerk or wince or anything. We're only taking him for short walks so mostly he just lies around resting anyway.

I also learned that our lean mean lab is no more! He's all chunked up! His weight has usually been around 86 pounds but this visit it was up to 94 & Dr H said that ideally, a lab his size should be around EIGHTY! Too many treats or what?!?! A large part of it is due to the major decrease in his running over the last year or so. Now that he isn't barrelling through the woods for an hour every night & going for those 3 hour training runs on weekends, he's bulked up. I knew he'd gained a bit, his reflective safety vest can barely fasten but had no idea he was almost 15 pounds too heavy. Sorry Murph, time to cut back! If only the girls were on board with this plan!

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