Poor Belle!

Our first baby is hurt :( On Tuesday, Belle started whimpering and crying every time she moved. We checked her for stickers in her paws, felt each leg to identify which one was hurting, but we couldn't really figure out what was going on. Tuesday night was awful. She was up all night long whimpeirng, crying, and panting every time she moved. I finally just went to lay by her kennel for awhile to comfort her. It was awful (but good training!).


I called the vet Wednesday morning to get her an appointment - of course 1:30 pm was the only one they had available. I had to go to school and JZ was out of town, so my mom and dad took her in. Thank goodness they were here! I was prepared that they were going to tell us that she had torn her ACL and would need surgery. A few years ago she was having pain in her knee and the vet originally thought that was the problem. Luckily, it turned out just to be fluid on her knee, and some anti-inflammatory meds fixed her up.

We were surprised to hear that, this time, the problem was not actually in her knee at all, but instead in her back. The vet thinks that Belle has intervertebral disc disease. Basically, she has a disc that is slipping in her spine, and causing a nerve that runs down her left hind leg to be pinched. If anyone has ever suffered from a pinched sciatic nerve, you know what she is feeling.

We have a couple of options for her treatment. Right now she is pretty doped up on a steroid and a muscle relaxer. Hopefully, that will relieve the swelling on her disc and relieve the pain, but this is only a temporary fix. We will have to deal with this again, but maybe not for another year. That is the best case scenario. If this doesn't help then surgery is in her future. We have to really watch her over the next few days to make sure her condition doesn't worsen. If she starts dragging her leg then that means that the nerve has pinched so badly that blood is no longer getting down to her leg. She would need immediate surgery in that case. Jeremy and I have to be prepared to make that decision at the drop of a hat. Luckily, we do have pet insurance, so that will help with a little of the cost. I'm a big proponent of pet insurance these days!

When I got home from school yesterday, she seemed to be in great spirits. Of course, she was full of a steroid shot, the muscle relaxer, and adrenalin. Trying to keep her calm was like keeping a two-year-old calm - impossible. She was pretty sure she still needed to chase rabbits and squirrels in the backyard. Today she is a little more subdued. She is totally milking it for all it is worth and is looking quite pathetic. Last night when I put her kennel right away instead of letting her snuggle on the bed with me (the vet said absolutely no stairs and no jumping on and off the bed for two weeks), she very sadly stuck her nose out of a hole in the kennel and did a big sigh. She did sleep all the way through the night and this morning had much less whimpering and crying than the day before. We can only hope this will work!

Based on the length of this post, you are probably thinking that we are going to be fanatical parents. Yep, you're right. JZ is a "wreck" (his word, not mine!) about not being home. We are trying to game plan how to keep her calm, off the bed, how we are going to pay for a costly surgery, and get her outside frequently enough that she doesn't have an accident (the meds make her VERY thirsty and she is drinking as much water as I am these days).

All of this for our dog. Nope, I take that back. All of this for our first baby. We would most definitely do this and more for Caden, so we'll certainly do it for our Belly too.