Poor puppy!

Carter broke his leg.

We were on a walk in the back field, and he took off after a deer into the woods. I heard him yelping and by the time I caught up with him he was sitting on the path waiting for me, looking very contrite and holding his front left paw up, obviously injured. He let me examine it, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t dislocated, but couldn’t tell if it was a break or just a bad sprain – no deformity and no blood though, thankfully. It took us ages to get all the way back to the house, I carried him part of the way, but he weighs 60 pounds, so I couldn’t carry him for very long. He limped slowly and pathetically on three legs back to the house. By which time it was 7pm and the vet was closed. 

t! stayed home yesterday, and we called the vet first thing. They didn’t have a free appointment until 5:45 (the vet recently had to take a week off due to a death in the family, and so she’s still really backed up). Carter spent the day dozing on our bed, whimpering whenever he moved his injured leg, which would bring both of us running.

We took him to the vet with me driving and t! riding in the back with Carter. At the vet’s, despite being in pain and on three legs, Carter made friends with everybody, greeting all the dogs and getting pats from all the people. The vet was very busy, and we needed to wait for the x-rays to be developed, so we were there for 2 hours, all told. The x-rays showed one bone broken and the other cracked (the radius and ulna), but in a very good position to splint, so that’s what the vet did. He will be on painkillers/anti-inflamatories for 2 weeks, and the leg will take 4 to 6 week to heal. Since he’s young, the bone should knit with no problem. I said to t! that this was pretty much the equivalent of a 14 year old kid breaking his arm playing hockey.

We both love our vet. She showed us the x-ray and explained everything very clearly, including the possible complications, and answered all our questions. She gave us the option of having him  anesthetized while she splinted his leg (we declined), and had me hold Carter while she put the splint on.  He even got a cute happy-face sticker.

The splint isn’t slowing him down very much. This morning he trotted next door to say hello to the neighbor dogs and our neighbor Milvie, and to have a drink of water from his favorite ditch.