Saturday, August 09, 2008

Old girl takes a tumble

My poor old Amie fell down the stairs last night! She was so thrilled that her daddy was calling her to take a WALK that she did a little dance, began to hurry downstairs, missed a step, and tumbled to the landing. We were horrified, but she got up, limping a bit, and insisted on going outside anyway. This morning she was still limping, and I took her to the vet to make sure she was OK. No serious harm done, but we are watching her closely, anyway.

Her arthritis seems to be getting worse, and sometimes we think she is starting to lose her hearing. (Other times we think she's saying, "Yeah, I hear you, all right--I just don't care.") She spends a lot of time in the closet now, not just during storms, and she has become a very sound sleeper. We're trying to keep her comfortable, and monitoring her troublesome liver enzymes. Her vet thinks she's in very good shape for such an old dog, so I pray we'll have her with us for a while longer.

9 comments:

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

I'm sorry your girl took a tumble. I hope she'll be ok. She looks so sweet in that photograph. It's such a helpless feeling when they're hurting.

Lori said...

It's just heartbreaking to watch a beloved pet not understand about growing old.

Sweet l'il Amie. Virtual scritches sent her way from us.

DogBlogger said...

Ohhh...

((((Zorra, the Scientist, & Amie))))

Glad your sweet girl didn't hurt anything too seriously in that fall.

More hugs...

(((ZS&A)))

Terri said...

our beloved red heeler-lab mix is having some issues with nerve atrophy in her back end...it has a technical term but I don't remember it...anyway, suffice it to say that she has a tendancy to "sprain" one of her paws/front ankles. The vet told us to give her 1/2 of a buffered aspirin (ascriptin) 3X daily for 72 hours...(given in peanut butter, of course, which she loves)...and thus far that proves to be a good treatment to a chronic condition...

Anonymous said...

Poor Amie--will be praying for her.

zorra said...

Thank y'all for your comments. She can get one Ascriptin daily for seven days, then we have to lay off for several days. We are trying to avoid putting her on something like Rimadyl as long as we can (especially since she has liver issues already), but of course we will finally do that when the Ascriptin no longer keeps her comfortable. She has lost some muscle tone in her hind legs, but no one has mentioned nerve atrophy. She's moving much more easily today.

Rev Kim said...

Dear Amie,

I'm sorry that you fell down the stairs. I did that once too, also excited about a walk, and it really hurt my body and my pride. I hope you feel better soon. I'm sending you a virtual greenie (because, honestly, real greenies are too precious to send and with the cost of things these days I'm afraid my people are going to start rationing). Sending virtual scritches too.

Love, Newman the Catahoula

Grendel said...

Dear Amie,

Major Scritchings on the Belly! I hope you take good care of yourself.

Getting Old bites, doesn't it? But it;'s Not Too Bad if you have good humans.

Love and Gravy,

Grendel

Questing Parson said...

Oh my, this evokes memories. Charlie Brown and I hold you both in our prayers.