Sleeping, eating, occasionally playing
with a tennis ball
A Survey for Pets!
What is your name? Buddy
What other nicknames do you have? BooBoo, Puparoni and mom calls me Babydog
What breed are you? Labrador Retriever
Where were you born? Long Island, NY
Where do you live now? South Florida
What is your favorite toy? Tennis ball
What is your favorite store? Pet Supermarket
How many toys do you have? Too many to count
What brand of food do you eat? Nutro Natural Choice
Wet or dry food? Dry
What is your favorite color? Yellow
Are you bad when nobody's looking? Never
Are you friendly? Extremely
Are you overweight? Maybe a pound or two
Do you eat people food? of course
Do you eat bugs? do you?
Do you live with other animals? Do my 2 human brothers count?
Do you like to exercise? I did when I was younger
Do you like car rides? Definitely
Do you get into stuff? Never
Do you like to swim? I'm afraid of water
What is your favorite treat? Milkbone
Do you shed? yes
What's the funniest thing you ever did? Flossed my teeth
What's the bravest thing you ever did? Growled at a scary man in a parking lot
Are you neutered? Yes
Are you a social animal? Yes
Collar or harness? Collar
Retractable or regular leash? Regular
Ceramic, Metal or Plastic bowls? Metal
Do you sleep in a crate? No way
Do you have a dog bed? Several
Do you have a doghouse? Yes - it's in the living room
Do you belong to any dog clubs? Just Labradors.com
How does your owner describe you? The most lovable lab in the world
MY BABY PICTURES
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MY MEDICAL HISTORY
There seemed to be too many blogs about my individual medical issues, so I decided to put them all together in one place. In some instances, I added a few things that I neglected to mention previously. You may find this to be quite interesting.
Neutered – (somewhat)
I was neutered in October of 1998 when I was six months old. I lived in New York at the time. It seemed like an uneventful procedure. I healed nicely and for the next six years, nobody realized anything was ‘different.’ During one of my lipoma removal surgeries, my vet made an amazing discovery. You’ll hear about it further down if you continue to read.
Strange Infection
In December of 1999, we moved to South Florida. In the spring of 2000, on Easter Sunday, mom realized I didn’t seem to be acting right. She didn’t want to wait until Monday so she checked around the neighborhood and found what she thought was a good vet. He told her I had some kind of infection but looking back, I really don’t think there was anything seriously wrong with me. Nevertheless, he sent me home with some medicine and over the course of the next 10 days, I got sicker and sicker. I lost 15 lbs! Mom took me back there twice and called them a gazillion times and all they said was “continue with the meds I gave you.â€
Mom was very worried and upset. She found another vet (Dr. Amy) and brought me right in. It took a while but this new vet realized I must be allergic to the medicine the first vet gave me. The more he told me to continue taking it, the sicker I got!! The new vet told mom my liver count was bad. I was very weak at this point and I needed intravenous injections to build me back up. Dr. Amy saw how upset mom was so she said I could go home if mom promised to bring me in every day for my intravenous fluids. Mom happily agreed. My brothers carried me in and out for the next five days and soon I was starting to look like my old self. After that experience, mom never wanted to go to any other vet.
My Car Accident
In the spring of 2001, I was playing with my favorite ball. It rolled under the gate and headed down the driveway and into the street. When mom unlatched the gate to go after it, I flew passed her and didn’t listen when she repeatedly yelled at me to stop. Having no fear of moving vehicles, I ran into the passenger door of a moving Mercedes. Mom heard the screech and was afraid to look. I was ok. Stunned, but ok. The man who was driving was very upset. Mom grabbed me, put me in her car and as we zoomed out of the driveway she yelled out to the man that he could wait for us to come back or he could return later. We got to Dr. Amy’s before I could figure out I was there. I wasn’t bleeding. I didn’t have any visible signs of injury. Dr. Amy said I probably had a big headache. She sent us home with a pain medication and told mom to keep me quiet for a few days. If anything out of the ordinary happened, we were to go right back. I was fine. Mom had to pay for the damage I did to the Mercedes.
The Hot Pepper Plant
It was shortly after Halloween, 2001. Mom was cleaning up the area where I normally relieved myself. To her total amazement, she came upon one of my “deposits.†It was a lovely shade of bright orange. She stared at it for quite some time wondering what in the world had gotten into me ….no pun intended.
Later that evening, I started heaving. It was very scary. All sorts of horrible things were coming up. At first, it was mostly comprised of green leaves. Some were actually intact. Off to Dr. Amy we went. Completely puzzled, she sent us home and told mom to try to identify the leaf. It was unlike any Dr. Amy – or anyone else in her office – recognized. Poor mom. She was out in our yard with a flashlight (it had gotten dark) holding one of my washed-off, up heaved leaves, trying to compare it to all the others in our very tropical South Florida yard. She wasn’t having much success finding the plant. I continued to heave. Every hour or so, there was more evidence I had eaten a very strange plant. I kept crying cause it was coming out from both ends of me. It was so awful mom kept putting my leash on so we could run out to the street and I could poop over the street drain. Throughout the night she stayed with me on our patio and by morning, the stem and the entire root appeared. Once the sun rose, she was able to find the mysterious plant. It was in someone’s garden and she determined it was a hot pepper plant. The orange thing in my poop was the pepper itself. It seems the seeds were so ‘hot’ they caused a huge blister in the back of my throat. Then when I heaved up the stems, they must have ripped open the blister and added to my misery. I couldn’t even drink water it hurt so bad. I sucked on ice cubes for a long time and had to eat mushy food for days. Eventually I got better.
Dog Attack
Every Easter vacation when the human siblings were off from school, we drove to New York to visit my human sister. We did that 3 different times.Mom didn’t like going away and leaving me behind, so she rented a Caravan, turned the middle seat around to form an “L†shaped seating area and thus created a nice open space for me to get up and walk around while she drove. My oldest human brother sat up front with her and the younger one took one of the rear seats and I got the other one in case I got tired of lying on the floor. Mom always packed a cooler full of goodies and plenty of water for me.We’d leave South Florida at dawn. First stop was always the local McDonald’s. Mom always said we couldn’t go too far without feeding the younger human brother.
Since she hates driving in the dark, mom would go non-stop (except for gas and more food for ‘the bottomless pit’ as she called him, for 12 hours. That would bring us to North Carolina where we would spend the night. At dawn, we would venture out again and depending on the number of required stops, we usually made it to Long Island in 11 or 12 more hours.
My human sister lived in an apt. that was owned by a lady who had 3 Bull Mastiffs. She didn’t mind us staying in the apt. with my sister. She just warned us to make sure her dogs weren’t outside before they took me out. My brother thought the coast was clear and out we went. He didn’t see those 3 beasts lurking behind the bushes. They came at me full force from 3 different directions. Before I knew what happened, I was pinned to the ground and they were on top of me, snarling, growling and biting me. My brother literally tore them off me and hurled them across the yard. He was like the Hulk!! As soon as he sent the last one flying, I ran to the door of the apt. and to this day, mom says it was the most horrible sound she ever heard. I was screaming with fear. She opened the door and when I ran in, blood was coming out of me from everywhere. I was shaking. Mom was furious. Those dogs were lucky she didn’t get at them!!!We got in the van and sped off to the vet we used when we lived up there. They took me right in and cleaned up 5 deep gashes all over my body. By some miracle, I didn’t need stitches but they sent me home with antibiotics. It took some time, but I eventually healed. After that experience, I was not very anxious to meet any new dogs outside – no matter where I went.
My First Lipoma
One night in 2003, my brother was giving me a great belly rub. I had just had my 5th birthday. He came upon something that didn’t feel quite right so he called mom and made her feel it. She freaked. In a flash she was on the phone to Dr. Amy. We got an appointment for the next day.Dr. Amy took a sample of some fluid out of me and told mom it was just a lipoma which is nothing more than a fatty cyst type lump. Sometimes they get really big or they grow in places that make it uncomfortable for us to sit or lay down so they have to be removed. If they stay small and don’t attach themselves to any internal organs, we don’t have to get them taken out.It was at this point in time mom decided to look into doggie medical insurance. She said at the rate things were happening to me, it might be a good thing to have. So she found a company she liked and she sent in my application. I developed an on and off limp. When we went to Dr. Amy to get it checked out, mom sent the bill to the insurance company. They rejected it cause they obtained my medical records and saw I ran into the moving car a few years earlier. They said my limp was caused by that accident and since it happened before we got insurance, they didn’t have to pay. Seems the bigger companies share information with one another so when we sent an application to a different one, they already knew about my car accident. Mom decided it would be a waste of money to keep the policy cause they were going to blame everything that would ever happen to me on that accident. So that was the end of my insurance.A few months later, I developed a lipoma under my front right leg. It was situated in my ‘armpit’ so when I walked, it rubbed. It had to come out. It was decided that we’d take a few of the other ones that seemed to be growing too.
Mom was a little nervous. This was my first real operation. Dr. Amy let her sit in the employee’s lunch room and wait with me until I fell asleep. While my first bunch of lipomas were being removed, Dr. Amy found something she had never seen or even heard of before. I still had one of my testicles!!! And it wasn’t that it was undescended as sometimes happens. Mine was actually ‘tied off.’ Something surgeons do before they remove it. It seemed as though my surgeon tied mine off, got called away for whatever reason and when he came back, he forgot he left one in there. As luck would have it, my tied off testicle grew a tumor. Dr. Amy had to break this news to mom. Everyone was very upset. A day or so later, the biopsy came back and it wasn’t cancerous. When my mom stopped crying, she got after that first vet in New York and made him pay for part of this surgery. I heard her say she wanted to fly to NY and choke him but he was a friend of a friend and she didn’t want to cause trouble between them. He sent us a check and that ended that. I was ok and that was all anyone really wanted to hear.
More Lipomas
January 2005. 6 more lipomas. These were quite large. Once again, I had to get surgery and have them taken out. This time, everything went smoothly and I healed quickly.
Herniated Discs
My strange limp started again. Dr. Amy took x-rays and said I had herniated discs. Seems human discs are horizontal. In us dogs, they are vertically standing straight up in our backs. When I ran into that darn car, the impact must have caused some of my discs to shift and every so often, they caused me some discomfort. Just like humans sometimes get. So Dr. Amy suggested we go see a friend she went to school with. She was now a chiropractic vet and she did a lot with acupuncture. I went for a few treatments. We couldn’t decide if they helped or not and they were expensive so we had to stop. We were told to keep me active cause it was likely that I would develop some arthritis in my back.
Mom surprised me with a new toy. It was called a Chuck-It. It allowed her to throw a tennis ball very far. Then I could run and find it. We started doing that every day. At first, we went to the fenced in tennis courts in our development. We went at night when nobody would see us cause dogs weren’t allowed there. Mom thought it was a great idea since it was a fairly large area and was totally fenced so I couldn’t run into any more cars. It seemed to work fine for a few days. Then my pads started tearing from the weird pavement in the courts so we couldn’t go there anymore. We found a big field that was situated behind a townhouse development we once lived in. During the day, not many people were home so there wouldn’t be many dogs getting walked there. We went every single day and I had the time of my life. Sometimes I’d get distracted by all the wonderful smells and I’d forget to go find my tennis ball. Mom would get really mad cause she’d have to walk way out to where I was and try to find my green tennis ball in the tall green grass. Then one day I must have jumped too high up to catch my ball and when I grabbed it and came down, I stumbled and sort of fell over on my side. My limp got worse and I didn’t get to go there and run anymore.
Root Canals
Spring, 2005. I’m lying on my back on mom’s bed getting a nice belly rub. I open my mouth to nibble on her hand and I hear her shriek. Next thing I know, she is forcing my mouth open. My head is still upside-down and she is freaking over what looks like 2 puffy blisters in between my top teeth. She let me close my mouth and saw that my lower canine teeth were so long they made holes in my upper gum and it seems they caused my teeth to spread apart. These holes, over time, had become infected and filled up with little puss pockets. I never have bad breath and she never inspected me upside-down before so we have no idea how long they were like that.
Once again, I get to see everyone in Dr. Amy’s office. After she examined me, she suggested we see a doggie dentist. She thought both those canines would have to be shaved down. She could have done it but if she exposed the root, I would have severe pain.
The first doggie dentist told mom he could install a set of braces and over time, they would realign my teeth. Mom was horrified. BRACES!!! All she could do was visualize me smiling in public and people seeing a dog wearing braces. Surely the neighborhood would band together and try to have her committed somewhere. Then he asked how old I was and when she told him he said it really should have been done a few years earlier. Duh! We didn’t know there was a problem until 2 days earlier. His next suggestion was to remove my lower canines altogether but that meant there would be nothing there to hold my tongue in my mouth. Mom was mumbling to herself as we proceeded to leave that place. We put the word out that we needed someone else to fix me.
Meanwhile, Dr. Amy found us a very nice dog dentist. He was pretty far – about an hour away from where we live. We got an appointment with him and I thought we were just going for him to look at me. He told mom he would shave the canines down and perform root canals so there wouldn’t be any pain from exposed roots. He would then fill up the empty space just like humans get their teeth filled. He said he could do it that day.
It was a pretty big hospital. There were all kinds of animals being treated there. They took me away and when I saw mom again, I had 2 short teeth. They let her sit with me until I woke up. I was pretty weak so they carried me out to the car and she took me home. I was completely back to normal the very next day.
Leg Surgery
By this time, we were living in our current house. It had a nice little back yard. The side was perfectly even and straight but the back sloped down to where the fence is and there is a man-made lake beyond the fence. We get lots of wild birds and ducks out back because of the lake. One day a big wild duck was on the inside of the fence. I was on my way out to pee and I spotted him. I took off down the slope, barking wildly and watched as he flew away. Then when I turned to get back up the slope, I had an awful pain in my leg. I couldn’t walk. I hopped back to the house on 3 legs. You know the drill. Off to Dr. Amy’s again. She said I needed to get ACL Surgery. She called in a surgeon who does a procedure called TTA. (If you need to know about this, send us a message. Mom used to have it spelled out here but the search engine we all use, the one with the “G†has a webcrawler. It picked it up and my entire Blog and Profile were in the search results.) The more common procedure is a TPLO. It’s a much more expensive surgery and the one most surgeons do. Dr. Amy told mom this surgeon was the best she had ever known and that I would be much better off getting the TTA since it involved putting titanium rods in my leg. There would be much less chance of me injuring it ever again, and the recovery was supposed to be quicker.
In July of 2005, I had my TTA surgery. It’s been nearly 2 years and so far so good. No problems to report.
More Lipomas
October 2006. I have a large lipoma on my side the size of an egg. Every time I sit down, my leg hits it. There were a few more in the same general area so arrangements were made to take about 6 of them along with the big one. While I was being prepped for the surgery, one of Dr. Amy’s assistants discovered another one under my left armpit. It was decided that one had to be removed.
It was much larger and way deeper than anticipated. A lot of tissue had to be removed in order to get it out. I came home that night and shortly after midnight as I did my usual post anesthesia misery routine, my brother heard a strange sound. I was squeaking as I walked!! He summoned mom and the 2 of them stared at me. They kept calling me from one side of the room to the other. I kept going back and forth not knowing why they were doing this. They were listening to me squeak. 7am the next morning, mom called Dr. Amy and off we went. She made me walk so they could listen. Seems the area where the huge lipoma and tissue were taken out left a deep pocket. It filled up with fluid that needed to be removed. Dr. Amy extracted 4 syringes of this yucky fluid and told mom it might fill up again. It did. So we went back a second time and more of it was taken out of me. If it happened again, I was going to have to get a drain inserted so the fluid could get out on its own. Thankfully, it healed. The noises stopped and I didn’t need the drain.
Before Christmas of ’06, I had another 2 dozen lipomas. All different sizes in all different places. Dr. Amy told mom I am a ‘lipoma factory.’ We remove one and I grow 6 more to replace it. Nobody knows why I get these stupid things. Because of my age, they can’t keep putting me under unless they are extremely large or causing me a great deal of discomfort. Mom gets very upset every time she pets me cause she finds more. She said my belly feels like a street full of speed bumps.I thought I was finally done with anesthesia, surgery, recovery, etc.
Second Leg Surgery
Late May, 2007. My friend Choco, a Chocolate Lab, came to stay at our house for a month.Choco is one of the very few dogs I seem to get along with since my dog attack. He clings to mom when he is here and I’m Mr. Independent. I pretty much stick to myself around the house. If I paid too much attention to my mom, or slobbered over her, she’d think I was really sick and surely take me back to the doctor. Choco was sad and really missed his mom so I didn’t mind that he latched onto mine for a while.Every so often, I decide I feel like playing so I grab a toy and entice him into a tug of war. As long as we are inside, mom lets us play. If we get too rough, she makes us stop. Ever since I had my first leg surgery, she freaks out if I run even 3 feet. So she supervises us when we go out in the yard to do our stuff. Choco is extremely obedient. He makes me look bad. One word – or even a certain facial expression and he stops dead wherever he is and sits down. So if I attempt to have a little chase, one word from mom and it’s all over.
This weekend, Choco’s mom was here to visit with him. She took both of us outside while mom was dealing with a cable repair man inside the house. Everyone everywhere who knows me knows I’m not allowed to run. I guess nobody was looking so I tried to sneak in a little game of something with Choco and I hurt myself. Nobody is really sure how I did it but I came in limping badly. Mom was crying and yelling at the same time. She knew right away it was serious. I couldn’t stand up and I couldn’t walk. Dr. Amy, my chiropractor vet and the orthopedic surgeon who did my first leg surgery were all out of town cause it was Memorial Day Weekend. Mom keeps a supply of my pain meds handy for times such as this. She gave them to me for 2 days until Dr. Amy’s partner came to work after the 3 day weekend. It was confirmed right away. Another leg surgery 2 days later.
May 31, 2007 I went in just before noon. By 6PM I was ready to go home. I couldn’t walk so one of the technicians carried me to mom’s car. He ended up coming all the way home with us just so I could lay across him in the car. He got me inside and put me in mom’s room on my bed. My brother drove him back to the office.
Mom brought me my dinner and a water bowl and I ate and drank it all. I was starving. Got my pills and settled down for the night. The next day, I had to get outside and my human brother carried me out, put me down so I could pee, then scooped me right back up again and brought me back in side. That was enough of that! I don’t like being picked up or carried so when my anesthesia wore off, I let them all know I would take care of things myself. I hopped out on 3 legs, did what I needed to do and hopped back inside. The second night, I attempted to get up and found out I couldn’t get very far. I plopped down in the doorway and refused to move. Of course, nobody but mom was home. She can’t lift me so she called my neighbor to come help. He was here in a flash. I really like him so I let him lift me back onto my bed. I knew I really didn’t have a choice. He stayed for a while and when he was sure I was ok, he left.
A few days later, mom started noticing small amounts of blood on the tiles wherever I spent any length of time. She called the vet and they said we could come right in. When I tried to get in her car, I had a tough time. My other brother was home and he tried to lift me but I wouldn’t let him help. So my stubbornness caused me more pain. I hurt myself trying to get in.
The vet couldn’t find an open cut or wound anywhere so she sent us home. She told mom to get a urine sample and drop it off to be sure I wasn’t bleeding internally. The results came back perfectly normal. We never did figure out where the blood spots came from.
After that episode getting in the car, I seemed to be a little more uncomfortable than I was before. I was still having a hard time getting up, sitting down, standing, walking, etc. so mom was happy when we finally went to get my staples removed. 3 of them were turned sideways but they were able to be removed. Still concerned about my favoring the leg so much, the vet put in a call to the surgeon. He wanted to see an x-ray to be sure I didn’t dislocate anything. The x-ray looked perfect. No further damage. But it did show 2 more staples buried under my skin. So it was a good thing we had the x-ray. Dr. Amy took them out and everyone figured the staples were the cause of my discomfort.
Mom got her first look at my titanium parts!! She cringed. She said it reminded her of the erector set my brothers had when they were little! I have two titanium bars in each of my rear legs held in place with screws and bolts!!! If it heals as good as the first one did, I’ll be good as new. So for the next 6 weeks, I had to walk several times a day on my leash, up and down outside the front of the house on the lawn.
Too much time was passing and I still hopped like a rabbit. We went to see the surgeon. He checked me out and said I was right about where I should be for this point in time post surgery. We thanked him and headed home. Once again, one of the techs came out and lifted me up into the back of mom’s small SUV.
I got myself comfortable and we drove home. I was leaning against the back door. I don’t know why. I never did that before. Mom didn’t expect me to be leaning on it so when she opened the door, I fell out!! Completely out, all my weight, dead hard fall, flat onto my bad side onto the concrete driveway. I don’t know who got more scared, me or my mom. I got up as quickly as I could and scurried into the house. Mom watched me for a while and figured I was ok. I didn’t seem to be acting any worse than I was before.
Another 2 weeks passes. No sign of improvement. Mom calls the surgeon and we set up an appt. for all of us to meet at my vet’s office. It’s now Tuesday, July 10. He watched me walk then took me to the exam room and tried to move my leg back and forth. I started to cry from the pain. He wanted to take another xray. It confirmed his fear…… I tore the meniscus in that knee. I needed another surgery to remove the damaged meniscus. Mom sank into the seat like a wet Gumby. She did not expect to hear that dreaded “S†word again so soon. My surgeon said it was a much simpler procedure. It should take about 15-20 minutes and I would come out of it pain free. Surgery was set up for Friday, July 13th.
Third Leg Surgery
We arrived at the vet’s before the surgeon. Mom waited with me until he arrived and they took me in the back to get started.
Everything went well. I came home later that evening, went through my usual anesthesia withdrawal, and was back to my usual post-surgery self a day later. Mom was told to walk me several times a day so despite the rain and her own ailments, we managed to go around the block a few times per day. We had a houseguest at the end of the month and it was a little hectic around our house for a while. On a Sunday night, I needed to let her know I had pain so I joined all the humans in the den and put my head on mom’s lap. When I looked into her eyes, she got the message and realized I wanted some pain medication. She wasted no time calling the surgeon even tho it was nearly 10PM. He answered in spite of the fact that he was in California. He told mom he’d return to Florida the next day and we’d hear from him.
As promised, he called and wanted to see us on Wednesday. Mom had a visit with her own orthopedic surgeon at the very same time that day so my check up was pushed off until Thursday, 8-2-07 at 9:30 am. Mom’s orthopedic surgeon is a dog person. In addition to being a human orthopedic surgeon, he owns and runs a dog day care center. He is always interested in hearing about my leg surgeries. Like everyone else, he finds it interesting that both mom and I have a lot in common. He suggested she get me a set of dog booties cause 90% of our house is tiled. He told her the no-slip soles would prevent more injuries to my legs. She wasted no time finding and ordering a pair. As this is being typed, they are on their way via the US Post Office.
My own surgeon, Dr. G is awesome!! He arrived at our vet’s office and immediately saw I had a fluid build-up in my knee incision. He drained it and after watching me walk told mom yet again “he should be ok now.†Since that was the 3rd time we heard “he should be ok now†we both felt it was a good sign. Things happen in 3’s mom said – whatever that means – so she had renewed faith we might be coming to the end of this leg drama.
Physical Therapy
I started my physical therapy at an animal rehabilitation center near my home. My treatments consisted of manual manipulation of my leg, acupuncture, timed sessions in the underwater treadmill and a massage. I was dropped off at the center at 8AM and stayed until 6PM. All the dogs that were there took turns having each of these treatments and in between we waited our turn in a designated crate. I was not very happy about that since I hadn’t been in a crate since I was a very young pup.
After 4 full days of this therapy regime, not seeing much of an improvement and my morbid fear of water (there is a video in my PICS/VIDEO section where you can see my fear and listen to me scream while the water is filling in the tank) mom decided it was enough. Time to call the vet and surgeon and find out why I’m not improving.
I am purposely spacing out the medical term since I would prefer to avoid having the Google Webcrawler pick up my profile again and publishing it in their search results when someone looks this up.
~~ Cauda ~~~~~~~ Equina ~~~~~~~ Syndrome ~~
It’s now mid-September, 2007. Almost four months since I injured my other rear leg and had the orthopedic surgery. The surgeon met with mom and me, gave me a thorough examination and took new x-rays. The news was not good. My leg mended fine. Neither one is the problem. Mom figured it was going to be one of three things, my age, my arthritis or my bad back.
Dr. G. told mom I have what is spelled out above. Almost sounds like it should be something to do with a horse but looking it up on the internet showed it to be something that occurs most often in humans. Reading the technical details about the condition, mom totally understood as it is something that occurs from severe disc herniation which she herself suffers from. It produces pain that runs down the legs (sciatica) and causes pain when one tries to get up and move around. Prolonged walking or standing in one spot too long aggravates the condition. Mom has the exact same thing - so once again, she feels my pain…… literally.
She has to put me on a very strict diet which will probably cause her to eat outside in her car as she always shares a taste of everything she has with me. That has to stop immediately. I must lose weight which means my green bean intake is going to rapidly increase. I have my supply of pain medication when I need it and I know how to communicate that to mom. We have our own language.
There is a surgical procedure that can relieve the pressure of the nerves in the area where the disc compression is the worst. But as in humans, you don't want to do that unless and until it gets to the point where the pain is so severe, life isn’t worth living.
I feel I need to mention this to warn all my wonderful friends not to overdo when they play and exercise. While I did have a dog-to-car impact earlier in my life that probably set all this in place, I can’t help but feel it was my most favorite thing to do that got me to this point. Every day I eagerly waited by the door for mom to let me in the car so we could drive to a large field where she would throw my ball with a dog toy that sent it high in the air and way out into the distance. It was some time back in 2003 or 4. I was pretty high up off the ground myself and after I twisted my entire body to catch that ball, I fell down hard on my right rear leg and ultimately had to get my first orthopedic surgery shortly thereafter. I never went back to that field. Or any other field ever again. I still have my collection of tennis balls. One even glows in the dark and one would flash upon impact. Mostly so mom could find (and retrieve them) when I got tired or too distracted by a sudden new scent in the air. BOL!! But they all just sit in my toy box now.
This is just my opinion, but I would caution anyone reading this to consider how high their dog is jumping and unless they are landing in water deep enough not to cause injury, DON’T DO IT ON HARD GROUND SURFACES. This is especially true if your dog is a large breed and/or heavy.
Hopefully, this will be the last entry to my medical saga and therefore
NOT be CONTINUED