The junior spaniel has been lame all weekend; hopping around the place like a three-legged thing, our little wounded soldier wouldn’t even put weight on his near fore.
This isn’t the first time he’s fetched up lame. He’s a bit wonky in his conformation, so we’re never sure if the cause is his excessive twatting about (to use a technical word) or his general wonkyness.
I think he had a bruised foot this time; the result of much twatting about on the frozen field on Saturday morning.
By Sunday evening he was limping less. By Monday morning he was 99% sound. And this morning, on our walk through the village, he was terrorising birds, chasing cats, and generally behaving like he didn’t even remember having a poorly foot.
The lady around the corner has a King Charles Spaniel, which has limped as long as I’ve known it/her.
She took it to the vet, who diagnosed – after several expensive X-rays – that it was all “in the dog’s head”, as there was nothing wrong with the actual foot.
She has now seen a different vet, who has given a different diagnosis and she has paid 1500 quid for an operation on the dog’s foot.
I saw them yesterday and the dog was limping more than ever.
Bloody dogs!