Our Geri had her morning walk as usual, and Alan and I were commenting on how well we thought she was doing, especially considering she has arthritis in her spine. She still loves her short walk with Miliko every day. The other dogs have a longer walk , whereas Geri being a slightly elderly lady at nearly 14, and our Miliko being impaired by not being able to pant properly, due to not being able to open his mouth more than 18 mms, means they are thrown together for the short walk, also known as the last walk, and "the thank goodness I need my breakfast walk."
After lunch, Alan and I went through the terrace where the smaller dogs hang out, and we noticed she was limping quite badly with a back leg being the problem. Two years ago Geri had undergone a successful cruciate ligament operation, and this injury looked similar, although not as bad. When Geri damaged her ligament last time, my son Mark had come over for a holiday, and it was the excitement of seeing him, made her run round and round the olive stones, and up and down a flight of stairs. She yelped and the leg immediately just hung limply. This time this was not the case, she was at least able to put a small amount of weight on it and hobble. Poor Geri!
We actually bypassed our usual vet, as we had heard there was a vet that spoke very good English about 45 minutes away. We had previously used a vet in Cordoba who was fantastic, but he spoke no English and we relyed our a young vet being able to attend at the same time as us, to help translate, so we thought we would give another vet a try. The vet pretty soon realised it was the cruciate ligament, and insited it was operated on asap. Alan and I said ok, but we would wait until after Christmas as it was at that point just a few days before. Over the Christmas period, Geri certainly seemed to improve slightly, she was on anti inflamatories and she allowed us to lift her on and off of the sofa, she knew her limits which was good.
After a couple of weeks to took her out to literally walk about 100 yards, then increased it. When she had finished her anti inflammatories we her took her back to our own vet Andres, and discussed the situation with him. I think he would have preffered her to have the operation, but to us she our little old lady, and we really did n't want to put her through an operation unless it was completely neccessary. Now 3 months on she is walking every day on the lead, with Miliko, lies in the sun and soaks up the vitamin D, and looks at us with doe eyes and she just lets us know when she wants on and off of the sofa. From about 8.30 in the the eveing she settles down for the night, and does n't move until around 9am the following morning. Around 10 pm she has a drink, she rests her head on the arm of the sofa and looks at Alan, and he takes her a drink. She also enjoys a bit of a lie in from the boys, who we hear scrambling around about 8 am. Alan or I, depending who needs the loo first let Carlos and Miliko out and Geri settles down for some lovely snoozes! Fingers crossed she will not need the operation, she is not in any pain and is very happy with her life right now..... bless her!
Our gorgeous Geri, being used as a cushion by Miliko :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment