To The Vet Or No?

[sandgrubber]

I was backing up the car yesterday and heard the dreaded shriek. Patty (7 mo old Labrador) must have been deeply asleep underneath cause she usually gets manic with hope of a ride when the car door opens. She emerged very wiggly, but unwilling to put weight on her front right leg/paw. I do a careful feel up. She doesn't show pain anywhere. She allows me to manipulate all joints and feel over the little bones in her foot without indication of pain. I'm uncertain whether she was actually run over or just got a little pinched and screamed as much in fright as in pain. No obvious swelling. No lacerations. I sort of doubt she got the full weight of my car. It's a Prius and VERY heavy. I'd think really running over her would do serious damage. She seems to be enjoying the attention.

Murphy's Law, this happens at 1 pm on Saturday. My vet closes at noon. I don't like the local emergency vet service. It's at the University. They tend to use emergencies as an excuse to try out expensive techniques, and you never know what vet you're going to get, or how long you may wait cause the vet is tied up with a more urgent case. So I give her a tramadol and keep her restrained with the idea of seeing how it goes.. Not hard to restrain her. She isn't enthusiastic about moving. Sometimes she sleeps with the injured leg up, sometimes with it down. Tramadol can act as a sedative, so this may be the drugs.

It's now Sunday morning. Patty is now putting a little weight on the paw.

My guess is that she pulled or wrenched something and it hurt a lot. The pain scared her. But whatever it is is healing rapidly. Expect to find her only limping slightly on Monday.

Question: If the trajectory is steady improvement, should I take her to the vet on Monday? Do I continue to restrain her, or let her take exercise when she chooses to do so?

[westiemum]

SG I stood hard on Andy's paw on Friday - and he can be a bit of a drama queen. He held it up at me as if I'd killed it. He limped lightly for the rest of the afternoon but a left over tramadol meant he was fine by the next morning.

If Patty continues to improve and starts to weight bear I'm not sure I'd bother with the vet - just keep up the pain relief and an anti-inflam if you have it. If pup is no better on Sunday morning and still not weight bearing - then off to the vet with you regardless. If you run out of tramadol then I'd be off to the vet.

[kelpiecuddles]

I'm with Westiemum, excepting obvious emergencies or things I can't deal with myself I prefer to watch the trajectory and make decisions based on how things progress. If I badly hurt my own ankle but didn't think I'd broken it I'd give it time to see if it settled on it's own and my doctor costs nothing!

[sandgrubber]

Thanks for replies. Guess I'm feeling horrid guilt cause, in a way, I ran over my puppy, and it seems like the least I can do is take her for a vet check. So it's my drama as well as hers.

Rationally, she continues to get better by the hour, and I think you're right, it really doesn't merit a vet visit so long as the trend is strong improvement.

Good to have confirmation that I'm not just rationalizing.

Edited March 23, 2014 by sandgrubber