Old age and arthritis is just the pits sometimes. Buddy has been slowing down as of late. He is having a lot of difficulty in his back left leg, which is the leg he tends to rest on the most. (His amputated leg was his front right leg)He was having good days and bad days with it. He need’s a lot of help getting up. We were assuming it is arthritis so we texted the vet. (Did I mention how awesome she is?) He’s on Vet Best (which has Glucosamine)and Tramadol. We asked if we could increase his Tramadol to ease his discomfort. She thought that would be fine but also suggested adding Gabapentin but at a low dose until he gets used to it. We tried it for 2 days and his condition just got worse. Yesterday, he couldn’t get up at all and needed full assistance. It was like he just couldn’t figure out where his legs were. So we texted the vet last night and she suggested we immediatly take him off of the Gabepentin as it can have a sedating affect but to add in more Tramdol the next day instead as we had first suggested. The hope was that perhaps today he would regain his strength.
Unfortunatly he needed full assistance this morning. We took him out front this afternoon and he still needs full assistance. BUT…he was smiling in the sunshine which was REALLY good to see. There were no smiles in the past few days. He did try really hard to get up on his own but that back leg will just not allow it. So now we are fearful of an ACL problem or perhaps something else. The good news is that he does not appear to be in any major pain. And yep, we know..dogs are pretty stoic about pain. But he smiled a lot in the sunshine today! I’ll take that for now. He is horrified of seeing the vet because remember…he woke up one day there missing his leg! We are frustrated and worried and have decided to wait a few more days to see if the previous drug just needs another day to wear off. I fear we may be off to see the vet wether we like it or not in the next week. Old age is really rough.