Thursday 22 July 2010

cruciate ligaments and lovely stamps of dogs

Penny's asleep in the lounge room at the moment, hopefully giving her sore leg (and maybe cruciate ligament injury) time to heal. We're at the stage of going for a few ten-minute walks around the streets, now, but she horrified us yesterday by racing up the back steps before we could stop her.

She limped badly last night, for a minute or two, but today seems well, except that on our second walk of the day she suddenly walked on three legs, not putting her rear leg down at all - just for a couple of steps. I think we're going to end up having her sedated so the vet can test the leg properly. He said it's difficult to check the knee when the dog is awake because the muscles are tense. From what I've read - and this site explains it clearly - the test is called the 'drawer' test, and the vet manipulates the knee as if pulling out a drawer in a piece of furniture.

And I've just remembered a fascinating site I discovered ages ago, one that shows a dog's gait during normal walking, hip dysplasia and cruciate ligament injury.

On a more cheerful note, there are some lovely dog pictures coming on our letters, and the writing on these Australian postage stamps says ADOPTED/ADORED. It's a gorgeous set of stamps and should appeal to dog lovers. I like the fact that everyone who sends a letter will get the subliminal message that it's good to adopt.



4 comments:

Molly the Airedale said...

We have rescue stamps available in our country too and they're hard to get because so many people want them.
We're on our way to check out this site.
Take it easy, Penny!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

parlance said...

I think the stamps are lovely because the dogs are so 'ordinary'. (Though I feel sure the owners don't think their dogs are at all ordinary!)

i said...

Oh Penny, don't go racing up and down now. One step at a time.

Yes, think I remembered Happy's leg being pulled and stretched a bit.

The stamps are lovely! Doubt I'll ever see that around here though.

parlance said...

It's encouraging to know Happy is well now.