Thursday 1 March 2012

worries and a kookaburra and windy weather

Penny's been having a quiet time lately, because she woke up last Thursday with a horrible limp. So off to the vet we went, to discuss it, and he couldn't find out what was causing it, except to locate the problem in the pad of her right front foot and to give her an anti-inflammatory injection and send us home with anti-inflammatory tablets.

Poor Penny. Because I'm a worrier, I kept checking her foot to see if I could figure out what the problem was. I seemed to be the same problem as she had when we came back from our lovely holiday at Yarram last November. At that time the vet couldn't figure out the problem either, but it eventually went away.

Well, with all the poking and prodding, we made her foot really sore, so that she ended up licking it frantically and actually screaming, on the Saturday morning. As you can imagine, that precipitated a rush to the vet again, and once again he couldn't see what the problem might be. We decided to keep the tablets going and see if she was better by Wednesday. If not, we'd try an x-ray to see if anything showed up.

She seems fine now, and we resumed short walks on Wednesday. Today we went to Rosanna, strolling at a pace set by Penny amongst the gum trees, watched by the occasional kookaburra.



It was a windy day, and we decided to head home even sooner than we'd planned when we heard the crack and crash of a eucalypt branch falling nearby, because the creaking and groaning of branches along the path had us on edge. (We'd had a big branch fall on our power lines at home just before we set off, and we're wondering if the recent rain, after weeks of dry weather, has set the gum trees to dropping branches more than usual.)



Penny seems okay, but we're still worrying about whether we made the right decision not to have the foot x-rayed. But we don't want to put her through the stress of a sedative unless really necessary.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how she goes.

10 comments:

curator said...

How does Penny feel now? Much better I hope. Thank you for the kookaburra photo; I remember them fondly from my childhood year in Melbourne.

Molly the Airedale said...

I hope everything goes okay for you, Penny. My paws are crossed!

Love ya lots,
Mitch

parlance said...

Curator, to me there's nothing so evocative of Australia as the laughing call of kookaburra. Thanks for the good wishes for Penny.

parlance said...

Mitch, thanks for the crossed paws! She's not quite right yet, but going out for walks, so we'll see how she goes over the next week or so.

proud womon said...

oooh i hope penny's paw is alright... it's so hard when they can't tell us exactly what's wrong...

parlance said...

proud womon, if only animals could talk! It's so frustrating and worrying not to know how to help her.

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin said...

Hope your paw gets better soon!!!

parlance said...

Thanks, Lassiter Chase and Benjamin. It's not quite right but we still haven't' figured out what the problem is. But she seems happy.

Unknown said...

Poor Penny! Don't you just hate these vague conditions when it won't go away but nobody can find any solid answers either??

Hope it is just some inflammatory reaction - whether muscular or skin or otherwise. Honey has a recurring "tendonities" on her right front paw that comes & goes - makes her limp sometimes (esp after rough play or too much walking/running) but then goes away again with rest (or anti-inflammatories if really bad) - so we just learn to live with it and manage it. I guess it's similar to me with my "arthritis" in my fingers and my RSI!! :-)

Hsin-Yi

parlance said...

Hsin-Yi, it's great to read this comment of yours, because it reminds me that maybe we just have to 'manage' the limp instead of freaking out when it manifests.

BTW, just loved your big post about Honey's arrival at your home!