Monday, December 13, 2010

Overly Tired

On Saturday, it was a blizzard! Throughout the day, we got somewhere between 18-22 inches of snow and we were stuck! Instead of going to the park, we took the dogs to the backyard and let them bound through the piles  of snow. Danny and Heather took them out in the morning.

After 15 minutes of hard playing, Olivia and Griffin passed out and didn't even budge until the afternoon. Even Buddha was pretty exhausted. 

In the afternoon, we took them out again, and once again, they played until they nearly fell over.

By dinnertime, Griffin hadn't moved from the couch for a few hours and when I coaxed him into the kitchen for dinner, he didn't appear to be able to move his back legs. He just sort of army crawled to his food dish and ate sitting down.

His little fat bulldog butt stayed anchored to the floor and he alternated between spinning like a top and collapsing dramatically when we called him to move. I lifted him to his feet, but when I let go, he toppled right over.

My first instinct was to rush him to the emergency vet (because with Griffin, we are always on the verge of a trip to the emergency vet), but 2 feet of snow behind my garage forced me to really think it through and stay calm. He was eating, drinking and going to the bathroom normally. I gently pressed, moved and bent his legs and he didn't yelp or react at all (he didn't seem to be in pain). He didn't appear to have any other symptoms whatsoever. So I gave him a baby aspirin and we spent the evening carrying him everywhere, holding him up when he went outside and cooing over every noise he made. Worried as I was, he appeared to be enjoying himself immensely.

With a special needs bulldog, the next crisis is around every corner, and thus, I have a tendency to react quickly, dramatically and most often by throwing piles of money at my vet. Mother Nature prevented me from doing that this time, and luckily, Griffin spent the night soaking in the spotlight as center of attention and being waited on by all of us.


The next day he was back to normal, fighting Olivia for the ball and leaping though the snow (despite my best attempts to force him into resting). Danny's theory is that he was just tired after a day of intense playing and he was too lazy to want to move. But despite his recovery, I'm still concerned and will be making a vet appointment soon. If it was Olivia we were talking about, I would fully accept the fact that she was smart enough to manipulate us into carrying her around like a queen. She always has a plotting look on her face... but Griffin... I don't think he's smart enough to come up with that. The poor guy has bad knees and hips (that was just one of the x-rays I saw at Grif's first terrible trip to the vet in June) and so it is inevitable that he is going to end up with one of those wheel-cart-things that go over the back of his legs.

He's only 2 years old, I hope we aren't there yet. I'll keep my eye on him for a few days and we'll see...

2 comments:

  1. OMG! Can't believe the amount of snow you have there! We got a small dose in the order of a dusting last night. I guess winter is here early. Poor Griffin...poor you! I am sure that made you sick with worry. Bulldogs are so orthopedically challenged. The vet said we absolutely have to get the weight off of Ozzie or he will have all sorts of knee/hip/shoulder issues. Well hang in there and at least you will have a white Xmas!

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  2. Hope Griff is doing okay....i couldn't help but feel bad for him the videos...he so wanted that ball but was always the last to get there.

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