About an hour ago, Marlin got up from a donut bed on the floor. His right rear leg wouldn't extend, and he was squealing and hollering while hoping about on 3 legs. With his bad hips that didn't last long before his entire rear end went down. The Drama King continued with his yelping.
Unfortunately, when this happens, Willy moves in to attack. We had a bit of a dog fight, with me hollering too and kicking Willy away. After that was sorted, Marlin was under an end table and refused to come out. I had to reach in and slide him out. (Dad was holding Willy by this point.) That darn rear leg was still up, so I quickly phoned the vet and off we went.
After a good check over, the result is: Marlin has severe arthritis. I knew his hips are bad and he has lots of arthritis there. He gets monthly Adequan shots, and an aspirin morning and night. I did not know his knees are quite thick with arthritis as well. I also didn't know arthritis could cause what happened: his leg just locked up and wouldn't move when he wanted it to. So we are adding a pain reliever - Tramadol - to his meds. The aspirin is the anti inflammatory, and there really isn't much more to do in that line. We can try a different med to see if it works better for him, but they aren't any stronger than the aspirin.
On the ride home, I had Marlin in the back, where I have the hammock. Trust Marlin, he got to the edge of the hammock, got his front legs down and ONE rear leg. Now he was stuck and hollering again! I pulled over as soon as I could to help him, gosh I don't know HOW he got the way he was, it really was doing a "split" with his rear! Goofy boy.
I've really had it emotionally. And if things come in 3's, this makes 5 so I have one more to come! Willy is slowing healing, still wearing the inflatable collar and taking antibiotics twice a day. I'm hand feeding Sugar and carrying her outside to do business every 3 hours. Now Marlin's taken a turn for the worst. ENOUGH!! I'm ready to start crying the minute any little thing goes wrong. Like going to the fridge to get a drink and finding I have to make another pitcher of iced tea. GAH!
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Originally Posted by Varga
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