saga: prematurely concluded

So on Monday I was playing with Gus and he had a bit of an accident. I threw his toy up into the air and he jumped to catch it, but came down on his right rear leg in an odd position and then crumpled on the floor, yelping and whining. I immediately freaked out, but after a few minutes he got up on his feet, while favoring the hurt leg and was walking around okay. About 10 minutes later he was putting weight on it, so I thought I'd go to work and then see how he was doing when i came home on my break. I came home and all appeared fine.

Tuesday morning, I get up and Gus is limping around, holding his rear right leg up while standing. Great, right? Soooo, I call the vet's office and see if they can get him in for a last minute appointment. We do a full exam with all sorts of pulling and prodding at his legs and hips. At first thought, the vet considered that the injury was the doggy equivalent of an ACL tear. Luckily, it wasn't. This would've been very very expensive to fix. They want to put him under anesthesia and take a bunch of x-rays to pinpoint the exact problem. Ok, fine.

Before they can put him under I have to sign a form that basically says if he dies, it's not their fault. And, if he goes into cardiac arrest, do I want them to attempt resuscitation by extreme measures? I don't want to be a jerk, but I simply could not afford that type of medical care... $15,000 later....

So they put him under and do the x-rays and I pick him up and he's REALLY happy to see me. On the plus side, he got mad at one of the vet techs and expelled his anal glands all over her. Luckily, that was one service I didn't have to pay for. :-) They sent the radiographs off to a canine radiologist to be tested and everything looked peachy except for some fluid where his right leg is socketed to his hip and maybe a touch of osteoarthritis.

So, it looks like Gus is going to live. Hurray! In the meantime, he's on anti-inflammatory medication for a week and restricted to only leash-walking for at least 2 weeks.

How much was this lesson worth? $367 to the vet clinic. Seriously Gus, you're starting to dip into my NYC trip / Christmas slush fund. I may resent this.