So it's Sunday morning and I open the back door for Charlie to go out. He jumps down a step then stumbles onto his stomach and yelps. He sits up and holds his right front paw up and shakes it and cries. My wife is behind me and yells "OMG whats wrong!" I tell he I think he broke his leg. We watch him for an hour and it doesn't seem to be getting better so I take him to the 24 hour vet in town.
After waiting 2 hours for some X-rays the vet on call tells me that Charlie has a bone disease called Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy. She puts him on NSAIDs and tells me to change his food from puppy food to adult food to slow his growth. I see the X-rays and I see a black line across the joints. Researching with Google and I see that is the typical characteristic of HOD on X-rays.
Anyway, I pay them $562 and take him home. My wife and I are in tears over this and really down. We're sitting on the sofa that evening watching our TV with Charlie lying down between us and I start rubbing that right front paw. Lo and behold I get stuck ... by a bristle from a wire brush that is stuck between his toes!
Granted my wife and I should have known to check his paws for thorns and such but shouldn't the vet have found this?
I don't know, maybe he does have HOD and this event gave us an early heads up about it ...
Taking the X-rays for a second opinion on Tuesday
