Last night, Itzl slipped on the steps at our house and injured his hind leg, the same one that was damaged when he was attacked by those retrievers when we went to California.
I scooped him up and took him straight to the night vet.
She gave him pain meds immediately, and then we spent hours trying to find out what the new damage was.
She felt, and we already knew that, as a Chihuahua, he has luxating patellas - his knees dislocate and relocate automatically. She couldn't feel anything wrong but he was obviously in pain even with pain meds, so she and the new vet intern (it was the intern's very first time working on a service dog - she was highly impressed by his behavior) took him back for X-Rays of his hips and knees.
That came back with some shadows they were worried about - he might have broken a bone, hairline fracture, not a complete break. To save on costs, they suggested a CT scan since that was the next, least expensive option. It didn't clarify anything, but the vet intern was very complimentary about Itzl's behavior - he even stretched his leg out for them and held it still during the scan.
But it was still inconclusive. His bones are so small they just didn't show well. So, MRI it was.
That clearly showed that the shadow cast in the X-Ray and the CT Scan was a ligament trapped under his kneecap.
So they did an ultrasound to see what they were doing and manipulated his knee so everything was back where it belonged.
He went home with anti-inflammatories and a pain medicine.
Because the vet intern was new, and Itzl was so very cooperative, the vet asked if I'd let the intern do a complete physical on Itzl. They didn't often get a chance to fully examine small dogs because they were usually not well-behaved.
So, they checked everything on him. He let them squeeze his paws, open his mouth and look at his teeth, tug his tongue out to look down his throat, look in his eyes and ears, palpate every part of his body. When they asked him to stand, he stood, and when they asked him to lie down on his right side, he did, and then his left side on command. The intern ran her fingers through his fur all over, and they examined his bald spot (caused by an allergic reaction to the annual rabies vaccine, he now gets the 3 year vaccine).
The whole time, the intern was amazed and pleased to be handling a small dog so completely without him being nervous, fearful, barking, howling, scrambling to get away, snapping, or anything. He did try alerting several times on sounds, but would subside when I gave him the stand down command. And he listened when the intern say him start to alert and she gave him the stand down command. That just thrilled her no end, that he listened to her.
This morning, Itzl is grumpy because even with the meds, he hurts. He's limping, and to add insult to injury, it's wet outside and the injured leg is the one he prefers to stand on when he pees and poops, so he gets huffy when he tries to use it and it won't work so he has to turn around and use his other leg. It's a no good very bad day for him, with sirens, thunder, rain, and a hurt leg.
On the plus side, he has no signs of arthritis or incipient arthritis - always a concern in Chihuahuas, especially ones with knee injuries.
On the down side, he will need knee surgery. His insurance covers most things, but as a Chihuahua, it doesn't cover luxating patellar corrections. It did cover his visit last night and his meds because it was an injury and not a chronic patellar condition. But it won't cover the next knee injury and it won't cover the corrective surgery.
Poor little Itzl. He hates the taste of the pain meds - he tries so hard to get the taste out of his mouth, shakes his head, grimaces, rubs his mouth on anything he can reach, and yet, when I tell him to open his mouth so I can squeeze the drops in, he obediently opens his mouth, eyes tightly shut so he doesn't see the dropper.
He's been alerting on the sirens all morning, too. This is our first rain since November, and people have forgotten how to drive. There are accidents everywhere, which means lots and lots of sirens to alert on. It also means slippery wet grass and having to be dried off when he comes inside.
He's having a very no good very bad day today.