On the Road Again...

When you live in a small, rural town in a very large state, it means that you do a lot of driving. A lot. In 6 months, I've put over 10,000 miles on my new-to-me car. And I don't even drive my car to work. My primary vet is a 1.5 hr drive...one way. The vet who did Holly's knee surgery is 5.5 hrs away...so is her canine physical therapist. My sister lives 3.5 hrs away. My agility club practices in an arena 1.5 hrs away and my addiction to agility takes me to competitions anywhere from 2 hrs to 8 hrs away...usually in winter. My job requires me to drive up to 3 hrs, one way, to visit people...daily, or more. Driving, it's my other job.

Today was no exception. Yesterday marked 4 weeks since Holly had TTA surgery on her right knee. Since she doesn't need to visit the surgeon for x-rays until week 8, I took Holly for a follow up visit with our regular vet. And she had a chiro adjustment at the same time. It was no suprise that she's sore in her back, left hip and the base of her tail. She's doing great with her recovery...walks without a limp and is feeling really good...but she will continue to off-load most of her weight onto her left leg while she's standing still for at least another 2-3 weeks, which makes other parts of her body hurt.

The other thing I wanted to have looked at was her tail. She's never liked her tail touched, and even though I've worked hard at her accepting having her tail handled, I only really mess with it for grooming. But, last weekend I started full doing body massages on her, and one part is for her tail. But this time her tail seemed actually painful to be handled. She reacted as if her tail was broken...and yes, it appears it may very well be. Unless we do an x-ray, it's hard to say if it's an old break that's now sore because of stress in new areas (she's really using her tail for balance and compensation in a way that she normally doesn't), or if it's a recent break. Since it isn't serious and it only bothers her when you touch it, the prescription is to leave it alone and see how she feels on our next visit. Poor girl...a broken leg AND a broken tail.

Next up for the day, was a visit to the car dealership for an oil change, tire rotation and car wash. For free, Yay! Unfortunately, it also meant that Holly had to sit with me in the waiting area for over an hour. I was worried that it would be over stimulating for her...she hasn't had ANY physical activity in 4 weeks...and I thought she might go bonkers with trying to greet everyone excitedly. But no, she rocked it. She laid at my feet quietly the whole time, and while she wagged hard at everyone who even glanced her direction, she never broke her stay. Good girlie :)

I really wanted to get a photo of her being so good at the dealership, but I felt like I'd come off as 'that crazy dog-lady' taking a picture of my dog like that. I mean, I AM 'that crazy dog-lady', but I don't always need to announce it so obviously.