Atos Diary November 2001
Oh no! Even though I’m getting medicine I’m still in more and more pain. That’s why my owners decide to go to the vet again. The vet gives me more medicine and the advice to walk more but with no sharp turns. Oh no! Dearest owners please understand that that hurts. In the same week we begin the follow-up class. But I don’t dare to get out of the car. Once they get me in to the training hall I only want to lie down. I can’t even keep up with walking on the lead. My owners decide to stop with the class and take me home. The next day I can hardly walk. Because my owners don’t trust the vet they take me to an animal clinic in Ermelo. We can go the next day. That was a very nice vet I must say. He put me at ease first and then let me walk a bit. He decided to have an x-ray taken, so I got a relax shot. And after an exiting ½ hour we heard the diagnosis. I had E.D or else named LPC (look at LPC). In my elbow I had a lose piece of bone and my joints shaved each other. That caused the pain. I also had some arthritis around the joint because I had moved too much. And if you remember the first vet had said that I must walk as much as possible. My owners were very angry with that. Luckily I got a lot of hugs. Because let us be honest I’m the one going through it all. It at least looked bad and a week later they operated on me. The operation was a success. According to the vet it wasn’t that bad and there would be a recovery of about 90%. But only if I kept myself to the rules. Well that’s when the trouble started. And there I was, with a special collar so that I walked against everything. You could look for my humor like a needle in a haystack. At least my owners tried to stay at home as much as possible so that I didn’t have to wear it the hole time. You see I wasn’t allowed to touch my bandage. But come on, it’s my paw, and there shouldn’t be any stitches or bandage on my paw. So every time my owners weren’t looking I crept behind the couch to chew on everything. And then it was…. Atos! Atos! Stop it! Atos! It made me crazy. I haven’t heard my name called more often. Then I would walk to my kennel and go to sleep with a big sigh. The message was clear; rest was needed. I had to use my paw as less as possible. So instead of having nice long walks I had to do everything in five minutes and then it was back inside. I wasn’t allowed to play wild games or make sharp turns. If I would throw my ball in my owners lap he would put it in front of me on the floor. He wouldn’t even through my squeaky toys. And then even I got frustrated. I ask you no young Labrador can handle that. So I started moving shoes around the room and I ate the inner soles out of my owners Nike’s. I also knocked everything off of the table and tore up a Barbie. I also got a hold of a chair. Yep I really let them know I was bored. Gna, gna. I’m laughing now but in the mean time I feel sorry for myself. My paw is still a bit sore but I can’t touch it. If they can’t watch me I get the special collar put on, and then I really can’t do anything. And when I try keeping myself busy with tearing up tea cloths they get angry. I can’t help it, can I? I think they don’t like me anymore. Sniff. There is no fun living like this is there?