A Dog's Life

Sometimes the dogs are a good reminder that it's time to slow down. Chris and I had a very busy weekend and this morning, I took the time to just lay around with the dogs. It was the relaxing that I needed. The dogs make excellent napping companions.

Bentley's Dislocated Hip

When Chris and I came back from our big weekend riding bikes, we noticed immediately that Bentley was limping. He wasn't putting any weight on his back left leg. At first, I figured he just was stiff (he is getting old...11 years is our estimate). After a little while, I realized that this was in fact a serious injury and not just stiffness.

Chris took Bentley to the vet as soon as possible to get him looked at. The vet couldn't definitely say without x-rays so we did them. Turns out Bentley had dislocated his hip. Needless to say, this was horrible, horrible news. The vet's recommendation was surgery which was very expensive.

I was at work when Chris was telling me all this over the phone. I instantly fell apart, because I didn't think we could afford surgery for one of the dogs. Plus, Bentley isn't a young dog. I know my crying caused Chris a lot of worry so he instantly went into "fix it" mode.

Chris did tons of research and called a bunch of different vets. He eventually decided that we would opt for a less expensive treatment with a different vet. This treatment consisted of putting the dog to sleep, moving the hip back into place, and wrapping the leg so it won't move. By the time I got home from work, Bentley was all fixed up. I don't have any pictures of the sling he wore, but it was pretty impressive.

That first night was tough. Bentley was definitely in pain and cried a lot. (He's generally a fairly whiny dog anyway so it's just enhanced when he hurts. It's very sad.) We were up in the middle of the night to carry him downstairs so he could go to the bathroom. Bentley couldn't get comfortable. It was a really tough night for all of us.

In the morning, we were checking him out and saw that his toes were swollen. The vet warned us that if the sling moved, it might cut off circulation to the toes. So I called the vet who had me come in immediately. At the office, I learned that Bentley's hip had slipped out of socket again.

That was really tough and sad to hear. I knew that Bentley couldn't live with a dislocated hip, but I didn't know if we financially swing the surgery. Much to my surprise, the vet had sympathy on me. He wanted to work with us on the cost of the surgery and offered a greatly discounted price. He kept saying that he thought Bentley was such a sweet dog and that he was sure the surgery would be worth it. We would be giving Bentley a few more years of good living.

So last Tuesday, Bentley had hip surgery and an overnight stay at the vet. His recovery has been amazingly fast. The first couple days, he didn't walk much and I carried him everywhere. Naturally he slept a lot. But into day 3, he started putting some weight on his back leg. Before I knew it, Bentley was walking more and more on his own.

Now that it's been a week since the surgery, the vet looked him over and was pleased with the progress. Bentley is moving around quite well. The hip has good movement too. We're confident Bentley is going to heal up and be almost as good as before. He's just got to take it easy the next 3 weeks (which means I'll keep carrying him up and down the stairs).

I feel very lucky that the situation has turned out as wonderfully as it has. We are really glad Bentley is healing and will soon be getting back to his old self. I love this little guy a lot!

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