Cooper's Trip to the Vet Parking Lot

Sunday afternoon, Cooper came in from the backyard holding up his left paw up, walking gingerly and noticeably limping on that side.  I have no idea what happened.  I asked him to sit and he did.  I tried to touch his paw to see if I could see an injury or something stuck in the pad of his foot.  He was having none of that.  None of it.  If you will recall from previous posts I have written, Cooper's feet are one of his off limit body parts.  Completely off limits.  No touching.

I left him alone for a bit and he hobbled to his regular resting place and laid down.  After a while, I approached him and had a flashlight and my glasses handy to see if I could get a closer look. The minute I shined the light on his paw, he tucked it under him out of sight.  No thanks.

I gave it a little more time.  Eventually, he was on his side and I was really stealth and crawled across the floor to see if I could get a look without touching him at all.  I thought I could see a little burr stuck between the pads on his foot.  That would explain the limping.  I just wasn't sure what it was.  I went to reach for it to pull it out and his head snapped up and he got up and hobbled to another spot.

I followed after him giving him a long list of reasons of ways I could help him if he would just let me.  He wouldn't even look at me.

I tried a couple more times and got growled at. I was annoying the bejeez out of him and he was sleeping with one eye open to keep an eye on me. I decided to let him sleep on it and see if it was better in the morning.

Monday morning, I thought maybe it was better as he didn't seem to be limping hardly at all when he went out for his morning break.  A couple hours later he limped into my office.  Well dang it.  I went and got his muzzle and thought if I put that on that I would be able to look at his foot and at least he wouldn't be able to bite my face off.  He saw that muzzle coming and headed the other direction.

I had some rotisserie chicken in the fridge, which is basically Cooper's favorite thing ever.  Right up there with bacon.  He is normally helpless to resist.  I held it at the end of the muzzle and he turned around and walked away.  He was not going for it.  No way, no how.  I tried so many times.  I put peanut butter on my finger to see if that would entice him to put his face in the muzzle.  It has worked before.  It did nothing but make a mess of peanut butter on every dang thing.

I tried multiple times on Monday to get a peek at the foot.  No dice.

Tuesday morning I relented and called the vet and said "My giant dog with a really bad attitude has something stuck in the pad of his paw and will not let me look at it. Can you help?"   They said they could work him in, but really needed him to be muzzled because they know feet are off limits for Cooper and he has lost his ever loving mind at the vet several times when they have tried to clip his nails. They told me not to feed him because they might have to sedate him to get a good look at it.  All I heard was "Don't feed him. This is going to cost you a mint."  I picked up Cooper's breakfast and gave him two of his super duper going to the vet pills to get him a little woozy.  It worked and I was able to get his muzzle on!  Success!

I called the vet and told them I was on the way.  They were thrilled, I am sure.

I got Coop in the car and he was not barking but was instead making a really weird noise that sounded like Chewbacca was in the back seat.  It was a guttural, vibrating, whining kind of noise. He was very anxious - even on drugs.

We pulled up at the vet office and Cooper's Chewbacca noises really ramped up. While he was distracted, staring at the building and panicking, I was able to feel all around the pad of his sore paw and couldn't feel anything at all.  I got him out of the car and he was walking pretty normally and didn't seem to be limping.

Could it be that whatever was bothering him was gone?

I think it was!  HOORAY!!!

I loaded him back in the car and headed home, spending zero dollars. I called the vet and told them the story. They were as relieved as me.  I pulled Coop's muzzle off in the car and he just rested his head on my shoulder.  He was confused, still doped up and so relieved that he didn't have to go into the vet office.

It was a good day all around!  Coop has been a bit lazy and catatonic today after his big adventure, but that is really how I like him best.