26th November

Tuesday 26th November 2013 started out like any other day. We got up, the animals got fed and I went to work.

I got a phone call at about 3pm from my Mum,she had  called in later than normal to let Holly out (she had been Christmas shopping with Grandma) and had noticed that her right leg was all cramped up. I said not to worry as it had happened before and it usually relaxed with some gentle massage.

When I got home the back right leg was all cramped up - imagine all the muscles in the leg contracting and pulling the leg right up and into the body. However when I touched it I realised it was not like before, I could feel the muscles spasm-ing. We did the usual things, a trip round the garden and pills in some ham plus some treats, which all vanished with the usual speed. Then I had another go at massaging the leg. The massage didn't appear to do any good so I very gently pulled her leg straight, mostly to see if I could or if the spasms were too strong. As the leg got to almost full extension it rotated and ended up pointing out sideways.

I was somewhat surprised at that, so pushed it back to cramped up and it rotated back in again. I tried this a few more times and got the same results each time. Extend, rotates out. Contract rotates back in again.

I supported her weight and had a good feel of the joints and bones in both hips and hind legs, everything felt OK to me but the extension/rotation thing was just too strange and bizarre. All I could think of was a dislocating hip or a broken bone. Time for a trip to the vets.

It felt like a lifetime had passed since getting home from work, but after checking the clock it was only about 10 minutes. The journey to the vets was less than an hour but felt like several more lifetimes, especially when I had to stop for fuel and got caught up in roadworks and the tail end of commuter traffic. There were lots of things going through my mind on the drive to the vets, none of them particularly good, but the one that really stuck out as the strangest was "Do I have enough Christmas cards left over if I have to re-write them?"

The vet agreed with me that something odd was going on and that dislocation was an obvious conclusion. But after feeling the joints all move and giving her a much more thorough going over than I had he said no to dislocation and no to a break.

So what now? Is this the end of the line for Holly, is it time to call it a day?

I wasn't sure and said so, I also said that apart from the leg muscles spasm-ing she was still Holly, still eating, leading me a merry dance around the garden and expecting to go for a walk that evening. Holly had been laid flat on the floor looking miserable, at the word "Walk" her head snapped up, the ears were up and the eyes were bright and shiny and full of hope that we were going to go out and find some mud to squelch through. I knew then that if there was a chance to get past this she needed it.

What to give her, we discussed pills and potions and I said she was no longer on the plt tablets as she was no longer itchy. So she got a couple of injections, a muscle relaxant and a pain killer, we didn't think she was in pain but better safe than sorry, and we restarted the plt tablets. She also happily accepted a treat from the jar on the reception counter. If no improvement in 48 hours then back in probably for the final time.

I was warned that the two injections would make her a bit dopey.

That evening dopey was not even close to describing Holly's state. The poor old dog struggled to lift her head and when you looked into her eyes you could see they were not really focusing on anything and when she blinked her eyes closed and opened at slightly different times to each other.

She wasn't just away with the fairies, she was off leading the parade through fairy-land.

It was very hard not to laugh at my poor old spaced out dog lying on the sofa dribbling and snoring.