Rough Day for Maddie

This afternoon I decided to go for a four wheeler ride. It was a beautiful day and I had been cooped up in Chemistry labs all day, so I wanted to get out and burn off some steam. Maddie gets so excited when she sees me load up the four wheeler, she knew exactly what we were about to do. For the last 5 months, everytime we would ride Maddie would be right behind us, having a blast. Well today was different, about half way through our ride I noticed that Maddie wasn't staying as close as she normally does. Didn't think much about it until after we were done riding. I noticed some blood on the ground, and then I say that she was favoring her front legs. After closer inspection, I realized that she had completely torn off her "pads" on the bottom of her feet. She had been used to running on "soft" ground up in Arkansas, lots of grass, dirt, mud, etc. Texas has a lot more rocks and "rough" terrain, and her feet took a beating. I felt horrible. We took her to the Vet, and they had to sedate her and then perform minor surgery to remove the damaged pads, so that they could heal properly. She has these huge bandages on her front paws, but the Vet said her pads should grow back in a couple weeks. While we were at the Vet, we discovered that she is also having a false pregnancy! Basically her body thinks that she is pregnant, when she actually isn't. We noticed that her "mammory glands" had become enlarged, but knew she wasn't pregnant because she had no interaction with any male dogs while she was in heat. Once again didnt think much of it until the Vet started "milking" her on the table. She told us that we needed to get her spayed ASAP, because she would not be able to handle true pregnancy. She said that she would carry the litter full term but the pups would be dead at birth, and Maddie would become very susceptible to getting cancer. Trisha and I had been planning on bredding her next month. We were obviously dissappointed but we dont want to do anything to risk losing Maddie. We also found out that she is having an allergic reaction to something down here in Texas, and it is causing her hair to start falling out. So long story short, Maddie had a rough day. She has all kinds of medication to take over the next week, so hopefully she will get better. She is sedated, so she cant feel any pain. I felt bad about her feet but I am glad that we found out about the false pregancy and skin reaction, because the long term effects of both could have been worse. The Vet said they had the same problem with their lab, so they put "booties"(a.k.a. doggie shoes) on her feet and she has done much better. Pray for Maddie over the next couple days she is going to need it. Hope all is well, see ya soon.

(Maddie sedated, Lilly wondering what is going on.)


(Lilly winking for the camera.)