Don't Let Your Dog ... be a Weekend Cowboy

Don't Let Your Dog ... be a Weekend Cowboy
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

      

Kissy Fairchild ... our sweet Rottie.  Precious Camo (changed to Precious Camie).

When fur parents are at work all week … their dogs are at home resting, waiting for them to get home. All day long, these pets lay, sleep, eat … wait. This goes on for the whole week … and when the weekend comes … the fur parents take their dogs out to exercise, have fun. They become ... weekend cowboys!

Your dog has rested all week, while eating … probably putting on extra weight. He may be middle-age. He may be a big dog (though it happens to smaller dogs, also). You don’t notice all these things … you are only looking forward to giving your dog a good time on the weekend … so, he can get ‘good exercise’, have fun.

Too much fun all at once can cause serious injuries. Say, you took your dog to run, jump, romp, play at the park … you could come home with your dog, find that he is limping. That’s a warning sign you should take seriously. This can only become worse if … he has a ruptured cranial cruciate ligament.

A ruptured cranial cruciate ligament … is when the ligament ruptures between the tibia, and the femur. The ligament is a tough band of tissue connecting the two. When it ruptures, the joint becomes unstable, very painful to the dog. If left like that, it leads to degenerative joint disease which is arthritis. The dog begins to limp, and that puts weight, stress on the other leg, hip. That leg, hip could be the next ‘to go’. It’s best to seek medical help to prevent more problems.

Don’t let your dog be a … weekend cowboy. It could cause a serious injury to his legs. Protect your dogs by not over-feeding them until they are overweight … my husband and I have learned this. We don’t let our dogs be weekend cowboys … but, we are guilty of feeding them lots of tidbits from the table … causing excessive weight gain. One doesn’t really notice the weight-gain in dogs … we are happy just to be sharing … out of pure love for them.

Our two dogs love to run, play, jump. Our Rottweiler is a big dog, and he’ll be 5 years old on November 02, 2015. His name is Kissy Fairchild … he loves to run with the dog I rescued on July 04, 2013. Her name is Precious Camo (changed to Precious Camie). Kissy and Camie are happy dogs, have the most loving home. We are rich in love … not money.

Kissy injured his right, hind leg … ruptured cranial cruciate ligament … about a month, or so, ago. He began limping badly … laying down all the time. That wasn’t like him. We weren’t aware of this kind of injury with dogs … so, we thought he’d just simply get better. We were thinking his leg was sore maybe from hitting the side of the pet door when he and Camie ran out it, into their fenced-in yard.

It didn’t get better at all … we noticed he had to ‘hop’ on the left leg, not use his right leg any more than he had to. We knew he had to go to the vet. Our vet, Dr. David Fontenot (Louisburg Veterinary Clinic, Louisburg, North Carolina) diagnosed him. They have just scheduled Kissy’s surgery.

Kissy will have surgery on his right, hind leg on Wednesday, this week, March 25, 2015. He will have the procedure known as TTA (Tibial Tuberosity Advancement). The surgeon will use space-age titanium … this is lighter, thinner, stronger than stainless steel. It’s the newest procedure, considered the best for most dogs.

If you ever had a torn rotator cuff … you already have an idea of what it’s like. It can’t get well by itself … it had to be repaired by surgery. Our dogs aren’t weekend cowboys … they play all through the day, sometimes … playing too hard. Kissy and Camie both were overweight (they are on their diet, now :). As I read to gather more information … I became aware of ‘Weekend Cowboys’ … and thought while writing this article … I would include information about that. Why? Because I believe not everyone is aware of what ‘Weekend Cowboys’ means. I wasn’t.

I share this with you, so … you can be more protective of your precious dogs. If you have a dog, it means you are already a special, caring person. Like me, you want to know, be aware of anything that is good … bad … for your fur babies. So, be aware, when you have free time for your dogs … don’t let them ‘go wild like weekend cowboys’!

All photos of our dogs, article … are owned, written by me … Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee/ @grannygee