<img alt="Dotty, at the end of summer. " src="http://tripawds.....eg/page-2/[Image Can Not Be Found]" />

Here she is again, my little wing-woman.

Starting to get very excited to be seeing the wee madam again. I have missed her, since her diagnosis we have all made such a fuss of her and have been appreciating her deeply. To not have her around has been odd. The house is quiet...too quiet. 

Dotty's cousin Duke, a retired seeing-eye dog, came over to visit yesterday and stood on the front porch and groaaaaned at me when I opened the door without Dotty's customary shouting and carrying on. He sniffed around the house, checked out the back garden and then slumped onto the kitchen floor, crossed his front paws and stared at me expectantly. Where is Dot?

Well, we are home. The vet decided that Dot was depressed and homesick and needed to be with her people. She was just not motivated to even try to walk. She just sways on her three legs and relies on the sling holding her in one place. 

We were given a tour of the grassy patch by the vets with Dot in the sling (a lovely soft bandage), she apparently had had a pee there just before we arrived. She just stood there groaning, no tail wag, no real spirit evident. We were all very positive and cheery, lots of 'good girls' and 'well dones'. The vet tech showed us the physio we have to do on her remaining hind leg to move the fluid out of it back into her body, we got our drug chart and the all the pills and potions and then we were on our way home. Dot rested her head in our daughter's lap and snoozed through the drive home. 

We have settled her with us on a foam pad with a towel on it, her water nearby and the fire on to warm the place up. 

She is just lying there.

I managed to get her to take a small blob of peanut butter with her codeine pill in it, all other treats failed to rouse any interest. A friend suggested wet cat food (an illicit love of Dotty's) so we will get some to try.

I carried Dot up to the corner of our street to her favourite "dump spot" to try to encourage a poo. Success! She leaned into the sling and performed a small miracle on the grass. Very happy about that. No pee, but she had already been and isn't exactly gulping the water down. 

I am worried about her swollen vulva and surrounding area, I have photographed to have something to compare during the night. I am also going to take her out to the back garden and put her in the sling to try to rouse her interest in the world or at least generate a pee before bedtime. I have to do physio on her leg every two hours so it won't be a great night's sleep.

I am glad to have her home and am clinging to all the wisdom from this site that this is in the bounds of normal and that they all recover at their own speed.

Here's a photo of our little wounded warrior, flat and introverted. Poor dear.<img src="http://tripawds.....eg/page-3/

My reply just vanished! I'll start again...

Dot is taking little ladylike slurps from a saucer of water (seems bothered by her big steel water bowl) and is letting us slip codeine into her in blobs of peanut butter.

Pain relief: codeine 15mg 6hrly, metacam 8kg dose once a day.

Plus two antibiotics, trichozole and clavaseptin.

She is peeing outside when taken, she collapses in the sling and then you have to quickly stand back.

No real interest in even the most illicit treats or old stand bus. Forget about it.

Still just a little limbo doggy. Come on Friday, let's have a little more progress. just a little. Please?

Thanks for your support, I'm hanging on your every word.