I'm quite sad today. My doggie is sick.

My litte chihwawa had been acting wierd lately.......something was wrong with her. For the past month or so, she's been having these bouts where she's just really lazy, won't run or jump...Whenever I call her, she bends down, crawls to me and then pees on herself. All she wanted to do was sleep. When I try to lift her up, she yelps and whenever she sleeps her whole body shakes non stop....She just wasnt her normal playful, silly self..... the last time this happened was about a month ago, which only lasted a day, so I didn't think much of it then....but these past few days, it happened daily....I had some antibiotics left from her last visit to the vet so thinking that it was something that she just need to get out of her system,...guess what?! I gave her some antibiotics but it didn't go away...that was a no-no! I just felt helpless because I didn't know what was wrong with her.

....so, I took the morning off from work and took her to the vet cuz I ain't about to wake up and find a dead dog in my bed! Plus, I was really getting worried. Anyone who owns and loves thier pets will know how it feels when thier pets are sick.

So finally, the vet examined and took xrays of Chili......*sigh.....The vet found out that chili has arthritis in her upper back area. Normal vertebrae, like joints have a small pouch/space between the bones so you can move easily, but about 3 of Chili's vertebre just below her front legs are squeeze together where you can't even see the space between the bones. This was causing her pain when she moves, or jumps, and that is why she shakes so much, an indication that she is in pain/when dogs are in pain. The vet said that it is wierd she would have this problem since she's only 4-5 yrs old. The saddest part about this was that the vet said there is really nothing we can do except to give her pain and inflammatory medication. However, we can also help prevent it from getting worse by helping her avoid jumping up and down from beds, couches, etc. And if the medication does not work, we may have to get her surgery. The vet said that the surgery would be expensive and not really promising. Great...But luckily the vet said that it does not look like she will need surgery. YAY!! This was good news.

I was kind of choked up and almost teary thinking about what this poor dog was going through when the vet explained this to me.

Its sad because dogs can't tell us if they're in pain or not, I guess its just something that owners have to be more aware of.