My poor Toby

iguana

My husband and I were walking our dogs today in our local nature park. They had just been for a swim and as we walked on they ran down into a ditch and the next thing poor Toby left out a terrible scream. He twisted his foot in a little hole as he ran and fractured his front leg. He has to get an operation on his leg on Monday as the break is in the "elbow" joint. And he has to stay in hospital until then as the vet has to inject him with a serious painkiller every 8 hours.

The poor boy looked terrified when we left him behind. He just gave me a look of such horror and sadness to be left behind. We re-homed him when he was 7 months old, so I'm a bit worried he thinks he's been abandoned. Although the vet did say he was on a morphine equivalent so is not likely to be too distressed as he'll be quite stoned. And after the operation he'll be as miserable as hell as he's an incredibly active dog who goes swimming and running everyday. And now he'll be on seriously limited exercise, I'm even going to have to alter his diet as he usually eats high protein working dog food.

Dougal, our other boy, is also feeling very confused. He keeps looking about and has a look on his face that says "What's missing? Something's not right!" He's sleeping now in the kind of curled up way that he does when he's unhappy.

Lauragoesmad

Hope you're doggy is ok, iguana!:(

tinkerbell

Oh no, your poor Toby I hope he's ok and recovers soon.

dragona

Oh I'm sorry Thinking of Toby, and you xx

CathyMoran

I am sorry to hear that Toby is ill, I hope that he recovers soon. Best wishes to you all.

hadook

Poor Toby, hope he recovers as quickly as possible.

I don't know if you have a crate for your dogs but they're a godsend when the dog needs to be on restricted exercise. It might also be worth looking into something like clicker training (if you don't do it already) in the hope that the mental stimulation keeps you both from cracking up until he's able to exercise properly again

ISDW

Hope he's okay and the operation goes well. If you have a look at zooplus and a couple of those sites, they have mental stimulation games for dogs, things like sliding bricks that you hide a treat under. This really wears the dog out, if he can't do any exercise for a few weeks, it might be good to keep him mentally alert at least and exercise his brain. The games may seem a bit odd, but they do work, I find that playing them with my dogs can wear them out as much as a good long walk.

kazza90210

But to some people their dogs are like family and its just as upsetting to them when they are ill.

Hope toby gets better soon

Latchy

Best wish's to Toby .

I have a border collie of same name .

Doctor DooM

Poor doggy.

Try to think of how happy he'll be when you're taking him home!

The Paws

Get well soon Toby xx
keep visiting the clinic as much as you like so Toby will know he is not left behind. leave a small blanket, toy ..etc with him so he wont feel out of place.

I had a dog called Toby 4 years ago (died due to kidney problems and he was old) so when I saw his name here...kinda sad but in a good way!!

Just like what SDoom said above - think about Toby coming home!!

soulstaf

Poor Toby, Get well soon:)

I would be inclined to not visit as this may upset him even more as you will repeatedly have to leave him behind, he is in the best place and with the medication he will have settled in, he'll be looked very well after i'm sure.

iguana

We just spoke to the vet and they say he is doing fine today. He's still pretty much doped up so he's not too upset. And he's a very easy going dog who'll take affection from everyone so I know he'll cope better at the vet than Dougal would.

They advised that we don't visit until tomorrow, when they'll be transferring him to the vet nearer us for his operation. They say he's settled now, so it's best not to upset him. Dougal is still pretty confused by Toby's absence so we're going to take him on a nice long walk soon to distract him.

dragona

I know this is from a while ago - but how is Toby?

iguana

Toby snapped off part of his elbow joint (it's called an elbow in a dog too) so he needed an operation to screw the broken part back on, and another pin to reinforce the joint. He's currently on 23 hours + a day bed rest, which for a dog equals locked in a crate. At this exact moment he is giving me a most pitiful look as he knows it's nearly time for Dougal's walk and he wants to be allowed go too.:(

On the plus side he is now allowed 2 15 minute walks each day, so he gets to see the outside world once more, so that cheers him up. Unfortunately the park nearest us is shut for restoration until June 21st and it would be the perfect place to walk him. Instead we are just walking around the block.

When he first came back we were told to keep him and Dougal apart in case they started playing roughly. We used to keep Toby in the crate with Dougal sleeping outside and they would press up against each other through the bars. At night Toby would howl and howl as he couldn't bear being alone. On the 4th night as I was putting them to bed Dougal ran into the crate and wouldn't come out. Both dogs just looked so pleadingly at me to let them sleep together I decided to let them, as I don't think crying all night was helping Toby heal. Since then they both stay together in the crate a lot. They both see the crate as a quiet place so they don't get excited in there. And Toby is much happier with physical contact with Dougal. I also occasionally let him in the garden with a pillow, but he has to be tied in place so he can't move about, but he loves being outside keeping an eye on his territory. He also loves his new puzzle ball.

It's still tough. Toby could be another 3 or 4 months before he's better. And we don't know yet if he will heal fully. He's also put on a bit of weight because he's such an active dog normally, so we've had to cut his food a bit. And he has physio exercises due to start soon. But so far things seem to be healing up all right and hopefully by mid-summer he'll be running and swimming like usual.

Jules

You should ask your vet for a referral to a hydrotherapy clinic there is one in UCD and also one in malahide.. i think, this is also covered by the insurance if referred!