The weather in April in Toronto was actually quite pleasant, but Mocha and I felt very stagnant from restricting our physical activity. At the very end of March, Mocha strained a muscle or tendon in her paw after excitedly hurrying down a set of stairs and slipped a step, and started limping after that. I am very glad it was a relatively minor injury, but dang, strict bed rest is tough! I felt so awful for Mocha since walks and going out are highlights of her day. I also didn’t realize how much not walking impacted my own mental health. Without our walks, we were both very mentally frustrated (even though she can’t talk, her body language alone spoke volumes). Hence, our “dog days” of April was a rough month for us to get through. Overall, she took a month to fully heal though rest and medication, and I’m happy to say we have been back to normal the last few weeks and resuming our outings.

We did the best we could to limit activity and minimize pressure on her foot, but it wasn’t foolproof. Like in many dogs, excitement overrode any pain. If there was a squirrel to chase, or her dog nemesis to bark at, or even Matt eating pie in the office, she would be ready to lunge or run over despite hobbling along the way. I know she can’t help it though (pie is too good to miss out!). Her prey drive was also invigorated after she caught a squirrel a few weeks prior (it bit her on the nose and got away), making her desire to chase them even higher despite having a foot injury. Because of lack of exercise, she was also getting more reactive at dogs passing by our apartment door. It wasn’t her fault at all, since she was a bit pent up from little activity, but her reactions at the door also didn’t help her foot. So, I started adding a bit of a barricade, using chairs, laundry baskets and the vacuum cleaner to add some distance to reduce the intensity of her reactions (very effective!). I didn’t have the heart to tell her “no” for going on the bed and couch, but I stopped encouraging it. I also tried making DIY steps up to the bed, but it didn’t make a difference because she would still just jump up anyway. It was worth a shot though. After a couple weeks of rest, I made the mistake to resume some walking when she seemed to be doing better (she was soooo happy for this), even seemed OK after seeing the vet for her annual exam, but then the limp returned shortly after.

Continuing to not go on walks was hard. Often she would put on the brakes and refuse to return back to our apartment building after she relieved herself, and then walk extremely slowly with very sad eyes when going back home. One time she even refused to pee in the morning, we ended up slowly circling our complex for half an hour without any luck, since she knew afterwards it meant we’d go back inside. I thought taking her on car rides would be another way to enrich her day that wouldn’t require walking, but very quickly I realized how jumping out of the car impacts her foot quite a lot too, so we stopped doing car rides unless Matt was with us to help carry her out of the car. I got more puzzle toys for her, started to freeze more of her meals to keep her busy longer. I am proud to say I made some of her breakfasts keep her busy for 30 minutes! Since her limp wasn’t fully going away after being on/off for several weeks, we went to the vet again. Because she was so excited to meet the people there, she didn’t show any symptoms when she was being checked out. It was sweet in a way, where she was so happy to see people she wasn’t bothered by her injury, though she was limping when we returned to the car. We received medication for a week and a half, with the all-clear to resume normal walking but without anything too strenuous. This worked out well and now we’ve been doing our normal walks for few weeks now!

If this were to happen again, I would do a few things differently, including implementing strict rest for longer before resuming walking again (my mistake at the two week mark), going to the vet for medication sooner, and not doing any car rides during her recovery (other than the trip to the vet) to avoid her jumping down on her injured foot. A couple times I also took her to sit with me at a nearby park while I read, thinking this would be OK with her foot, but it seemed that resting while alert/watching the environment added some strain nonetheless and she limped afterwards. About a week into her meds, we took a planned trip to Ottawa (vet-approved), and brought her padded cooling mat so she could rest on some cushion when we were out and about for a while. Even though she doesn’t necessarily need the mat anymore now, I’m thinking it might become a regular item to bring anyway.

I’m relieved her limp didn’t end up being arthritis (a possibility we had to consider if the limp persisted), though it is something we need to keep an eye out for. She is recently considered a senior pup 😭 but I am grateful she still acts young in many ways. This past April was an experience for us, and I will not take our ability to go on walks and outings for granted again!
-Evelien