Milly Goes to the Vet

We took Milly to the vet last night as I wanted to get her checked. She has trouble with her back legs and I wanted to know whether the problem was a genetic problem with the knee joint that Yorkies are prone to, some abnormality, an illness or something else. The vet gave her a thourough check and x-rayed her left rear leg and found that it had been broken in the past and never treated. The bulby bit at the end of the bone had fused onto the rest of the bone at right angles so the knee won’t work. The ligament is gone  too. 

That’s the bad news. However the good news is that the vet said that other from this – and her blindness – she is well and healthy and the vet said that she should be quite happy and he didn’t think she had any pain. He said that if she was bigger it could be a problem because of the weight and he would have suggested that they rebreak the bone and set it, but because she is so tiny she won’t put much stress on the bone. The sad thing is, the vet said that if her leg had been treated when it had broken it would have been completely normal as she must have broken it when she was a puppy (if they break their bones before 8 months they repair easily – I guess like children!).

I must admit to being relieved. While if she had had a problem with her joints like Herbie had we could have helped her, it would only have got worse over time. However, given that her lameness is the result of a break, and she is otherwise healthy, hopefully she’ll lead a relatively normal life. Regardless of the cause, though, we’ll still need to watch her to make sure she doesn’t get bowled over by the others.

She has developed her own way of dealing with her lameness, including doing a handstand to ‘do her business’. She’s finding her way around the living room at the moment. She gets lifted in and out, but I think she knows that she has to go out the door to find the water bowl. She’s also learning about the steps, I don’t think it will take her long to really feel at home. She’s still not eating well, but we only got her Thursday evening and we took her to the vet yesterday to be manhandled – so it’s obviously been a stressful time.