We came home from shopping in town on Friday and Lily was not herself. She squeals when she sees us and after a day away, she goes bananas. Immediately we noticed she was barely moving around not even barking let alone squealing. We checked her out and discovered her jaw, chin area she yelped if we went anywhere near it. She ate her dinner slowly, did all her business outside and was drinking water so that was all good. She went to bark at something and only a yelp came out, she did not try barking again until the next day. She didn’t want to go up or down the stairs to the bed, like she was not steady and knew it. Her eyes were dim. As far as we can guess she took a header and did a face plant on the floor from their bench in the window. All 4 of them get up there and it’s a tight fit, Mini screams at the sight of our truck and cats go flying. We think in all the commotion and with Lily’s eyesight starting to go she missed a step and went headfirst from the top. There is an upside down wooden Coke box as the first step that you can’t see in the photo that she may have even clipped with her chin, it seems to be her sorest part. Friday night she slept on the floor and I woke up about every half hour and could hear her snoring so I knew she slept good. She was moving a round better Saturday morning so we knew she was on the mend. About mid afternoon she suddenly snapped out of it. Her eyes brightened, she was lifting her head to look up and she had her wiggle in her bum back. We could tell she was a bit sore still but we had our Lily back. This photo is today, she is back to climbing and running and barking. Lily is one big solid muscle and it’s a good thing. If she was a frail little dog, she probably would have broken something. Just the day before this happened I was watching her outside and she still starts her run with that cute little puppy playful bounce. Her and Mini RACE each other everywhere so she runs hard a lot… especially on days they are being teased by a squirrel.
We have to “elderly dog” proof our house now. We put the chairs in place until we can build a railing. She isn’t totally blind but she has lost a lot of her sight. She has also lost some of her hearing so we have already started using hand signals more with her. She is perfectly healthy otherwise, our old girl. We think she will be 13 in February.
