Four Times in Four Years

Lindey turned 3 in October and we made our fourth visit to the ER Vet on Sunday. The first time she went to the ER Vet was when I clerked in Yakima during summer between my second and third year of law school. I lived in the basement of an acquaintance and to escape the uncomfortableness of living with strangers, Lindey and I would go to the park every night after work. The summer temperatures in Yakima tend to soar into the triple digits - even at 6 or 7 at night. Not knowing dogs can suffer heat stroke, I would run Lindey around in the heat. Disaster. She began vomiting all over and shaking. ER visit number 1 - heatstroke. Who knew?

ER visit number two was when I was living with Molly during my third year of law school. Molly and I came home one afternoon to an apartment filled with Tylenol PM tablets all over. Somehow the dogs had gotten a hold of a medicine bottle and chewed through the plastic container. Not knowing how many the dogs had eatten (by this time, Lucky had been addded to the family) or if the dogs had eatten any of the tablets, we rushed them to the ER vet. Lindey had her stomach pumped and was ordered to spend the night. ER vist number 2 - overdose on Tylenol PM.

The next ER visit came after Court and I were married and moved to Yakima. Court was out of town for work and I was at home one evening after work, and notice a big mat on Lindey's face. As I tried to comb out the mat, I noticed a huge open sore on her face. After several visits to the vet and different treatments, we finally figured out that it was a broken tooth root traveling through her cheek to get out of her body. So weird. ER visit number 3 - broken tooth root.

So now we come to the fourth visit. The weather here on Sunday was amazing. Eighty degrees. The first warm day of the year. Court and I were outside prepping the lawn furniture and hosing off the deck when I noticed Lindey was dragging her back left leg. It looked as if it were just hanging from the socket. It looked bad. I jumped in the car and headed for the ER vet - located an hour away in the Tri Cities.

Xrays were taken and the conclusion of the leg trauma was a knee cap that was sliding in and out of place. When the knee cap was in place, Lindey could walk normally. When it was out of place, she couldn't walk. So we are supposed to keep her still for the next two weeks (yeah right) and report back to the vet if there is no improvement. Apparently, a knee cap that slips in and out of place can fix itself?!?! If it doesn't improve, surgery for Lindey is in our future. Awesome.