Tuesdays With Toby: Random Dog Pain

It’s not too often that I am brought to the point of tears because of Toby—that is, unless I’m doubled over in laughter at some of his hysterical antics.

But last week it was a different story.

Out of nowhere, Toby began to wail in pain. He was walking behind me inside our apartment and just broke out holding his right paw off the floor and looking at me to help him feel better.

I coaxed him to my lap on the floor and held him for a while. He seemed better and hopped up on the couch to rest. That was short lived and he started wailing again.

I took him to lay down on my bed with me, hoping some petting and sleeping would soothe his pain.

It was the weirdest thing.

Toby was holding his head up and turning to one side while lying next to me, still wailing every few minutes. By this time we had a vet appointment at but I was in tears for my little boy. We got an earlier appointment and bode our time until we saw Dr. Laura Kressler.

Just like a cranky car makes no noises once you get it to the mechanic, Toby seemed happy as a clam once we got out of the apartment on the way to the vet. Same thing at the vet’s office. He had blood tests to rule out Lyme disease (Check!), a thorough exam including a reflex test (Check!) and a whole rack of X-Rays. Kressler just didn’t no for sure what was wrong, but Toby’s neck seemed a bit stiff.

She sent us home with anti-inflammatory and a prescription for a muscle relaxer if Toby needed it. After one dose of the anti-inflammatory, Toby started crying again. Ugh. Panic set in.

My big sister talked me through getting out the door (leaving my precious Lab alone and in pain!) to get the prescription filled for his muscle relaxer. I high-tailed it to the and got my doggie’s drugs (Believe it or not, the pharmacist didn’t look at me weird when I told her the meds were for a canine. She said this happens often at their location).

I got home, dug into the peanut butter jar and stuck the new pill into the gooey treat. Toby ate it and pretty much instantly seemed to feel much better.

There’s been no crying or pain since then, and now only tears of gratefulness from this dog mom.