So one of my super beloved customers just happens to be a board certified dog surgeon and orthopedic specialist. So when she came out to the barn yesterday, showed her Hinky Ruby and described the problem.

“Like you go down to a jump and instead of being all nice canter, canter, canter, jump, like your kid does on her pony, it’s like, canter, hinky, hinky, canter, hinky FLING. “

I sort of canter regular-like, then hinky-like to show the difference.

Aha. Total understanding of my excellent vet terminology. Maybe we should look at the actual patient, who has been having a busy day sleeping in the dog pen.

Ruby, being a good sport and one to always follow all the rules, was happy to demonstrate her phenomena in the barn aisle over a broom strung between 2 patio chairs. A nice party trick, agility dogs have, that you can point at anything and say jump or climb, and they do it and get all spazzy and happy about it. She did a couple hinkies, then a couple normal. Of course she does the normal because the real vet is watching her. But the couple hinkies were enough, good illustration, and she gets an exam.

Turns out, much fluid and inflamminess **HEY NON DOG FRIENDS THIS PART GETS BORING BUT INVOLVES DRUGS AT THE END OF THE PARAGRAPH?** where there should be not fluid or inflaming in a bursa of her shoulder or something, I forget what. On her good front leg though. Has been of and on chronic tendonitis on her right front, until I kinda sorta semi retired her, and doesn’t seem like that one has bugged her for a while. Now it’s in her left leg at the joint and probably has been like that a long time and just now really, really bugging her to the point of mucho pain. Sort of makes sense, when I think about how Ruby’s been doing things for a while. Was weird there was no lameness like when it was her other leg, but there you go. No running now, no jumping, climbing, turning, a lot of sleeping and walking around on a leash. **HERE’S THE END OF BLAH BLAH BLAH DOG SORE LEG** Drugs. For a good while.

She’s been through this before. Had a slow Timmy to be slow with her. Now it’s her and me, tied together, walking on the beach and through the forest, while those delinquents still get to tear it up. Ruby is 8. She’ll be back. There’s more agility for her in the future. But it’ll be a while, and maybe won’t be much. Just enough to see her make that big dog smile she makes when she’s flying along at Dirt Night. Mostly, I want her joints preserved for chasing birds down the beach and bigfoots through the forest until she’s old and gray.