My Dog Thought He Could Fly

[Disney Doll]

Talk about a heart attack!!!!!

Yesterday we were going out. My friend was here with her dog, and when both dogs are going to be here alone, we put them in the basement. They get into less trouble that way!

Ted is 13, so he tends to go down the stairs a bit slowly, which is fine. Well, yesterday for some reason he thought he could leap from the top of the basement stairs to the bottom...13 steps in all.

I was standing at the bottom and sort of "broke" his fall, but when he stood back up, he took a couple of steps and fell over sideways, then he just laid down on the basement floor.

I didn't know what ahd happened...did he have a stroke, a heart attack, a seizure??? He laid there for a while on his side. We were petting him and so forth. He started to settle down...his breathing and heart rate started to slow and then he tried to sit up, but couldn't quite so he was half sitting and half lying.

After what seemed like eternity, but was probably 3 minutes , he stood up. He wasn't limping or anything. He was able to walk back up the stairs...a little stiffly, but he did it.

My nephew is a vet, so we called him and he came over and checked him out. Thought he was fine, other than that he'd be sore. Listened to his heart, checked for broken bones, broken ribs, signs of internal bleeding. He thinks that the dog "knocked the wind" out of himself, which is why he sort of fell over once he got his feet on the ground.

Of course he told us to keep an eye on him...make sure he ate, drank, peed, pooped...as normal, and if anything seemed abnormal to get him to the ER vet clinic immediately. He also spoke of some medicine we could give the dog if he seemed in pain. Quite frankly, I was wishing their was some medicine they could give the dog owner!!!!!!!!!

He slept OK last night. Made it down the stairs this morning safely, albeit slowly, and with me and DH completely surrounding him in the event that he stumbled or anything. He seems a little stiff and sore today...not unexpected and I have been giving him buffered aspirin with food(which is what my vet told me to do for his arthritis pain) which seems to help. Otherwise, thank God he seems fine.

The good news is that I don't need a stress test now.

 

[tevagirl]

Geez Louise! Glad he's okay. I think it may be best to monitor his televison viewing for a while. No more Super Dog for him. It's giving him ideas.

 

[doxdogy]

Glad he is okay.

 

[solferino]

Oh, I'm so glad he's ok. You're lucky to have a vet in the family, too. Ted must have h ad a moment where her thought he was a puppy again

 

[Oreo Cookie]

Geese Louise, I'm glad that Ted is okay. What a scary thing to go through. Dogs are very resilient, and I'm happy to hear he's just a little sore from the experience, and no broken bones.

 

[mickeysgal]

The good news is that I don't need a stress test now.

I'll bet you don't!

The two dogs must be having a great time while you're gone. He was sure in a rush to get down there.

Bet he won't do that again!

 

[Disney Doll]

Right now he's sleeping leaning up against the wall.

There's a smidge of grunting and groaning when he gets up, but, as I said, he's a bit arthritic in the first place, so he may just be a bit more uncomfortable today.

I'm telling you, between swallowing the parking token last month and this, the darn dog is going to be the death of me!

 

[juligrl]

I'm glad your "pup" is alright. I'm glad you're alright too.

When I read your title it made me think of the flight my "super dog" did once when she was a puppy...

We have a cottage situated on a nice hillside. We always keep the dogs tied to one of the porch posts while we're loading and unloading the cars - too many good smells to trust them to not wander off.

One side of the porch is even with the upper sidewalk. Another side there's a step down (the path we take to get to the cars and where the dogs usually hang out while we're at the cars) and the stairs go downhill on a slope probably about 5ft. in hight difference from where they start. The other side of the porch is a straight out drop of about 7 feet. The porch of course has railings up to keep people and kids from going over the edge - Jack Russell Terriers, not so much!

I headed down to the car to bring some stuff up and Pebbles was tied outside sniffing around. She was fine until she noticed I was gone. Like a rocket off she took, through the slats and over the 7 foot drop-off!:

Fortunately, we give the dogs a lot of slack when they're tied. The rope she was on was literally a rope and about 30ft. long at that. Still - yikes! To this day, Pebbles gets to stay inside when I am running down to the car.

 

[hiwaygal]

OMG! I'm glad your dog is okay! I wondered if there was a slight concussion or something...but he sounds like he's doing okay for now (even with some aches and pains).

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

Maybe he was trying to keep up with the other one? I'm glad he's ok. They are as bad as kids, darn furbabies

 

[btass]

I am glad your dog is ok, I know exactly where you are coming from. My dog went out on my deck once, hit a patch of ice and flew off the deck ~ one story down to pavement! He scared the heck out of me but he was fine after a couple of days of being sore.

 

[Disney Doll]

OMG! I'm glad your dog is okay! I wondered if there was a slight concussion or something...but he sounds like he's doing okay for now (even with some aches and pains).

I don't think he hit his head. It really was like he was flying....he sort of landed feet/chest first. I think he was just really stunned, shocked, winded.

So was I!