Bad Medicine

Archie and Boo decided to take their wrestling to new heights, literally. Usually their matches occur in the dog bed. Archie will be sleeping, Boo steps in waking the slumbering puppy, they play, wrestle, bite and chew each other. Then when the match is over, being true comrades, they snuggle down and sleep together.

This particular match happened when they were outside. Boo was sitting on the front porch when Archie approached him. Like two magnets that attract, they start wrestling. Either they have no concept of gravity or the game was King of the Hill, which in this case, was in Boos favor. With a little bite here and a take down there, Archie fell over and landed on his bum, "Ouch" that hurts. Pretending to be tough athlete, he picks himself up and shakes it off. But ever since the fall, his tail hangs low and curves between his legs. It's tender to the touch but other than that he is still the bouncy, playful little puppy who continues to engage the cat for a rematch

It was the husband and I that seemed more concerned for the tail than the puppy, so I decided to take him in and have a vet give us his professional opinion. Our regular vet was on vacation so Archie was seen by some one I was not familiar with. I hate it when you can't see your regular doctor. Anyway, she said if it is broken there is nothing that can be done and it will just have to heal on their own. She did prescribe an anti inflammatory called Rimadyl, " Give it to him twice daily and that should help with any swelling." " OK doc,
thanks." After another set of shots, a worming and having his toenails clipped, we left.

All is well, I felt better that the vet examined him and he'll be good as new in no time.......wrong. He seemed to be getting worse. He was lethargic, off balance and every time we held him, he yelped as if his stomach was in pain. So what's the deal, take the pet to see a professional and pay lots of money only to find out that now he is feeling worse, than when you brought him in? My husband suggested, perhaps it was the medicine that was making him feel bad so I checked on line to see what the side effects are for Rimadyl, and sure enough that's exactly what he was experiencing. Our poor little puppy was so out of it for two days, crying and yelping because we were basically poisoning his little body with a medicine he shouldn't have had. Ironically, he feels much better now that we took him off of what was supposed to make him feel better in the first place. In this case, the doctor doesn't always know whats best.