Ciárna - Rushed Off To The Vet's on Tuesday Evening!

Hello everyone. I am just new here and it was only a few days ago that I started a thread in the Introdution Forum. My name is Norma and I am a mum to a Labrador, called Ciárna.
First of all, I am so sorry to the Moderators if this thread is in the wronf forum. I don't know whether this thread is in the right forum, or not. I was in a forum but read a lot of notices first, so I quickly left because I don't think I was in the right place. Please forgive me, I am only new here.
I was looking forward to post more since my Introduction post but these last few days have been hectic and early in the evening I have been so tired.
So, now I have the chance to update you all about little Ciárna and tell you all about her adventures.......

On Tuesday afternoon I decided to treat Ciárna to a little walk, to a park which is only 15 minutes away from where I live. I took her to a park and at the park is a large tennis court. Once I got there I let her of the lead to run around for a few minutes and then we played ball. I'd throw and she'd run after it. I played with her for no more than 20 minutes. After 20 minutes I decided she had enough and left to go home. I was out of the grounds less than 5 minutes until she stopped. I just put it down to her being tired. I kept pulling and pulling her. It took me well over an hour to get her home. I forgot top take my mobile phone otherwise I could've called for a taxi but silly me walked out of the house and forgot the phone!
Eventually I got her home and as soon as she came into the house she fell in a heap. Again, I just put this down to her being tired.
So, I started to work on the front gate at the front of my house. I was in my rags.......scraping away at the gate to get most of the rust removed and scaped, preparing it for painting. I was doing this for about an hour and a half.

William, my friend came home from work and as soon as William came in Ciárna started to limp. She could hardly walk. We tried to look at her paws and whilst doing so Ciárna nearly took the hand off me. She was in a terrible lot of pain.
All I could think of was that I took too much out of the dog and that her hips were sore. Ciárna had a T.P.L.O operation last year in March, on the left hip. On the 27th of September last year, Ciárna had a Hip-Replacement on her right hip. So, when she started to limp I felt ever so guilty because I thought I took too much out of her. I had visions of Ciárna being kept in, or something. I was thinking all sorts and of course, I was thinking of the worst. When William was at the Vet's I was shaking with worry and was panicking.

When she was away...it seemed like ages. Then, I heard her barks. I quickly ran out the back and there was William driving up the back way with Ciárna!!! I was so relieved. When William the car door he said, she is fine, everything is okay, she is fine.....nothing is wrong with her hips.

Her paws are all sore, all skinned and red raw from the rough taramac at the tennis court. This was the reason why she kept stopping on the walk home. Dear help her, I feel terrible. I feel so guilty. And at times like this, this is when I wish dogs could talk, so they can tell you whats wrong.

I didn't go with William to the Vet's because I was in my painting clothes and there was no time. William was ready, there and then, where as I wouldn't and I would've been wasting time to get changed and locking up the house.

We go to fantastic Vet's that knows Ciárna very well and knows her history.
Last year Ciárna was on death's bed as she swallowed stones, two stones on the first week in July. She was hooked up to a drip and kept at the Vet's for a week. She survived thank God but it was touch and go. Exactly two weeks later she did the exact same thing again!!!!!! swallowed stones and a piece of metal from a clothes peg!. She was kept in for another full week and hooked up to a drip again.

She had her spay operation in March and after she had her spay, she took an allergic reaction towards the operation. In March, it was her 5th operation and she is not even two yet!!!!! She is still a baby. She will be 2 on the 1st of September.

So, for her paws, she is on pain medication and must stay off her paws as much as she can, for about four to five days.

I'm so very sorry for the long post but I am glad to be able to tell you that it is nothing serious, thank God!!!
I will post pictures of Ciárna later. They are ones that I took of her at the park playing ball.

Hi Norma Ciárna does sound accident prone. I am pleased to hear the problem on this occasion was nothing more serious than skinned paws (though that must be very painful).

So glad she is OK!

If she is still eating stones etc, then one option is to muzzle her when you take her out for walks etc. My cousin is having to do this with her Labradoodle, as she too eats anything and everything!

Hi - glad to hear she is alright. Just be wary in this hot weather - pavements get hot during the day, we dont notice it because we wear shoes.

She certainlh has had her share of the vets. Who did her hip replacement, was it the vet in Newry?

Ahh sorry to hear this. Glad it was nothing too serious though.

Unfortunately the surfaces of a lot of tennis courts are extremely abrasive. I let a client's dog off on the tennis courts for off-leash exercise once and the same happened to him. He was a GSD and only really had a scamper around for a few minutes, no ball-chasing. I noticed his bloody paws and had to abort his walk and take him home early as he was limping.

I felt awful but thankfully my client was very understanding and her dog recovered quickly.

I hope Ciarna feels better soon. x

Poor girl...... hope the paws heal soon xx

ouch, poor girl but these things happen. So glad it was nothing more serious or long term.

What is it with labradors eating everything! A friend had a labrador which kept pawing and scratching at her fence, she then used a chew deterrrent which was recommended by the behaviourist. - But it took a strange liking to the taste of bitter apple and actually consumed part of her fence! She came home to see it licking away the chew deterrent like it was christmas :-S

Hi Minihaha......you are the second person that has said this. She is kinda accident prone I suppose. Poor thing has been through so so much. I forgot to add about an incident that happened just before her hip replacement.
I will write about that later.

Hello Tabitha, I already have a muzzle and she wears it when outside the front and back. The Vet suggested this after her second operation to remove the stone and the piece of metal. When Ciárna was sick, for the second time after swallowing stones she had to have an xray. I was so convinced that the Vet was making this up, LOL! I couldn't believe it that she did this again, especially two weeks later. When I got the phone call to say "yes, Ciárna has swallowed another stone and she is being kept in, she will not be going home today" I dropped the phone to my knees and went numb! I was just stunned. And before I brought her to the Vet's she had just did her numbers two's. So, I was so convinced she didn't swallow anything!! But of course I was wrong! I think, from what I can remember about that phone call was I hung up. I didn't hang up because I was mad with the receptionist. I hung up because I was just totally stunned and shocked. I was thinking that possibly the Vet's are making this up but they weren't. They showed me the x-ray and there was the stone in her belly! I kept saying to myself "two weeks, two weeks, two weeks"!!! It's just so comical!!

When William brought her to the Vet's the other night, Neil said, "don't tell me she has swallowed stones" LOL! Neil even said to William..."I haven't seen you in a while....how are things"...LOL!!!!
I don't ever want to see the Vet's ever again, LOL!! However, with that said, they are fantastic Vet's and I know they do fantastic work as they have done on Ciárna. Ciárna is very well known at Greenmount Vet's in Portadown.

Hi Velvetboxers, it was Ewing & Neil that did the hip replacement here at Greenmount, here in Portadown. Ewing gets referrals from all over Ireland to do Hip-Replacements. And Neil specialises on the heart. It was Ewing & Neil that did Ciárna's spay.
They are fantastic Vet's, no doubt about it. They have saved Ciárna's life!