This is one of those entries that is hard to write because I do not really have a lot of information to pass along yet. When I came home last night Professor Jiggs greeted me and then hobbled outside on three legs. The hobbling was new. I sat down with him in the back yard and looked at his leg. He had licked two bare patches on his ankle and knee -- a classic nerve impingement pattern. I massaged his leg. He liked that.
After dinner he insisted on going for a walk. I thought a little exercise would be a good idea -- perhaps he could work out some of the pain. That was a bad idea. I tried to get him to take a quarter-block walk through the alley. When I tugged on his leash to get him to turn down the alley, he yanked the leash out of my hand and went tottering down his usual path doing his best Abe Simpson impression. Where he learned that type of willfulness, I will never know.
I took him to the vet today -- and fully expected the worst. An x-ray disclosed that Jiggs has a loose fragment on one of his lumbar vertebra. My diagnosis was correct: he is suffering from acute nerve impingement in both legs -- worse on the left. The vet gave him a steroid shot (I did my best to prevent it -- no dog should be banned from a professional baseball career), and the vet told me to observe him for three weeks.
My observations are that he wants to sleep. He has been on his couch all evening. No pestering to go for a walk.
We have probably passed through this crisis, but I think the paw prints are clear on the wall: Jiggs will not be coming to Mexico.
Our pets teach us many lessons: dealing realistically with the woes of aging is one. I trust that I shall learn well from my best friend.
