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The Stoic Ice Queen

The Stoic Ice Queen

December 10, 2013
Posted in: Dogs | Reading Time: 2 minutes

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Well, she's done it again. She zoomied herself into a gnarly injury that won't go away. This time, her shoulders. Over the summer, I  noticed a very subtle "head bob" at the beginning of our walks, but it would vanish within a minute. Each time she over-zoomied, her head bob got worse, but any time we mentioned it to the vet or PT, Juno of course only displayed her lovely perfect husky prance, without a hint of a limp or a bob. Thanks to Juno's stoic super powers, she was able to fend off and stump the evil medical team for two months. Some guessed it was her wrist while others guessed it was her shoulder. Each night we'd massage and ice her tight knotted areas and each day she'd wake up, happy, limp free and prancing about, only to re-injure herself all over with a round of zoomies up and down the new trail, which was not yet fully built.  The last few weeks, we've cut her walks way back to 1-3 miles but it hasn't helped.

And now, the secret is out. Juno can no longer hide her limp in front of the team of doctors and therapists and we are closer to uncovering the root cause. So far her x-rays show good bones and good joints and no inflammation. I have no regrets about dropping a good portion of holiday gift dough on xrays which showed nothing, because it would be just like Juno walking happily around with a hairline fracture and expecting to do her daily 6 miler.  And I'm really relieved that there's no dysplasia in her elbows. Which leads to soft tissue damage. Since it keeps getting worse, at the suggestion of both physical therapist and her vet, tomorrow we're off to visit an orthopedic specialist tomorrow and hope that all it will take is lots of bed rest, short leash walks only and regular physical therapy.

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"I am Juno! Stoic Ice Queen! I melt hearts with my super powers. And my super hero cape cures me of any aches.  Now lets get back to our 6 mile walkies immediately! There are squirrels to chase and mountains to climb!"

Uh oh. Something tells me she's not going to be too happy with her holiday vacation this year. The Dansko's are going under lock and key.

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10 comments on “The Stoic Ice Queen”

  1. Does not sound like it will help, but Queen Natasha the Evil will begin laser treatments next week for her arthritis. Will keep everyone posted on how well it works. And best of luck to Juno that something can be found quickly to make her feel better.

  2. Hello! We have read your blog for a while and are finally figuring out commenting---I hope Juno starts to feel better once you figure out the problem. Acupuncture helped my older husky quite a bit if it makes sense for you to try that.

    Thank you for the adventures and beautiful photographs of your wonderful pups!

    Kiki and Nala
    Our blog…http://dogsandthecity622.blogspot.com/

  3. We actually have a cold laser machine at home for our own soft tissue injuries, and we've used it on the girls when they've 'tweaked' things, and it seems to help. Hopefully it is nothing serious and Miss Juno can return to scaring the squirrels!

    Dr. Liz, who is trying to develop a patient questionnaire and whose brain is subsequently melting

  4. I hope that the PT helps... and that Juno is back to her hard running soon. That first photo of her is lovely.

    Our R has had that head bob recently too. He may be getting a surgical "elbow cleanout" soon.

  5. We are sending our get well thoughts to Juno and we love your purple super hero cape. Khumbu says he wants Juno back to full health again so he can read about the criminal doing zoomies and criminal acts 🙂

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