Since neither me or my sister enjoy celebrating Christmas the traditional way, we decided to go to South Florida and go shopping over the Christmas weekend. We chose a campground that is 5 miles from the Sawgrass Mills Mall, Markham Park. Within the park there is an off leash dog park. The plan was to let the dogs play in the park for a few hours in the morning and then put them in their crates in the trailer while we went to the mall. We arrived in Sunrise around 4 o'clock on Christmas day. As usual, our first order of business after setting up was to take the dogs for a walk. We had been walking for about 45 minutes when Cupid tripped my sister and made her step on her leg. Cupid let out a scream that seemed to last forever. I'm sure the entire park heard her. Since Cupid has been stepped on many times and has over reacted many times, I wasn't sure if she was really hurt or not. I carried her back to the trailer and watched her closely for the rest of the night. In the morning, she seemed to be feeling better and was slowly starting to put weight on her leg. We took all the dogs to the dog park and they all did very well. Jasmine and Xena even briefly played with some of the other dogs. After an hour or so, we put the dogs in the trailer and headed off to the mall. We left the mall in the middle of the day and checked on them. They all seemed to be doing well and they were not making any noise when we pulled up. We went back to the mall and shopped for a few more hours then had dinner at the mall then went back to the trailer. The next morning, Cupid was still limping so I left her in the trailer while the rest of us went back to the dog park. Xena and Stevie were the same as the day before but Jasmine seemed to be much less nervous and played more with the other dogs. We left the park and crated the dogs and headed off to the mall again. Since they had done so well the day before, this time we did not check on them in the middle of the day. We finally made our way around the entire mall at about 4 o'clock. When we got back to the trailer, Cupid jumped out of her crate instead of waiting for me to take her out. She cried when she hit the floor and started limping much worse. Within the next few hours, her leg started to swell and she was crying every time she moved. It quickly became obvious that she was going to need to go to the emergency vet. The ride to the vet was extremely stressful as she was screaming out in pain every few minutes. The vet gave her a shot to sedate her and took x-rays and confirmed that her leg was broken. He put a splint on her leg and gave me some pain medication. The splint is only a temporary fix until I can get her to my regular vet. He said she will most likely need some type of pin in order to permanently fix it. She hasn't cried any more since he put the splint on her leg. Except for Cupid getting hurt, we had a great time. This trip was filled with lots of "firsts": first time we traveled this far, first time we left the dogs alone, first time the trailer got rained on, first time we unhitched the Jeep from the trailer, first on-the-road dog emergency, first time we had to wash the trailer when we got back. We probably will not be taking a trip in January but we will be going to Manatee Springs in February. CUPID UPDATE 1/14/09
After doing some research on-line and talking to Cupid's regular vet, I have decided against having a pin put in her leg. She is 11 years old and I do not feel comfortable with putting her through surgery. She had her splint taken off and rewrapped today. The vet says it looks really good and that the bones are already starting to callus.
