X-ray

So on Friday morning I woke up and went down to pick up Rudi. I crated him up the night before as he was not allowed food prior to going to the vets incase they had to sedate him and as I had to leave so early in the morning to get him to the vets I figured he could spend the night in there with a bowl of water, pillow and blanket. (By crate I do not mean a cat carrier, I mean a doberman sized pet crate.) So while rushing to get everything sorted I popped into their room to pick him up and was greeted with an empty crate. I was a bit confused as I stood there looking at it, it was as though Rudi had vanished into thin air.


When I went up to the crate to see where he got out I saw that one of the doors to the crate was just pushed too so instead of being latched so clearly that was where he got out but how?!

I looked under the sofa and there he was curled up with Elspeth, they looked very cosy and I felt mean to disturb them but I needed to get him to the vets but then came the question of how to get him out from under there. He is not tame like Harry who comes running up to me, or Elspeth who knows her name and that if she answers to her name she generally gets something for it hummmm.

So off I went to find my other half. Upon finding him I told him of how Rudi had escaped his crate and was informed that Elspeth had been playing with the latch when he was in there with them a few seconds before coming to bed. It would seem Elspeth let him out and judging by the cuddles under the sofa I think maybe she meant to!

When we went back in the room all three of them were out from under the sofa which was a good start. Now to catch Rudi. I thought maybe food would work as a distraction but no, not today. Elspeth very quickly saw what we were about to do and herded Rudi into the corner and puffed her chest out to make herself look big, she was guarding him! This was so strange for me to see as Elspeth is a sweet heart normally, she never sees me as a threat yet she was acting like I was. Seeing as she is Daddy's little girl I got my other half to try to get her to move and she acted the same way towards him. My other half then sat on the sofa made as much noise eating some pringles as humanly possible and after about 5 seconds she cracked; there was possibly yummy food at stake! Rudi himself was easy to catch. He just sat there and looked at me as I scooped him up into my arms and off the the vets we went.

When we got there we told her of him symptoms again and said that nothing has changed. As I got a bit of a feel of the arm when putting him in the carrier I said it felt dislocated and she asked me to get him out of the carrier. Once out she really wanted to see him walk but Rudi was far to worried by the whole experience to move even an inch. The vet decided to x-ray him so we could see the problem.

One hour later Rudi was very dopey as he had to be sedated and we were looking at his x-ray. He has a dislocated elbow which was never popped back into the socket and thus it healed how it is now. . . I did not know what to feel. I was so happy that we now 100% knew it was not a birth defect as the woman who had him before us was told it was. Though, at the same time I was sort of sad that this was not the case as if it was there would be a reason it was not fixed but, this was neglect. . . Someone could not be bothered or did not see the point in getting this poor little boys leg fixed and due to this Rudi will forever have a limp. In time the vet believes he will have to get it amputated. . . Aren't humans just great? . .

If this had happened to a dog the vet said she would suggest that she operate to make it look better but weather or not it would be batter is a different matter. As Rudi is not as tame as my other two she said that it would be best if he not have it done as that would be a week of surgery that may or may not help him but would 100% stress him out.

So that you all up to date on Rudi; Elspeth seems to have a bit of a 'thing' for him and he cannot have his leg fixed. I will be taking him to a second vet for a second opinion as though the first vet says it causes him not pain I want to be sure.

Here is a video of him in action: