Poor, Poor Parm

Thursday morning, Parm jumped off the bed. This normally wouldn’t make the news, but this time he apparently landed wrong and hurt his leg. He was limping just a bit, and when I checked his leg, I couldn’t find anything obviously wrong. Friday evening was the next time I saw him (he’s a hider, so I don’t see him every day) and he was limping pretty badly. Saturday morning, he was still limping, so I called the vet and made an appointment for Monday afternoon. Monday, his limp was on and off, so we went on to the vet. The exam showed that his right front elbow is swollen and painful to manipulate. The vet said that he was probably hyper-extended when he landed, and that’s what caused the injury. Keeping him quiet is the best option at this point, which isn’t hard to do. The difficulty is keeping him from jumping off of high surfaces (like the bed). Every time he does that, his limp gets worse. When he sleeps on lower surfaces, his limp gets better. So, we’ll just wait and see. If its still a problem in a couple of weeks, we’ll go back for a follow-up. On the upside, Lardbutt managed to lose some weight – he is now a petite 18.5 pounds...