Two weeks ago I took Bruno in to the vet to get vaccinated – it was in his records we got when we adopted him that he was "due" for shots in May, so we did it. They asked us if he goes to dog parks, and he does, so he got a bordatella shot (for kennel cough). Does he run around outside or in the woods near ticks? We plan to take him camping so we got a Lyme shot. Rabies is mandatory. I don’t know if we got asked about distemper or not, but that one was a spray that went up his nose.

He seemed to be fine afterwards, although they warned us he may be sluggish and run a fever for a bit – ok, I figured, people do that sometimes after they get a shot. No problem. He developed a lump on the site of one of the shots, but it’s almost down to normal now, seems ok. The only thing left was to come back in two weeks for a "booster" of his Lyme disease shot, so I took him in yesterday morning.

The shot was fine, he didn’t flinch at all, we were in and out of the vet’s office in minutes. That afternoon I took him for his walk and he was pulling and excited about all the people and dogs — pretty normal. Then, late that night after the very exciting overtime finish of game 5 of the Stanley Cup, he trotted over to see what all the excitement was about and I was happily scratching his ears when he gave a little whimper of pain! Karen I were immediately concerned, but he seemed ok, so I kept petting him – then when scratching his back he did it again, just a little cry. It was really creepy – if you know Bruno you know he’s a big boy, and if you’ve ever seen his sometimes less-than-agile maneuvers on and off the deck you know he can smack himself pretty good without crying.

Still, nothing specific seemed wrong – he was just really dragging and seemed sore, favoring his back legs, and could barely come down the stairs. We guessed it was from the shot, but weren’t sure what might be going on. We gave him some water and soft petting and hoped he would sleep it off.

Still definitely sore and very slow in the morning. Karen called the vet and they said it’s probably ok but we should watch for swelling in his face / neck, trouble breathing, vomiting, or lack of appetite. He ate breakfast just fine, but it’s just so hard to watch him struggle up and down the stairs – if he’s still sore I’m feeding him in the kitchen so he doesn’t have to do that again.

So now I’m at work mildly freaking out after reading some articles about Lyme disease and vaccinations, and actually really pissed – both at myself for not researching it before we took him to the vet, and at the vet for not being more clear about what the risks are. I think from now on we’ll just stick with his Frontline tick repellent and maybe find some environmentally friendly solution for the back yard – and obviously check him for ticks whenever we go hiking. Wah. All I want to do is go home to check on him.

Feel better soon, little mumbler. Your mommy and daddy can’t stand to see you hurting…

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.