No Answer But Bad News

I ended up taking Vegas to the vet this evening. The vet couldn't feel anything off in the exam with us but asked me to leave her for an orthopedic exam. In manipulating her joint, she was able to hear crepitus so suggested doing an x-ray. When we came back and talked with the vet, she informed me they weren't able to get a good x-ray. Their goal had been to get one from the top with her other forelimb alongside for comparison. They also wanted a view from the side. Unfortunately Vegas can be stubborn and resistant and while she was good, her resistance didn't let them get the perfect views they wanted. So, basically all she could say was it looked like based upon what she was able to tell that there was some air around a bone on the right that wasn't on the left. I've found a picture online to show the area we're referring to.

It appears that the air she thinks she was seeing is around the carpal bone. The thing is, Vegas' feet weren't identically positioned so she isn't 100% certain, although I could see what she was seeing on the x-ray. I'm going to see if they'll email it to me (it's digital) and I can post it. You can also see a red thing I put up on the side of the bone higher up. She saw something like that, too, although because it was right by where the x-ray was cut off, there was no way to tell what it is.

At this point, the vet gave us two options. 1) Come back tomorrow for sedation and more x-rays; or 2) Rest her and use Rimadyl.

At this point and based upon my confidence in the vet tonight plus the cost for their quote tomorrow, here is Vegas' home while I decide what to do:

I'm going to make some phone calls tomorrow to vets that I know better and see what they think. I'm not satisfied with the non-answer they gave me and was really disappointed the vet seemed afraid of Vegas.

After talking with my son though, we may have determined that, if this is a soft tissue injury, she may have done it by running up the stairs. There are times she gets so gung-ho running up the stairs that a paw might fold under her on a stair tread. He said she did that this week and that would fit this limping and possible soft tissue injury to a tee. For now, I'm going to probably keep her confined like this, downstairs, with no exercise whatsoever and just potty breaks and meal times out (plus cuddles!) and see how she is by the end of the weekend. I probably won't give her the Rimadyl simply because I don't want it to mask the discomfort she's feeling.

So for now, I'm totally bummed we don't get to compete this weekend and really hoping that we can make it for the Rose City Classic in 2 weeks, but that is coming up really fast and I definitely cannot count on it. It's really not a great start to the new year.