Onyx

Last week my in-laws brought in their dog for x-rays. Onyx decided to hop in the car with them so I had her stay also because I wanted her to be x-rayed to look for possible metal in her abdomen. She had been acting tender in the abdominal area when we wiped her down from being out in the rain and with her insane eating habits I wanted to rule out a potential problem. Well x-ray showed no sign of metal which was good, however it did show up with something very unexpected.... osteosrthritis in her back. The pointy parts on the vertebrae on the x-ray are bone spurs! She is only 3 1/2 years old! She is way to young for this problem. But it was most likely caused by her craziness with ball playing, stick throwing, and any other item she can find to play with. So we now have to be very careful with her and not let her do any crazy moves. Worst case scenario she blows a disk and becomes paralyzed.

We are pretty bummed with this unexpected news. Of course Cole doesn't understand so we have to keep telling him Onyx has an owie and point to her back.

How do you explain to a dog that we can no longer play her favorite game because it could potentially cause a fatal injury? I think she knows something is up because she can't get anyone to throw her toys.