Despite Balboa living among the mighty large Pyen Chi, he's been super good at dodging near-death daily collisions with her stomping large feet and her sudden-drop-to-the-floor tendencies. Everyday I'm sure he must pray to God to save him from her overbearing size but he's fast on his feet and super alter so he's been good at saving himself. Only once did I ever encounter him failing to dodge the wrath of Pyen Chi. She had jumped up on me and then when she came down and landed, she landed right on Balboa's foot. Oh boy did he squeal. He squealed like a wild bore, like a pig being dragged out to the slaughter house. On that particular day he limped around and with every limp he showed I reacted. I ended up carrying him around with me that day and he quite liked that. It's been a couple of weeks later now and he still randomly limps. I don't reaction as much anymore, nor do I always insist on carrying him when he does this because it happens so rarely. It's a weird thing that he does when it does happens. Usually he'll be running at full speed when suddenly he curls up one of his back feet. For awhile there we thought he was just doing it to avoid the melting snow and ice. He hates getting his feet wet. He hates it with a passion actually, so we thought he was just showing so-called "prince manner".
We decided to take all 3 four-legged friends to the vet today. All three needed a vaccination. Pyen Chi is in heat so she needed an extra check-up, Pac has what I thought was a growth (turns out he's just got an outtie belly button), and Balboa needed to get his nails cut and leg looked at.
As it turns out, we caught the early signs of what appears to be patellar luxation, a fancy way of saying that the dog's knee joint slips out of place and rubs against the leg bone instead. It's basically a slipping kneecap. He's got it in both legs, so he's bull-legged and limps occasionally. The vet reassured me that Balboa isn't in pain, it's in the early stages, but that it's more of an uncomfortable feeling because when it happens it means he can't straighten his leg, hence the limp.
If untreated, over time Balbao won't be able to walk, or stand up for that matter. His legs will basically stay in a crouching position. It was hard to hear this news and I felt quite sick to my stomach but I was relieved to hear that it's not painful for him right now and that it can be treated.
The cure is surgery, a surgery that wears a $1,300 price tag, ouch. Balboa goes in for surgery next week.
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