\”He\’s been limping on one hind leg, you know,\” she told me. \”It\’s been going on for a couple of days – he won\’t use the steps, and I even found a wee out on the verandah here this morning- he\’s normally such a clean dog, so it must be hurting him. Of course his left elbow is always awful, seeing as he has OCD in it, and it wasn\’t operable – so its all swollen and lumpy and arthritic, but he\’s never limped on a hind leg before.\”
\”I\’ll just have a good feel and test of his back legs then – do you know which one he\’s been limping on?\” I asked.
She sat and thought hard for a minute before replying… \”You know, I can\’t be sure which one it is!\”
I sat down with him, a friendly border collie type, and gently palpated from his feet up, checking each pad, then the small bones in the foot, before feeling all the way up to his hip. I flexed and extended each joint in turn, but nothing seemed to hurt. I also checked the other leg, but again, he seemed quite comfortable everywhere I checked. I checked his back, and he was fine there, too, no pain.
\”He\’s not showing me anywhere that hurts at all, today,\” I explained.
\”Well, that\’s a bit of a mystery then, isn\’t it?\” She replied.
\”It could be that he had jinked his back, and it has come good, perhaps?\”
\”Maybe, maybe. Though, you know, there is one other thing I wanted to ask you about while you were here. He\’s recently gotten really bad with the thunderstorms we\’ve been having – you know that one we had about a week ago, that rolled in around two o\’clock in the morning, and rumbled and crashed away until about six?\”
\”Oh yes,\” I replied. \”We got hardly any sleep that night. It was a cracker of a storm!\”
\”Yes, it was,\” she said. \”He was a mess, panting, shaking, heart pounding out of his chest – I sat up with him all through it. He seems to be getting worse with every storm, too. I\’m really worried about him.\”
\”They often get worse as they get older,\” I explained. \”I do have something in the van that may help him though. It\’s called a \”thundershirt\” – it\’s a special dog coat that wraps on very tightly – the deep pressure helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and can soothe and calm them. It doesn\’t work with all dogs, but it certainly helped my whippet quite a bit. Would you like to give one a try?\”
\”I would, anything that could help him would be great,\” She said, with a gentle smile.
I went and got the thundershirt, unpacked it, and showed her how to put it on. The dog looked a bit surprised at this strange thing being wrapped around him. I left them to it – and only a couple of nights later, a huge storm rolled over us at sunset, with lashings of rain, and very impressive thunder rattling around the hills. I got a facebook message the next day to tell me that he was so much more relaxed with his thundershirt on!