Update on Mateo

Well, Mateo doesn't have hip dysplasia. Not yet anyway. Rather he broke his leg. Not sure exactly how, but the speculation was either he tripped/got tangled in the lamp cord or the lamp fell on him. He got X-rays at the vet and there's a crack right above his growth plate on his femur. Since the bones did not seem to have pulled apart, the vet splinted the leg and hopefully it'll be able to heal up without surgery. Surgery would end up involving screws and stuff costing over $1000 at the least. Mateo though has been doing well so far. He seemed pretty depressed and down the first couple of days. Not having much of an appetite and not really moving around much. My mom suggested giving him buttermilk to help supplement calcium and protein to assist with the healing, and had I been thinking about it I would have said that dogs were lactose intolerant, but alas I did not. So Mateo and Vasco were both suffering from diarrhea for about a week. Even still now, they have pretty loose stools. It's gotta be hard for Mateo. But he seems much more perky now. Already he'll hobble around and even sometimes attempt to jog some if we're not watching. He's eating much better though still not up to his usual amount and plays with the other dogs. We have to be careful though because Vasco will try to sometimes jump on him and they can get a bit rough when they play. Mateo's supposed to try to no move around too much and get as much rest as possible to help the leg heal up. The vet said it should be good in about 2-3 weeks since he's still just a puppy and they apparently heal really fast. His last check up on the Monday following the incident showed no indication of any swelling, so we have another appointment scheduled for this upcoming Monday. I guess we'll see how things have progressed. My mom's bought beef liver for Mateo to supplement his food because liver's really good for this kind of thing. Hard to explain in English sometimes surprisingly the ideas that I originally learned in Chinese as a kid. We've tried to keep his leg in a plastic bag for several reasons: 1) the splint has to remain dry otherwise it'll have to be replaced and that will cost another $45 on top of the $190 I already spent on his vet bill, 2) it helps keep the splint clean esp when he goes outside, and 3) he first one or two days after his injury he would have accidents when he was either laying down on the bed or the couch and it would be a total mess. We had to clean him, the furniture, etc. The bag protects the splint in the event of an accident helping with reason number 1.