Stefanie's Alf 3/7 conservative- Bulldog/Hound mix GRAD 5/2

[Original subject line:I need advice to cope with my pups injury!  ]  

Hello all! My name is Stefanie and I’m basically here for emotional
and moral support. My best friend in the whole wide world is my pup Alf. Alf will be 8 in August and still acts like a puppy. According to wisdom panel, he is 50% American Bulldog 12.5% springer spaniel 12.5% golden retriever and 30% hound mix. He weighs a whopping 95 lbs and looks just like a ridgeback.

His weight is the reason for the start of this horrific journey. He got an A+ at his yearly checkup and I even had blood work done just to be sure. The only thing the vet said is that he needed to lose weight. He put on 11 pounds in 2 months during the winter. He is extremely hyper and spunky and loves to do fast laps around our big back yard, and of course he gets the occasional zoomies. So I decided to have him start exercising and we went out to play fetch on March 7th. I threw the ball up and he went to jump up and catch it, and he landed the wrong way. At first he was fine, then when we went to walk up the stairs to get into the house, he stopped dead in his tracks, and starting yelling and crying. I helped him up the stairs where he continued to whine and Yelp with almost every move he made. He was not limping so I was unsure of what he hurt at first. After seeing him try to get up on the couch to “his spot”, and let out a loud cry, we decided to rush him to the emergency room at Tufts. Without a shred of doubt, this was by far the most horrifying moment of my entire life. with him weighing so much, my boyfriend and I had trouble trying to get him into our truck. He could barely walk and was just screaming and crying. We called the emergency room ahead of time and they met us outside with a stretcher. After a few agonizing hours of waiting, the vet pulled us into a room and told us that he is 99% sure that Alf slipped a disc in his back and that he was in a lot of pain. They gave him an IV and pain meds and anti-inflammatories and we’re trying to keep him comfortable. Basically he was put on strict crate rest for a minimum of two weeks.

Luckily he did not have any neurological deficits, just severe pain in the spot of his injury on his spine. He sleeps in bed with us and our bedroom is upstairs, and since he could barely walk, I got a blowup mattress and slept on the living room floor with him. The first night was terrifying, he was laying there just panting and crying so to me the pain meds didn’t seem like they were doing too much. So I called his vet in the morning and she added a pain med to his regiment.

Tufts prescribed carprofen and gabapenton. When his vet added amantadine the following morning, he was able to go outside and potty without having to lay down 5 times on the way. So after just a few days he started getting back to his old self. But we were still strict and limiting his activity. At his follow up 2 weeks later, his vet said that he we’re still having some discomfort in the area that he injured. So she restricted him to another two weeks of limited activity.

Here we are 4 months later, and I have yet to be able to emotionally get over that day.

it’s like I’m keeping him in a bubble now. Every little noise he makes, my stomach sinks at the thought that he had just hurt himself again. I tried to take him for a walk a few weeks ago, less than a half mile, when we got home he seemed a little wobbly in his hind legs. So I of course flipped out and called the vet and she prescribe gabapenton and carprofen again. She said he may have not fully healed yet. So we fast forward to

last week, we had a small graduation get together and he came outside to go potty and got the zoomie’s because he was excited to see everybody, he ended up coming into the house and started limping because while he was running he hurt his front paw. It was fine in a couple hours, but there I was sitting on the floor with him freaking out. I have went to the extent of buying a ramp for him to get in and out of my jeep, because going for car rides is his favorite thing in the whole world, and also buying a lifter in case anything like this would happen again so we can get him into the car easier. So basically I am here to seek advice on how to get over the trauma of that day and to stop keeping my dog in a bubble 24/7. My boyfriend is a very loving and patient man, but he actually yelled at me for how nuts i’m being about the dog lately, he says it’s getting out of control, and he is right. What can I do to stop worrying so much every second of every day that he is going to hurt himself again? I can never see him in the pain he was in that day ever again, I don’t even know how I survived that day. Any advice you can give to this psycho dog mom would be greatly appreciated! I just want to enjoy my dog for they are not here long with us, and I don’t wanna have to live my life worrying about him constantly. Thank you again!