You have seen Cooper featured on my website, in my blog photos and of course, as my logo! But poor little Cooper won’t be “dancing” or jumping, or chasing his beloved ball for awhile. About 3 weeks ago now Cooper had and accident while we were on the beach. He was happily and with a single mindedness chasing his ball as fast as his little legs could carry him up and down the sand. Ripley, our SPCA special, was there as well. Ripley gets mighty curious about the wide world and was off exploring the possible contents of the flax (there might be toast!). Cooper was as ever, charged up and waiting for the next Chuck-It toss. So charged up in fact, that he launched him self off the two foot drop from the grass to the sand, he hit hard but kept running, so I through the ball. He spun, snatched the ball out of the air, and… sat down.

So a very similar story goes for many dogs playing on the beach it turns out. Somehow the sand is a major catalyst in this sad tail. The way the sand traps the foot, allows the top of the leg to extend past the knee (it should really stop at the knee) and rupture the crutiate ligament, the main ligament the stabilizes and hold the joint together. Yes, ouch.

Although Cooper didn’t say ouch, he didn’t even flinch. He was sitting and nudging the ball towards me as if to say “ Come on, I’m fine! throw the damn ball already!”, but poor Cooper couldn’t stand up. It was a real Monty Python moment (its just a flesh wound!) and he was game for some more chasing. Needless to say that is not how the day turned out.

I called my vet there and then on the beach. Made an appointment for an hour later and I was soon getting the news that the most likely cause of his lameness was a crutiate rupture.

It has been a long three weeks, and there will be another 5 weeks of crate rest for Mr. Cooper. You can see from the picture, taken 5 days after the surgery, that he is not at all happy with the situation.

I know after any accident, that you will always blame yourself, whether it was avoidable or not (it always feels avoidable after the fact) but I really wish I had know about this “sand” issue before. I would have made a rule not to throw the ball unless we were on hard packed sand. Another interesting thing to note is that this injury is frequently seen in herding dogs with high “drive”. Drive is the term used for dogs that work with a single minded focus. It is great when you need a really reliable herder. Not so great when he isn’t paying attention to anything but sheep (or a ball in Cooper’s case) and ends up hitting a fence or twisting in just the right way to rupture the crutiate.

The good news is that the prognosis is good, he should be able to walk again in a few weeks and eventually chase a ball in a few months, but maybe not on the beach anymore.