Bingley The Patient

Remember when you went away to summer camp and came home with a broken arm, poison ivy, or the world's worst sunburn? For Bingley and Magic, going to Windsong is a lot like human children going to camp. That's really the only place where they can run free in a safe, spacious area. But late in his recent visit to Windsong, Bingley developed a limp--just didn't want to put weight on his front left paw. Because it is almost exactly five years ago since Zephyr developed a limp right after Thanksgiving and it was the first symptom of incurable osteo sarcoma, I was quite concerned. Mike,the proprietor of Windsong, who has seen many canine injuries, thought it looked like a soft tissue injury. I clung to that, all the while re-living our loss of Zephyr. So Saturday, after we unpacked, we took Bingley to the vet. She, too, diagnosed a soft tissue injury, but just to be on the safe side, we had x-rays taken to confirm the diagnosis. The results relieved my worst fears. No osteo sarcoma! However, we are very glad that we had x-rays. They revealed a break in the outside toe of the left front paw. So Bingley is sporting a splint covered by a heavy bandage that goes up halfway to his knee. He's on pain meds and anti-inflammatory meds and is learning a different way to walk. No long morning walks. No walks in the park with Marilyn's pack. We're looking at 6-8 weeks,poor lad. But as Mike says, Bingley is one tough dog, so he is adapting quite stoically.