Hike Turned Injury

Do you remember the last time that O-dog (as J has started calling him lately) and I went on a hike? Well we decided to go back this past Thursday. It was my first day off, now that classes have ended and it was a gorgeous day outside again.

This time though I decided that we'd make it to the top. He's been building up his endurance at the dog park lately, we weren't pressed for time at all and I figured, "why not?"

He loved every minute of it and was running up those hills like a champ. He sported his classic pant with his extra-large tongue and even learned to drink out of my Camel-back.

Once at the top, 1.5 miles of trail and ~1600 feet in elevation, we enjoyed the 360 degree views...

and I even shared my banana (his favorite) with my happy pup.

We spent a good 20 minutes at the top. It was a gorgeous day and definitely a nice place to relax.

We were both pretty tired after our trek down the mountain and I assumed we'd both have some tired and sore muscles. I let him rest for a good bit while I showered and had lunch before I went and volunteered. He limped a little bit when I took him out before I left but I didn't think anything was really wrong. He did hike farther than he'd ever gone and I thought I checked him out pretty good.

Welp, I was wrong....

Turns out my little pup got blisters on the pads of his feet from our hiking adventure. My heart breaks for him.

Just like the blisters we get, there were flaps of skin and lots of tenderness. His limp got worse over the course of the night so with some Googling we decided it was best to start handling the situation. I cleaned his feet in soapy water, wrapped them with gauze and covered them in socks. (Hospital socks so he didn't slip, obviously.)

My poor baby. :-(

Even though everything I read online said that they will heal on their own with time, we decided a trip to the vet the next morning was our best bet. The doc assured us that his feet were by no means the worst that she's seen, told us time heals all, gave us some cleaner, antibiotic gel and some pain meds and set us home with our limping pup.

He is already getting much better, isn't acting so depressed and has even started doing his classic gallop down the hallway. He's not nearly in the clear yet; we're supposed to keep him out of the dirt and at low activity for a week but I'm so happy improvements are being made.

We do put socks on him when we're not home, just to keep him from not licking and even though it's sad he's hurt, I can't help but think how cute he looks in Daddy's dress socks.

Here's to a happy Saturday and a quick recovery!