Injection day at last!

Had my spinal injection today and I DO feel a bit better at this point even though the doctor said it would take 24 hours to take effect, so that's a good sign.  My right leg still hurts, though.   Looks like the injection may not have affected that.  Of course, the doctor also said today that, given what I told him about what hurts, he thought I should see a spinal specialist.  It sounded like HE thought the problem was not just a result of those couple disks.  I probably will see the other specialist.  He was pretty insistant today.  Told me that's what he would do if it were someone in his family.  And I guess it IS better to figure out exactly what's wrong now while I'm still working than to wait until we've both retired and we have to pay more to have things done.

And then there's Joey.

Joey, Joey, Joey. 

Sigh.

I pulled down a jacket the other day and the plastic hanger it was on cracked, so I laid the hanger on the chair in the bedroom since it wouldn't fit in the trash can.  Well, when I got up this morning, there were all kinds of black chips all over the floor.  Sweeping them up, I saw that they USED to be that hanger.  But most of it was gone!  So Joey apparently chewed the thing up into pieces smaller than an inch and ATE most of them!!  Sure hope those pieces manage to go through him and don't make a hole in his stomach or intestines!!  Good grief!  You know, maybe I ought to see if any of the people over there at the Vet School would like to adopt him.  They might -- every time I walk through the place everyone we pass  goes "Hey Joey!" even if I've never seen them before in my life!  Maybe one of them could keep him well -- and afford to do something about it when he's not.  I'm not at all sure I'm going to be able to if he keeps this up!!

I'm thinking maybe I'll give him some of that psyllium stuff I got for the horses that clear out their intestines when they eat sand and things, but I'm not sure it's okay for a dog.  I'll ask Ann, our horse vet, tomorrow when she comes out to check Lizzie out.  After Lizzie was ridden Saturday she started panting and was hanging her head and felt VERY hot.  We hosed her down with cool water for a few minutes and gave her some pain meds and she calmed back down, but before she's ridden again, I want the vet to check her out.  It's time for all the horses to get their yearly vaccinations and Coggins anyway, so . . .

Last time Ann was here, she said Duke might be kicking at his tummy because he's nervous or bored or something rather than actually having any physical problem.   And someone I know from the blog said she had a horse who ate absolutely everything like Duke has been doing because he was bored so she gave him a horse ball to play with.  So I got Duke one to see if it helps with both things.  I think it's going to take him a while to figure out how to play with it though -- IF he doesn't destroy it before he learns to play with it.

When I first threw it out into his paddock, he moved away as if he might be afraid of it.

Took him about 2 minutes, though, for his curiosity to overcome his caution.  ;-D

And maybe another minute or two for his "let's see how it tastes" habit to take over!

Hmmm.  Wonder if he will figure out that he can carry the thing around easily with that handle on there?     Time will tell. 

But at least those horse balls are sturdy and not inflated so he won't be able to deflate it anyway.   (He's giving it his best shot, though!)