Rally Update.

I mentioned in a previous post I'd update Rally's progress. I can't recall if I posted about her original injury, but for the record, it was late February, and we were out in a small field near Roswell. I just had Rally, and David Hise had a new Saluki x Greyhound he was trying out. Rally was out of position when the hare jumped, but soon caught up with the Saluki. They turned the hare hard left..

...and within another 2-3 strides Rally pulled up. And slowly came back to me on three legs. Within a few minutes, the area below the hock swelled significantly...


We were going to be in Texas within a week, and I planned on getting X-Rays done by a country vet we'd gone to previously, in Santa Anna. So I just iced the area several times a day, and alternated Bigel Oil wraps, with DMSO/Dexamethasone treatment. It took a long time- almost 10 days- for the swelling to abate.

The good news is that the X-Rays showed no fractures. We sent them off to Dr. Radcliffe in West Virginia to be sure we weren't missing anything. Unfortunately, Dr. Jim was unable to see the X-Rays when they arrived. He couldn't see anything when they arrived, and it would be more than a month before he could see anything... but that's another story.

Without a fracture, I decided we could wait on treatment until we could go to WV in person. That would be after the Deerhound Specialty in late April, or two months hence.

So wait we did. Dr. Radcliffe diagnosed a torn.. ("shredded" was his exact word).. plantar ligament. Too short to repair, so it was replaced, with a length of stainless steel wire.


The Doctor said they've got dogs running at Wheeling Downs with this repair, so she should be as good as new in 4-6 weeks. You know, that calcaneous bone is a handy attachment point; I'm thinking of having mudflaps installed when we go back for Rally's follow up! I'm tired of getting dirt-spattered on starts.