How I spent Saturday Morning

I woke up at 9am to make sure Cody had a run in before I had to meet my trainer at 10. If he doesn't get enough sleep, he's usually pretty lazy and I have to really convince him to get out of bed. While I was calling him to take him morning potty break, I saw him slink out of the bedroom door and just lie there. Him being him, I naturally assumed he was just being bratty and disobedient. When I tried to coax him to stand, he turned over on his back instead. I was finally able to convince him to get up and that's when I noticed that he was limping. The weird thing is, he was completely fine yesterday night before we went to bed.

This is when I decided he had a leg cramp. I didn't think that dogs would have leg cramps. Usually, I get it because I didn't consume my share of potassium. I would think that since I give him good dog food, he would have all his essential vitamins and minerals covered. Then again, he did have diarrhea for a week so he could have not absorbed what he needed to absorb. Anyways, instead of running, I ended up spending that 45 minutes massaging his leg. The problem with massaging a dog is that you don't get immediate feedback. I'm still not entirely sure exactly where the cramp was (since he never yelped ), but it's possible it was the groin area of his back left leg since he would turn his head when I was massaging that area.

All in all, I think the massage worked. By the time I left, he was only limping slightly. When I got home, he was jumping up and down on his hind legs so he must have healed. Anyways, it was a big learning for me as I never thought dogs could actually get leg cramps. Now I wonder if Cody is ever sore from long runs like I am sometimes.

(Sorry I haven't been writing much. Lots of work to catch up on, and since Cody had diarrhea for a week and only recently got better, we're both trying to catch up on sleep as well)