Poor Jake

As if moving and leaving him for two weeks isn't hard enough... Jake Dog now has a (suspected) broken tail, bum knee, chipped tooth and a scratched eye.

We noticed Jake favoring his leg before our vacation/house hunt but the tail, tooth and eye are all new.

Knee:
Dr Maddux, the vet we took Jake to this Monday, said that knee injuries are very common in large breeds and are mostly caused by their anatomy. We completely understand what she was saying but feel like we are somewhat to blame. Mostly because lifestyle in Alaska really isn't very dog friendly (unless your a sled dog). During the frigid winter months Jake stays inside most of the time. He runs out, does his business and goes right back inside. But, on those few nice days when the suns peaks out and the temp is above zero Jake stays out for hours. He runs along side of us while we hike, ski, bike or run.
In other words, Alaskan winters have old boy out of shape. We are getting him on a fitness plan as soon as we get to MT. Hopefully that will strengthen his knee and help prevent an operation.

Tail:
Chris took Jake fishing on Saturday and although Jake had fun swimming in the ice cold water and climbing up on large pieces of ice we suspect that the excursion is the culprit of the tail injury. If he didn't hurt his tail swimming the only other thing we think is that he hurt it in bed with us. When we go to sleep Jake is right there with us but when we wake up he is on the floor. Who knows what sends him to there... Me kicking or Chris' giant self rolling around.

Tooth:
He chipped his canine. Most likely playing with his buddy Ruger. (It's hard work having fun!) We just need to make sure that his root is okay and cap the tooth if need be. We aren't too worried about it. It should be an easy fix.

Eye:
The verdict on the eye is still out. Either Angie's cat Armand or a tree limb. After a little trip outside and a run in with the cat we noticed that his eye was watering... Poor thing. He seems better now but for a little while we thought that we were going to make another trip to the vet.

Don't worry too much. He is doing much better now. We have him on pain meds for the tail and he is starting to wag it again. Which is good and bad; good because we know he is happy and feeling better, bad because the waging is not helping his tail heal.