[Dailydrool] Watson's got a bruise!

[Katie Strobel]

Hey everyone,
So, yesterday, Watson was acting kind of weird. His tail was down
practically between his legs, and he was being very clingy to me and
skiddish from the other dogs here. I was concerned about it, so the
dadperson decided to cheer Watson up by having him do his tricks. They
went through all of his tricks until they got to rollover. Watson got
upside down, but then the DP spotted a HUGE purple bruise on Watson's
chest. This bruise runs horizonal on the chest, it's at the base of
the chest where it is closest to the ground, and it's a deep purple.
If you ball your hand into a fist it's the size that fist would make
if you punched bread dough...if that makes any sense at all. Our vet
is open late, so we called and they said to wait until morning to
bring him in - which we did. Watson had a hard time going to sleep,
but slept through the night. This morning, Watson woke up bouncy and
excited, he ate happily and was fine on the way to the vet. The vet
decided that this was probably just a bruise - we have no idea how he
would have gotten such a severe looking bruise...(one theory is that
he tripped on the way in the doggy door and fell on the door hitting
his chest - another is that he got in trouble with one of my parent's
dogs and they snapped at him on his chest but didn't break the skin)
the vet said that whatever did hit his chest "socked it" pretty hard
to cause such a large, dark bruise. So, we got some rimadyl from the
vet for pain and went to the store and got some Arnica Montana cream
for the bruising at the health food store. Once home, Watson slept for
about three hours - his usual morning nap - and then I had to leave so
I'm not sure what he did this afternoon.

Once we got back, around 4pm, Watson came straight to bed and slept
until 6:30pm - 30 minutes after dinnertime (very unusual) - when I had
to wake him up to go eat dinner. He ate his dinner quickly, and came
straight back to bed where he slept soundly until 11pm (right now).
Usually, Watson follows me everywhere. When I get up to go across the
hall to go to the bathroom, he gets down off the bed and lays outside
the bathroom door until I come back into the bedroom. If I go into the
kitchen, he is always right behind me. Tonight, whenever I left the
bedroom - which was at least 4 times - instead of following me, he
just laid in bed and whined for me to come back. Just now, he went
outside, pooped, and is now in his x-pen sleeping again. This is very
unusual to me and we're a bit concerned. Watson usually is up from
about 4 to 8. He's always in bed with me by 9, but rarely before that.
Also, for the first time I've ever noticed, Watson has gas. He also
never sleeps through dinnertime. Usually, he thinks dinnertime is at 4
and we have to suffer through 2 hours of whiney craziness before we
can feed them. Anyway, I thought that maybe since he has this bruise
on his sternum and ribs that he couldn't sleep comfortably last night
and is just tired. I also think maybe the rimadyl may have something
to do with this but this is at least the 3rd time he's been on rimadyl
and I don't remember him ever being sleepy - even right after knee
surgery.

So, bottom-line: I am prone to worrying over nothing and being a bit
over protective. Do you guys think that is the case now? Or should I
call the vet?
Also, we were going to go to the Basset Picnic if Ft. Collins tomorrow
- do you think that's a good idea with this bruise or should he rest
instead?
Thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated from a notorious worrier.

Thanks again droolers,
Katie