Sweet Hobbsie Boy

We spent most of Sunday having a lazy day at home and it was great to get to know little Hobbs better. He's definitely hand shy and very nervous about being picked up but he has a reason for that.

See, at some point Hobbs was likely hit by a car and his hip was dislocated and never treated. It happened in the past and has fully healed but it's quite obvious that something is not quite right with his caboose.  He gets around great - runs, does stairs, scares me by jumping off a rock wall - and he doesn't seem to be in pain from it, however, I think it might be uncomfortable to be carried around.

Notice how his body doesn't "line up" straight

You can see a little in this photo how his left hind leg is at an odd angle

His joint likely formed a lot of scar tissue around the ball of the femur and it sits in that pocket of tissue rather than his hip bone as he moves around. He doesn't have full range of motion with that leg, but he has enough to move pretty fast.

Sooooo..... the big question at this point is what needs to be done. Or does anything need to be done.  I've had a foster before who had a femural head removal (ball of hip is removed) and that is typically how a fresh injury like this would be treated but we'll need to hear from a vet to determine how to move forward with little Hobbsie. He's scheduled for a visit to the vet's office on Tuesday for an exam and radiographs so we can get a clearer idea of what is really going on with the little guy.

Skinny little Hobbs

One thing for sure is that he is underweight. His spine and hips jut out and not just from his structural problems. He's a skinny guy, but he loves to eat so there won't be a problem getting him up to a healthy weight. It will be super important for him throughout his life though is to not become overweight. His joints just wouldn't be able to handle extra pounds.

There's definitely nothing broken about his attitude though. Hobbs is an amazingly sweet-natured and loving little boy. His favorite activity is snuggling and if you are busy, he's happy to just curl up in a chair and wait until your lap is free again. Having an easy-going laid back foster dog is so nice.  OH, and did I mention he is house trained?! We are still moving through the initial few days of getting used to a place and a bit of marking but I'm sure that by the end of the week he will be belly band free.