:: funny dog story

I took Bertie to the vet this morning. He's generally in good health, but over the past week or so had developed some kind of weird back pain. He was walking fine, not limping or anything, zipping up and down the stairs, stretching, the whole works. But any time you touched his spine or flanks, he flinched. Really flinched, dramatically, with his whole body. Ow! That hurts!

If you touched a particular spot on his spine, his back leg would start scratching in reflex, and he'd sometimes half collapse. On the other hand, I discovered he appreciated a back massage - I was feeling along his spine for lumps, fearing the Big C. All his muscles were tense and shivering, but he leaned in for more back-rub.

So I took him off to the vet, which meant getting up early on a fiercely cold morning when I'd much rather have stayed in bed. I explained to Fiona that he seemed healthy enough blah blah, apart from this: and took off Bertie's coat and touched his back.

Nothing. He stood like a rock. I touched his flanks - nothing. "Oh, he's not doing it!" I babbled, as if he was supposed to start tap-dancing or speaking French. I poked and prodded, but he remained staunchly flinch-free.

So I explained, and Fiona felt along his back and confirmed that his muscles were flinching even if he wasn't showing it. I reckon he was scared to show how much pain he was in in case he was whisked off for surgery.

Fiona says it's probably arthritis in his spine, and that the muscles are tensing and hurting because they're having to hold the spine in a different way to keep it from hurting - the back-rubs help ease the muscle spasms.

So he's now going to be on painkillers long term. Anticipating this, I'd printed off a prescription form for an online vet pharmacy: the vet charges £15 for a 30ml bottle, while online it's less than £25 for 180ml. So even with the prescription fee of £7.50 it's far cheaper.

There's always the possibility that it's not arthritis but a tumour on his spine. But he's very healthy, as I say, eating well and enjoying life. So - fingers crossed it's not going to develop into anything that will spoil his fun.

In other health-related news, Faye is recovering from her op. She's more sore than she'd anticipated, so she isn't going to come up to Scotland until January, even though she says she's "bored out of my brain".