I guess we overdid her yesterday, as today she's toe tapping and walking on her toes just like before surgery. She's also holding that leg up when we come to a stop. So, maybe we just over walked her yesterday and I'm going to just let her rest up today. If not better by tomorrow, I'll call her Ortho.
She's also still not eating. I seriously don't know if she's just being stubborn or if there is something wrong with her. She did eat some turkey and broth and rice last night (with baby food and yogurt mixed in)....but nothign this a.m. So, I mixed up some canned evo, cooked up a bit of heart (now that stunk), some yogurt and baby food and force fed her this a.m. I hate doing it, but she needs substance. Maybe she's just not hungry cause she's not getting much exercise...or maybe she's depressed...or maybe there is something wrong with her...uuurrrggghhh! It's just frustrating.
Her next vet appt is on Friday...so hopefully she'll be fine and we can just all move on.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
One Week Post Op
One week down! Whew...we made it. Honestly, this is not near as bad as I had expected it. I am so thankfull for my friends at MOC http://www.mastiffonlinecommunity.net/ and the yahoo orthodogs group http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodogs/
Everybody is just so supportive and informative with great advice and a shoulder to cry on if I need it!
Her incision looks great. About Saturday, I think it probably started to itch and I noticed 2 staples gone. I did finally catch her licking. I'm sure it itches....but it's not red or inflamed. I scheduled an appointment for Friday, 12/26 to take her in for suture removal and to re-run her blood work to check her kidney values.
She is walking pretty darn good. Of course, she has a very pronounced limp, but she's doing great. We are now off of the ice and on to the moist heat therapy, which she really enjoys. We do the heat therapy 3 to 4 times a day, followed by massage, her range of motion exercises and then a short 10 minute walk. I'll start increasing her walk time this week just a bit to see how she does.
She gets out of jail time quite a bit actually. We make a pallet on the floor in the Living room and watch TV down there with her. We sit outside and play in the leaves (until yesterday when it finally got COLD here). I'm actually very lucky that I have a lazy dog that doesn't mind sleeping lots and being in her bed. She loves her crate.
So, through and through, everything so far is going well. The eating thing has got to get better. And she's still leaking urine. She was a little bit incontinent from her spay, but she would only leak every rare now and then....but now she's still leaking tons. She potty's fine, so I'm wondering if maybe the catheter could have done some damage or something? Will have the vet check that on Friday when we go in for suture removal.
As far as supplements, right now she's getting Milk Thistle to help her liver clean out all the drugs that was pumped into her body. SOD Boswellia as a natural anti-inflammatory (no more deramaxx since Friday). She was getting a homeopathic remedy of Arnica to help with the swelling and bruising, but no more as she's great now. And that's it. She came off her Tramadol a day and a half early and she came off her Deramaxx a week and a half early. I just felt it was upsetting her tummy and she's doing fabulous without it.
I'll post some more pictures later today. I'll update again soon as to her progress and especially the eating thing!
Everybody is just so supportive and informative with great advice and a shoulder to cry on if I need it!
Her incision looks great. About Saturday, I think it probably started to itch and I noticed 2 staples gone. I did finally catch her licking. I'm sure it itches....but it's not red or inflamed. I scheduled an appointment for Friday, 12/26 to take her in for suture removal and to re-run her blood work to check her kidney values.
She is walking pretty darn good. Of course, she has a very pronounced limp, but she's doing great. We are now off of the ice and on to the moist heat therapy, which she really enjoys. We do the heat therapy 3 to 4 times a day, followed by massage, her range of motion exercises and then a short 10 minute walk. I'll start increasing her walk time this week just a bit to see how she does.
She gets out of jail time quite a bit actually. We make a pallet on the floor in the Living room and watch TV down there with her. We sit outside and play in the leaves (until yesterday when it finally got COLD here). I'm actually very lucky that I have a lazy dog that doesn't mind sleeping lots and being in her bed. She loves her crate.
So, through and through, everything so far is going well. The eating thing has got to get better. And she's still leaking urine. She was a little bit incontinent from her spay, but she would only leak every rare now and then....but now she's still leaking tons. She potty's fine, so I'm wondering if maybe the catheter could have done some damage or something? Will have the vet check that on Friday when we go in for suture removal.
As far as supplements, right now she's getting Milk Thistle to help her liver clean out all the drugs that was pumped into her body. SOD Boswellia as a natural anti-inflammatory (no more deramaxx since Friday). She was getting a homeopathic remedy of Arnica to help with the swelling and bruising, but no more as she's great now. And that's it. She came off her Tramadol a day and a half early and she came off her Deramaxx a week and a half early. I just felt it was upsetting her tummy and she's doing fabulous without it.
I'll post some more pictures later today. I'll update again soon as to her progress and especially the eating thing!
She won't eat!
Ok, either she's being a spoiled brat or she's just not feeling well enough to eat.
By Friday, Harley still had not eaten anything substantial. I boiled turkey and had broth and rice....nope. Boiled hamburger...Nope. Scrambled eggs and cheese....Nope. Canned Evo Dog food.....Nope. Hot dogs.....Nope. Pretty much all week long from Tuesday till Friday, she would take a little bit here or there, but nothing.
So, Thursday afternoon and Friday a.m. I made up scrambled eggs, mixed some yogurt and pumpkin in them, and force fed her. She had to get some substance in her.
I was more thinking that all of the pain pills and drugs on an empty stomach is making her sick. I know it would me.
I called the surgeon and he kind of told me that it wasn't surgery related and that I should probably just call my vet.
I called my vet and they said to try baby food and if by Monday, still no food, to bring her in and they'd put a tube in and also retest her kidney values.
The thing is that she was doing fantastic though. Her spirits are up, her nose is cold, she enjoys her walks and out of jail time.....it's just the no eating thing. If she were lethargic or down, I would have insisted that they see her that day.
So, off to Winn Dixie to buy baby food. Do you know how expensive baby food is? (obviously, I don't have children...haha)
So, Friday night....I decided to try her normal dinner....she's raw fed. I got out some nice stinky ground tripe and poured baby food on it. SHE ATE. She also decided that she was hungry and ate a nice piece of pork.
Saturday a.m......nothing. Saturday night.....still wouldn't eat on her own. She has decided that she loves bologna all of a sudden. It took me tearing up some bologna and hand feeding her bologna wrapped ground tripe. For any raw feeders out there, you know how nasty tripe is. haha Sunday she decided that she wouldn't even eat that....so I force fed her. When I say force feed, all I do is open her mouth and put it on the back of her tongue and she swallows. She actually ate good on Sunday, but it was against her will.
She has been off her deramaxx and tramadol since Friday. So, the "theory" that the drugs were making her not feel good is now pretty much gone. I seriously think now she's being a brat and just wants to test us. So, it's Monday now....she didn't eat this a.m. and I figure she'll get hungry enough that she will eat on her own soon. She's feeling better, no more drugs in her system....I can't baby her forever or she'll expect it forever!
By Friday, Harley still had not eaten anything substantial. I boiled turkey and had broth and rice....nope. Boiled hamburger...Nope. Scrambled eggs and cheese....Nope. Canned Evo Dog food.....Nope. Hot dogs.....Nope. Pretty much all week long from Tuesday till Friday, she would take a little bit here or there, but nothing.
So, Thursday afternoon and Friday a.m. I made up scrambled eggs, mixed some yogurt and pumpkin in them, and force fed her. She had to get some substance in her.
I was more thinking that all of the pain pills and drugs on an empty stomach is making her sick. I know it would me.
I called the surgeon and he kind of told me that it wasn't surgery related and that I should probably just call my vet.
I called my vet and they said to try baby food and if by Monday, still no food, to bring her in and they'd put a tube in and also retest her kidney values.
The thing is that she was doing fantastic though. Her spirits are up, her nose is cold, she enjoys her walks and out of jail time.....it's just the no eating thing. If she were lethargic or down, I would have insisted that they see her that day.
So, off to Winn Dixie to buy baby food. Do you know how expensive baby food is? (obviously, I don't have children...haha)
So, Friday night....I decided to try her normal dinner....she's raw fed. I got out some nice stinky ground tripe and poured baby food on it. SHE ATE. She also decided that she was hungry and ate a nice piece of pork.
Saturday a.m......nothing. Saturday night.....still wouldn't eat on her own. She has decided that she loves bologna all of a sudden. It took me tearing up some bologna and hand feeding her bologna wrapped ground tripe. For any raw feeders out there, you know how nasty tripe is. haha Sunday she decided that she wouldn't even eat that....so I force fed her. When I say force feed, all I do is open her mouth and put it on the back of her tongue and she swallows. She actually ate good on Sunday, but it was against her will.
She has been off her deramaxx and tramadol since Friday. So, the "theory" that the drugs were making her not feel good is now pretty much gone. I seriously think now she's being a brat and just wants to test us. So, it's Monday now....she didn't eat this a.m. and I figure she'll get hungry enough that she will eat on her own soon. She's feeling better, no more drugs in her system....I can't baby her forever or she'll expect it forever!
Harley's Surgery Day and Experience
I dropped Harley off on Monday, 12/15 and it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. She is so healthy and it just broke my heart to have to leave her there. Of course, I cried tons of tears when I left her.
They had originally planned to take her back to surgery about 1:00ish. But Dr. Goett called me about 11:30 as he had received her blood work and one of her kidney values was high. Her Creatinine was at 1.7, with 1.4 being the normal "high" value. I asked him if the fact that she was drinking minimal water the last few weeks had anything to do with that...and he said possibly. The Saturday that she really hurt her leg, she decided that she didn't want to drink hardly at all. I even took a sample of urine in to Dr. Worth to test just to make sure she didn't have a UTI or something. I figured it hurt her to squat to pee, so she didn't drink. But anyway...he said that the value was a little high, not alarmingly so, but gave me the speech about what anesthesia can do to the body. I OK'd the surgery and will retest in a few weeks.
By 5:00 I still had not gotten my "all clear" phone call. So, I called them and they didn't even get to take her back for surgery till 4:00 as an emergency came in. He finally called me about 6:00 and said that he was done and she was still intubated and out of it, but that everything went very smooth.
I called a few times that evening and through the night to check on her.
When I called at 6:00 Tuesday a.m. they told me it was fine for me to come and get her. They all just fell in love with my sweet girl.
When I picked her up, she did not look near as bad as I had expected. She was already putting weight on that leg and her tail wagged 1000 miles per hour. We got her loaded into the car and headed home.
She slept the entire hour ride home. When I got her home, she was still SO drugged up that it was pretty difficult to get her in the house. We got her in and got her settled into her xpen and she just passed out.
They gave her ACE that a.m. at 4:50 (not happy about that as I had said no ACE). Still by 4:00pm. she was still so drugged up and out of it. ACE metabolizes very slowly and she just couldn't shake all the drugs. I gave her a dose of milk thistle to help her liver metabolize the drugs. By 6:00ish that evening, she began to come around.
The problem with the 1st day home is that urine just poured out of her....poor thing. She peed in the car on the way home, which I can understand...but all day long, even with potty breaks, she just kept peeing in her bed. I called the DR and he said basically that maybe the epidural hadn't worn off yet and they did pump her with TONS of fluids due to the high kidney value and to just give it time. It has gotten better, but she's still leaking.
Here's a couple of pictures from Day One Post Op.
They had originally planned to take her back to surgery about 1:00ish. But Dr. Goett called me about 11:30 as he had received her blood work and one of her kidney values was high. Her Creatinine was at 1.7, with 1.4 being the normal "high" value. I asked him if the fact that she was drinking minimal water the last few weeks had anything to do with that...and he said possibly. The Saturday that she really hurt her leg, she decided that she didn't want to drink hardly at all. I even took a sample of urine in to Dr. Worth to test just to make sure she didn't have a UTI or something. I figured it hurt her to squat to pee, so she didn't drink. But anyway...he said that the value was a little high, not alarmingly so, but gave me the speech about what anesthesia can do to the body. I OK'd the surgery and will retest in a few weeks.
By 5:00 I still had not gotten my "all clear" phone call. So, I called them and they didn't even get to take her back for surgery till 4:00 as an emergency came in. He finally called me about 6:00 and said that he was done and she was still intubated and out of it, but that everything went very smooth.
I called a few times that evening and through the night to check on her.
When I called at 6:00 Tuesday a.m. they told me it was fine for me to come and get her. They all just fell in love with my sweet girl.
When I picked her up, she did not look near as bad as I had expected. She was already putting weight on that leg and her tail wagged 1000 miles per hour. We got her loaded into the car and headed home.
She slept the entire hour ride home. When I got her home, she was still SO drugged up that it was pretty difficult to get her in the house. We got her in and got her settled into her xpen and she just passed out.
They gave her ACE that a.m. at 4:50 (not happy about that as I had said no ACE). Still by 4:00pm. she was still so drugged up and out of it. ACE metabolizes very slowly and she just couldn't shake all the drugs. I gave her a dose of milk thistle to help her liver metabolize the drugs. By 6:00ish that evening, she began to come around.
The problem with the 1st day home is that urine just poured out of her....poor thing. She peed in the car on the way home, which I can understand...but all day long, even with potty breaks, she just kept peeing in her bed. I called the DR and he said basically that maybe the epidural hadn't worn off yet and they did pump her with TONS of fluids due to the high kidney value and to just give it time. It has gotten better, but she's still leaking.
Here's a couple of pictures from Day One Post Op.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Harley's ACL Injury
Harley is a healthy almost 4 year old English Mastiff, weighing in at a sleek 172lbs.
The end of September, 2008 she started limping noticeably on her back left leg. I gave it a few weeks of rest, treating conservatively. By the middle of October, there was no noticeable different.
On 10/16 I took her to my vet whom I love. Dr. Worth did a full exam on her, but again treated conservatively (due to other expenses). We poked, prodded, moved everything on her leg and she showed no pain. We tested her knee for any instability looking for the drawer sign and using the tibial thrust method....knee seemed fine. When we messed with her toes, we got some "flinching", so the diagnosis was maybe a stubbed or fractured toe.....give it a few weeks of rest and she should be fine.
Well, another few weeks goes by, and she doesn't get any better. Her limp is more pronounced. I take her back to the vet on 11/13 and we put her under a light sedation to do xrays. Her hips were beautiful, spine great, no fractures or broken bones anywhere. She also manipulated her knee again while she was under, in case maybe Harley was over compensating while she was awake....again, knee seemed stable. Diagnosis, possible soft tissue injury of unknown origin...Deramaxx and rest and see what happens.
On Saturday, 11/29 Harley was out in the yard. She has not been allowed to run or rough-house as I was just trying to rest her and hope that whatever was wrong with her would heal. Well, whatever she did that afternoon, she did well. She was in the yard hanging out with Koda and Ellie (foster puppy) and must have decided to run....all I know is I heard the most horrible screams coming from my baby. From that point on, she could bear NO weight on that leg.
I took her back to the vet on Monday, 12/1. Dr. Worth could still not get a positive drawer sign....but she did finally get a positive tibial thrust on her. Our best guess is that she most likely has a minimal partial tear and whatever she did that Saturday, she tore it completely. Dr. Worth is a small woman, where Harley probably out weighs here by 50+lbs....and has smaller hands....so she said maybe she just couldn't get a good drawer sign off of her.
I was referred to a certified surgeon in Pensacola, FL at the Pensacola Emergency and Referral center http://www.vetemergencycenter.com/ Dr. Goett is the only surgeon in my area that does the TPLO.
We saw Dr. Goett on Thursday 12/4 and he immediately got a positive drawer sign for her ACL tear. He spent a good 30-45 minutes with Harley and I and answered all of my questions (and I came with TONS. I then scheduled her surgery with a heavy heart for Monday, 12/15.
My shopping list:
Extra Pet Beds
Blankets -I bought some cheap ones at walmart
Area Rugs bought one for under her xpen in the DR and the moved it to the Living room. Walmart, 20bucks!
X-Pens-I already had two from when my guys were babies.
Kongs
Marrow Bones
Bully Sticks
Baby Food (watch out for the foods with onion powder!)
Chicken
Rice
Ensure
Turkey Baster
Digital Thermometer to monitor temp for infection
4X4 Sterile Guaze
Saline
Belly Band Strap Thing for support or a towel
Towels
Quality canned dog food
Ice/heat packs
Canned pumpkin (plain)
The end of September, 2008 she started limping noticeably on her back left leg. I gave it a few weeks of rest, treating conservatively. By the middle of October, there was no noticeable different.
On 10/16 I took her to my vet whom I love. Dr. Worth did a full exam on her, but again treated conservatively (due to other expenses). We poked, prodded, moved everything on her leg and she showed no pain. We tested her knee for any instability looking for the drawer sign and using the tibial thrust method....knee seemed fine. When we messed with her toes, we got some "flinching", so the diagnosis was maybe a stubbed or fractured toe.....give it a few weeks of rest and she should be fine.
Well, another few weeks goes by, and she doesn't get any better. Her limp is more pronounced. I take her back to the vet on 11/13 and we put her under a light sedation to do xrays. Her hips were beautiful, spine great, no fractures or broken bones anywhere. She also manipulated her knee again while she was under, in case maybe Harley was over compensating while she was awake....again, knee seemed stable. Diagnosis, possible soft tissue injury of unknown origin...Deramaxx and rest and see what happens.
On Saturday, 11/29 Harley was out in the yard. She has not been allowed to run or rough-house as I was just trying to rest her and hope that whatever was wrong with her would heal. Well, whatever she did that afternoon, she did well. She was in the yard hanging out with Koda and Ellie (foster puppy) and must have decided to run....all I know is I heard the most horrible screams coming from my baby. From that point on, she could bear NO weight on that leg.
I took her back to the vet on Monday, 12/1. Dr. Worth could still not get a positive drawer sign....but she did finally get a positive tibial thrust on her. Our best guess is that she most likely has a minimal partial tear and whatever she did that Saturday, she tore it completely. Dr. Worth is a small woman, where Harley probably out weighs here by 50+lbs....and has smaller hands....so she said maybe she just couldn't get a good drawer sign off of her.
I was referred to a certified surgeon in Pensacola, FL at the Pensacola Emergency and Referral center http://www.vetemergencycenter.com/ Dr. Goett is the only surgeon in my area that does the TPLO.
We saw Dr. Goett on Thursday 12/4 and he immediately got a positive drawer sign for her ACL tear. He spent a good 30-45 minutes with Harley and I and answered all of my questions (and I came with TONS. I then scheduled her surgery with a heavy heart for Monday, 12/15.
My shopping list:
Extra Pet Beds
Blankets -I bought some cheap ones at walmart
Area Rugs bought one for under her xpen in the DR and the moved it to the Living room. Walmart, 20bucks!
X-Pens-I already had two from when my guys were babies.
Kongs
Marrow Bones
Bully Sticks
Baby Food (watch out for the foods with onion powder!)
Chicken
Rice
Ensure
Turkey Baster
Digital Thermometer to monitor temp for infection
4X4 Sterile Guaze
Saline
Belly Band Strap Thing for support or a towel
Towels
Quality canned dog food
Ice/heat packs
Canned pumpkin (plain)
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