Friday was finally the day I'd been waiting for since the op - stitches out! Yay! I HATE putting a Buster Collar on Dizzy and he hates it just as much. For the past ten days, I've been sleeping on the sofa so Dizzy can spend the night in an extra large crate that won't fit in our bedroom, to make sure he was as comfy as possible and able to manoeuvre himself around with the 'cone' on. Every night when he saw the cone in my hand, he'd lower his nose to the floor and try to stop me putting it over his head :( But now - no stitches mean no cone, which means I get to go back to my bed, and Dizzy can sleep in a smaller crate in the bedroom. Phew! The stitches came out without issue & the vet was impressed that the wound was so neat and clean - Dizzy's not been given any opportunity to lick it or chew the stitches and there's been minimal blood/discharge. Dizz was as good as gold, letting the vet have a good feel of the leg and move it around a bit. She said all feels normal and as it should - the scar was giving off a slight heat but she wasn't worried as the wound itself is so clean and there's no inflammation. She did say that April (the date of Dizzy's post-op appointment with the surgeon) seemed a bit far away to her, so she would recommend bringing him back in to them (my local vet) around mid March for a follow up check, or sooner if we have any worries. Essentially, as long as he continues to improve and move forward, everything is all good - it's only if he starts to go backwards that we should worry.
Dizzy was a bit stiff for the rest of the day, due to the amount of activity in the morning - he walked well to and from the car and the vets (but was lifted in and out of the car) and did lots of wiggling at the other dogs in the waiting room! But we know that if he's stiff, it's because he's done too much and we just need to let him rest. This weekend, he's been so full of beans it's getting really hard to keep him still! He's constantly trying to spin around, chasing his tail - it's making me dizzy! And once, yesterday, he managed to jump onto the sofa before I could catch him. He didn't use his poorly leg for the jump, but I need to be much more careful and make sure that doesn't happen again. He's walking well on his leg, but will do a three legged hop if he wants to move quickly and that stupid leg is slowing him down! We're very lucky though, that he's such a laid back dog and although he loves to be active and go for long walks, he loves sleeping just as much!
This is the leg this morning - there's practically no scar already and pretty soon you probably won't even know he's had anything done:
It's been a few days since I last updated & I'm amazed at how well Dizzy is doing. It's been a bit of a busy week, with quite a lot of progress! Back on 'Day 9' (last Wednesday), Dizzy was on his 4th day without pain relief and walking well - he's still limping but is much steadier than before and putting a bit more weight on his bad leg. He's now also standing on his bad leg and cocking his good one to pee, although he is having to drop his good leg down mid pee, it's still progress!
Here's a little video of him going for a stroll on Wednesday:
Day 10 (Thursday) was Dizzy's second "Gotcha Day" (the two year anniversary of us bringing him home for the first time - as Dizzy's a rescue dog we don't know his Birthday, so we celebrate "Gotcha Days" instead). He's a pretty spoiled dog all year round, but we always try to do something special on his Gotcha Day. Normally, this would involve at least one new toy, an extra large rawhide bone/chew & we'd take him for a special long walk on or around the day (somewhere other than his usual daily walking spots). This year, special walks are off limits and we're not supposed to be giving him treats to avoid weight gain while he recovers...
But we couldn't let the day go by without doing anything! So he had a cheeky-one-off-tasty-treat:
And a new food bowl & matt, which I love - there's no doubting this dogs position in our house!:
We did have a bit of an unusual incident when Dizzy was eating his bone on Thursday - he has never been in any way food aggressive in the two yeas we've had him, in fact he's a soft as anything! You can take food or treats off him without a problem and many a foster dog in the past has wandered over and helped themselves to his dinner - to which Dizzy has responded by backing off and watching them from afar with a sad look on his face.
But on Thursday, while he was wedged between me and Matt on the sofa, I was gently stroking his head while he ate and suddenly, he let out this throaty, snarling sound - something I have never heard before. I stopped stroking him and Matt went to scratch him just under his ear, to see Dizzy's reaction - he turned his head towards Matt's hand and again snarled a nasty snarl.
This is so out of character for Dizzy and we have no idea what caused it - we are wondering if either he hasn't had a treat in a while now so he was going to protect this one at all costs or maybe (and this is probably more likely in my opinion) he felt vulnerable because of his poorly leg and was warning us that now was not the time to mess around. Whatever the reason, it has worried me quite a lot and is something we'll be keeping a close eye on!
Well it's one week to the day since Dizzy had his op, and I think I might finally be starting to relax...(but don't quote me on that)!
He's finished his course of antibiotics and pain relief; initially I was really worried about he'd cope without the pain killers but he seems to be doing well. He is definitely much less willing to bear weight on the leg and is using it slightly less than he was prior to finishing the meds, but he is still using it.
The best and most difficult part is that now he is in such high spirits and so full of beans, keeping him still is not easy at all. He's desperate to live up to his name, and the second he's given opportunity, he starts to spin on the spot trying to catch that pesky tail. Poor boy cannot understand why I sound so panic stricken every time he tries it! He's made several attempts (quickly curtailed by us) to jump on or off the sofa and is so desperate to run. Whenever he goes out for one of his short, on lead walks around the block, he tries desperately to steer me towards our usual off lead run route.
I am frequently being met with this sad-puppu-dog face when I have to stop him doing something fun in favour of quite time on the sofa or in his crate:
We are now fast approaching stitches out day and today we booked the appointment for Friday morning. I absolutely cannot wait - it is horrible to see the poor thing sat staring at me forlornly from under the buster collar and now when he see's it coming, he tried to hide his nose so I can't get it on. It breaks my heart that I can't explain to him why I'm being so mean! He's not been overly interested in his stitches, but does have his moments where he desperately wants to chew on his poorly leg so it's just not worth the risk of leaving the cone off when he's not supervised.
I still hate looking at his leg with those horrible black stitches in it (although the wound is still looking lovely and clean with no inflammation) and I think I will struggle no to over fuss and "baby" him for a long time yet, but I think (I hope) the worst is over!
I think that's it for now, nothing much has really happened in the past few days! Tomorrow, I'll try and remember to get a video of him walking & will update again soon.
Saturday morning started with a very happy short five minute walk first thing & a breakthrough! Dizzy finally pooped! You know you're a devoted dog "parent" when you call your other half to report on your pooches toilet routine but I really was so worried that it was 5 days with no movement at all! It was such a relief (probably for him too!) and seeing him so eager to get out of the house for a wander was lovely. He even cocked his leg to pee, standing on his poorly leg. My instant reaction to that was panic - should he be doing that? What if he's hurting himself? But there was no way of stopping him without making him jump and probably causing more harm that way, and then I remembered the nurse at the vets telling us to trust Dizzy, that he knew better than anyone what he could and couldn't do.
Here he is on this mornings, using his leg a lot more today (although still hopping a bit):
The rest of Saturday was pretty uneventful - Dizzy should now be moving around a bit more, rather than being confined to the crate when supervised (although still strictly NO jumping on or off anything) but he is still a bit reluctant to venture too far out of his crate, for too long. He's quite happy to stroll across the room for a drink, maybe stopping for a quick fuss on his way back to bed but not much more than that. With frequent but short on lead pee breaks, his confidence should grow.
Saturday ended quite late, with Matt arriving back from a night away at around 1am. Dizzy was so happy to see his Dad I had to restrain him from launching off the sofa and across the room to get to him and one point he did attempt to stand on his hind legs and put his paws on Matt's shoulders, bless!
Lucky me got to sleep in my bed tonight, for the first time since the op, as Matt offered to do the sofa shift (he's not mean, he just wakes up really early for work every weekday). I feel brilliant this morning, amazing what a good nights rest will do! I am aware that in reality, Dizzy probably is fine to be left alone downstairs, crated & wearing his Buster Collar, but to be honest, I'd probably have a worse nights sleep upstairs, lying awake in bed wondering if he was okay than I do on the sofa. Once the stitches come out and he can stop wearing his "cone" to bed, Dizzy will come upstairs and sleep in a slightly smaller crate next to the bed at night - I cannot wait for that!
So on to today (Sunday) and while I was having a little lie in, Matt took Dizzy out for his first pee break of the day. They went for a bit more of a walk than we've done so far - just up and down our road but a bit farther than I've braved. Dizzy loved it and coped really well, although I think he is a little stiff now. The vet told us that it would be a learning curve and we should take our lead from him - if he's walking well, using his leg than increase the walks slightly but if he's a bit stiff after then he probably did a bit too much. The rest of the day today will be short stops in the garden and straight back in and we'll see how he is tomorrow.
Once I'd woken up this morning, we decided it was time to take the gauze bandage off Dizzy's leg. The vets said this could come off after 3-5 days and that we could do it ourselves, only needing a vet visit if we had any concerns. We also knew that some blood or discharge would be normal. I fussed Dizzy's head while Matt carefully pealed off the bandage and it didn't seem to cause any discomfort. Once it was off though, Dizzy started to shake quite a bit and went extremely tense if you touched near his back leg. Every few seconds he was whipping his head around to try and get at the six big stitches running down his knee. Once he'd calmed down a bit, we put his "cone" back on and let him have a bit of a snooze in the crate, which did the trick - he's been back on the sofa with me for the past hour and hasn't bothered the stitches once.
When I first saw the stitches, I was a little surprised as it doesn't look very nice, although in the picture it doesn't look too bad. The wound is clean with minimal swelling though, so looks to be healing well:
Four days since Dizzy’s op & he’s
doing really well. We did have another sleepless night thanks to the buster
collar/crate problem (I cannot WAIT for the stitches to come out!) but he was
definitely feeling brighter than I was this morning!
Dizzy’s always been a bit of a picky eater
and will often sit in front of his food bowl looking sad when presented with a
meal. This morning, I put his breakfast in front of him in the crate, to be met
with a “grumble grumble” and a blank
stare. I left him a lone for a few minutes, while he curled up next to the food
with yet more “grumble grumbles”:
So I brought the bowl out of the crate and
coaxed him out too. We sat on the floor for 20 minutes in a bit of a “stand
off” until Matt walked in the front door – the second Dizzy heard the key in
the door, he started tucking into his breakfast with a wag in his tail. Cheeky
boy:
We are now starting to have a bit of
difficultly in getting Dizzy to take all his tablets (he’s on 8 antibiotics a
day plus pain relief). Now he’s alert enough to investigate his food before
eating, hiding them in his meals is a no go and he has a very special gift for
swallowing ham/cheese etc. while simultaneously spitting out the tablet! After
a lot of gentle coaxing this evening & a few tasty treats (which we have to
be careful of as he’s not going to be active for a while) he’s finally had all
the medication for today.
I have been beginning to worry about his
toileting – he’s only done two pees in the four days since the op and has yet
to poop at all. Matt called the vets who performed the surgery for advice &
to put my mind at rest. The lovely nurse he spoke to (no sarcasm, they really
are lovely!) told us firmly, but kindly to “stop babying him and get him out
for a walk”! Anesthetic can cause everything to “back up” a bit so the lack of
a number 2 is not surprising, and as Dizzy is not drinking a huge amount of
water that explains the infrequent pees.
Speaking to the vets has definitely eased
my worry a huge amount and given me a big reminder to trust that Dizzy knows
what he can and can’t do. He needs to be encouraged to walk very short
distances on lead at this stage, as he must build up the confidence to use his
poorly leg. As the vet told us today “he’s got three good legs, he’ll manage” –
very good advice! I took him for a short two minute stroll down the road during
which he did two big wee’s.
I’m now sat on the living room floor with
a boundary set up around the rug (using the coffee table, Dizzy’s crate, a
comfy dog bed and the water bowl to discourage him from trying to walk past onto
the laminate floor) to give Dizzy some time to move around outside of the
crate. He’s a little reluctant to get up too much, but has eaten his dinner
standing up outside his crate with all four paws on the ground & has walked
across the rug to have a drink.
He still needs to be crated when
unsupervised, walking must be minimal and on lead and under no circumstances is
he to attempt to jump on or off the sofa but I need to make an effort not to
forget that he still needs to use his poorly leg in moderation to stop the
muscle wasting. It’s hard not to fuss him & baby him, but I think I’m
starting to relax!
Dizzy seems to a lot more mobile today, thank goodness – despite an
awful nights sleep for both us. There really is no choice in that he has to
wear a Buster Collar over night to prevent any interference with the leg but
now he’s more alert he’s fidgeting a lot in the night and despite his crate
being more than big enough for him to do a full 360” turn even with the cone
on, he is finding it difficult to get comfy. I lost count of how many times in
the night I woke up to the sound of his cone crashing into the sight of the
crate!
Lack of sleep aside, Dizzy’s definitely feeling more like his usual self.
There’s been lots of tail wagging & this morning I had to react pretty
quickly when he tried to launch himself out of the crate as if nothing had
happened! He’s starting to want to go outside and last night at around 8pm he
finally did his first pee since before the op (phew!).
He’s spent a large portion of the day today on the sofa with me
& is much more willing to use the leg to walk when out of the house for pee
breaks. There’s still to be no walking on laminate flooring or slipper surfaces
as it puts too much strain on the leg, but he’s not feeling quite confident
enough yet to do much walking anyway.
All in all, a pretty uneventful day today – so fab to see Dizzy looking happier
and more alert than before!
Today, Dizzy is still pretty woozy &
feeling very sorry for himself. I spent a restless night on the sofa with
his crate beside me as it’s a bit too big to fit next to our bed & he
needs the space to be able to get comfy with his buster collar on over night. I
was waking up every hour or so to check he was ok and every time I found him
fast asleep and snoring his little head off. He’s devoured a small breakfast of
scrambled egg, wolfed down his pills (four antibiotics & half a pain killer)
wrapped in ham & had another snooze.
So far, my biggest worries are his lack of
interest in taking a drink of water & the fact that he’s not been to
the toilet since before the op. We’ve carefully carried him outside a few times
and he has had a little hobble around with his poorly leg hanging limply behind
him (see video at end of post). I have no idea at this point if the lack of
toileting is normal, but we’re planning on giving him until tomorrow and we’ll
probably phone the vet for advice if he still hasn’t gone. We suspect he just
can’t figure out how to go about it on three legs, bless him.
At this stage its very strict crate rest
and absolutely minimal movement and as he’s still feeling the effects of the
anesthetic, we’re not having any trouble with that. We have been told that it’s
fine to have him on the sofa but only if one of us is sat with him and keeping
a hand on him at all times to stop him jumping off, so we’ve given him an hour
of cuddles before putting him back to bed.
I think I greatly underestimated just how
strict the recovery period is and how vital it is that we do everything
absolutely right. I (stupidly) hadn’t anticipated how fragile the leg would be
and spent so long worrying about the operation day that I forgot to worry about
recovery. I wasn’t there to collect Dizzy from the vets, so Matt had the chat
with the nurse about to what to and what to expect. Although all info has been
relayed to me and we have a letter of instruction, I still feel extremely
underprepared and clueless.
The slightest bump or knock to the leg can
be very serious & it is vital that there’s no moisture on the bandage. I hate fixing the Buster Collar to him every I'm leaving the room but if he licks the bandage (or worse), any resulting infection will be extremely serious as it will be the bone that's get infected and not just the wound. Apparently it’s to be expected that there may be a small amount of blood or
slight discharge from the wound although it should only be slight, but so far there’s
been none of that. I absolutely hate lifting him in and out of the crate as I’m
terrified of knocking his leg & the first time we set him down outside
(very carefully & front legs touch down first) he let out a little yelp,
which scared me witless but his leg hadn’t even touch the floor so we think it more
just fear of it hurting.
Today, I feel very overwhelmed by it all
and on edge every time he so much as sneezes. I think the next few weeks are
gong to be very, very long!
Here's a little video of one of Dizzy's trips outside today (I've taken the sound off as there was lots of background noise from the wind!):
Today we dropped Dizzy off to the vets to
have his operation. It was a fairly early start as the vets is just over an
hour away & he had to be there by 8.45am. We where warned beforehand that
there was a possibility that he may have to stay in overnight, depending on how
well he came round from his anesthetic (they need the dog to be able to walk
out of the vets before they will consider discharging them) and that we
wouldn’t know until around 3pm when we could collect him.
The drop off was very quick – a quick weigh in and a few signatures giving the
vets permission to perform the surgery etc before my boy was whisked off. He
was so excited at all the new people there to fuss him he didn’t even look back
& trotted off tail wagging.
Once I was home it was a long day of
checking the clock & trying to keep busy to make the time go faster. 3pm
did actually come round pretty quickly and the relief when the nurse told me on
the phone that Dizzy was doing brilliantly and the op couldn’t have any better
was unbelievable. I was thrilled to hear that he could be picked up an hour
later & as Matt works five minutes from the vets, he collected him on his
way home. It was an anxious wait for me & every car that went past the
house, I was peeking out the window!
When they finally got home, I was a little
surprised at how woozy and drowsy Dizzy still was (although I don’t know why as
we where warned a few times that he would be). He had a small blue bandage
around his front left paw from the IV&
his back leg was shaved and bright blue from his ankle up to his hind quarters,
by his tail. When my childhood dog had his legs done, I remember he had a
florescent cast on for weeks after, but Dizzy just has a simple white gauze
type bandage over the knee joint that has to say on for the next 3-5 days.
The biggest surprise for me though was the
rattley, chesty breathing. Every time he inhaled his nose sounded snotty &
his ribcage crackled. Apparently completely normal & nothing to worry
about, it should subside in the next 24-48 hours. Not that knowing that made me
any less nervous! We put him straight in the crate we had set up for him and
let him sleep for the next few hours uninterrupted. He had a small dinner of
cooled down scrambled eggs, which he devoured but had no interest in drinking
any water.
Before bed, we carried him out to the
garden & put him down for a pee (keeping him on lead) but he didn’t want to
go – he wobbled a little on the spot & look sadly at us, so we carried him
back to his crate. Once he was tucked up, he slept soundly (snoring very, very
loudly!), not even waking up when I slid the buster collar over his head to
keep him from getting at his bandages during the night.
It’s going to be a restless night for me, with Dizzy in his crate by my side.
Fingers crossed he’s feeling brighter by the morning!
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