A bit of water

I took Lucy down to the lake today. It's 82 degrees, so I thought she might enjoy wading. She's never been a swimmer, but is a consummate wader and butt dunker. She loved it! Back and forth, squatting in the water, back and forth. The chill must feel good on her surgery spot.

She's been in good spirits all week with only an odd blip the other day. Our neighbor's son came over. Lucy knows him really well and has always been really excited to see him. For some reason today, she went ballistic—barking in a very angry tone. Huh? That is really unusual. She wouldn't be quiet, so I had to keep her indoors while he was here.

Milestone

This weekend on a short, late night walk, Lucy stuck her head in a bush and flushed a cat. What excitement for her! The cat took off and she was on full alert, albeit at the end of the leash.

It was a turning point. Since then her attitude has been so different. She's enthused about walking and although there is still a bit of foot dragging, there is most definitely, a bounce in her step. It's quite exciting!

Bruised but better

Lucy is doing better. We've kept her pretty low-key. She limited the length of walks herself and wasn't very excited about doing much anyway. Yesterday we gave her a bath outside and that always "spunks" her up. I think (talk about anthropomorphising!) washing the last of the hospital away helped her mood too. Last night we took her on her third (!) walk of the day and although quite short, she didn't trip or drag her foot at all. That's something to note! By the end of the walk, she was bobbing her head, but she was picking up her feet. Yay!

Info and Falls

I spoke with the surgical vet tech on Wednesday and received a little more information from which to proceed. Although my vet thought aqua therapy would be beneficial, the surgical vet does not recommend it because of the kicking action. Oh. That makes sense! He feels just walking gives the best benefit as it's weight bearing and doing the activity she couldn't do well before.

Stairs are still off limits as are most other activities until at least October—a full two months post surgery. At that point, I am to be along side Lucy going up or down stairs. Now Luce has been doing 2-4 stairs just getting in and out of the house, but to get to the basement (one of her favorite places) requires negotiating 15 steps. Way too much!

Last night Lucy slipped on the wood floors and fell. Although it sounds a little like those awful commercials..."I've fallen and I can't get up!" That was, unfortunately, exactly the scenario. She hit pretty hard on her very boney, very weak hips. She didn't yelp, but after a couple of struggles to get up, she gave up. I was in the other room and ran in on hearing the crash. I rubbed and rubbed her, her back, her hips, talked in a calming tone and then aided her raising her back end. She laid very low the rest of the evening, not even getting up when DH arrived home from a trip.

Today has seen similar lack of movement with the exception that she is restless. Lies here, gets up, goes there, gets up, wanders outside, comes back in... She is obviously uncomfortable and I'm sure is bruised. She doesn't struggle any more than what is now usual in rising, but she is panting (though it's hot outside) which can indicate pain. Her desire to go on a walk is there, but not for any length. We only went around the block today.

This is a huge lesson in patience for me that this injury isn't going to see a miraculous, instant turn-around. The surgical vet tech said months and months; my regular vet said it could take a year. My neighbor said I might just have to be comfortable with the fact that this may be all she will ever be able to do.

Walks

We've amped up the walk. Two blocks now with a large hill. Of course walking this neighborhood includes a hill no matter which way you slice it. DH feels it is good for her anyway as it requires her to push off with her back legs, thereby exercising and strengthening them.

Lucy bobs her head going up the hill, so she's still pulling from the front. She's also hot and panting by the end. And although her back right foot drags in the beginning of the walk—and is a bit more splayed out then the left throughout the walk—by the end, it doesn't drag. I take that as a good sign.

Good Vet & Say Goodbye to Stitches!

My regular vet is fantastic. Kate Schottman at Sunset Pet Hospital is calm, reassuring and knowledgeable. She listens. I was stating my concerns and frustrations about not having something to 'hold on to' from the surgeon's vet techs regarding time frames and progress points. Kate said that often healing is the reverse of the injury. If the problem took a long time to develop, it often can take an equally long time to heal. I had not received a similar explanation from the surgeon, so did not have any idea on when I might see improvements other than it 'would take a while.'

Kate also felt warm water therapy would be beneficial for Lucy as there is no joint/bone pressure, but would allow for muscle-building exercise. Additional deep massage along with this could add to the overall recovery. The surgeon's vet tech said they did not think this would be good. I didn't receive an explanation, but I didn't ask that question—"Why?".

Kate felt their urging caution/avoidance of stairs might be from falling (similar to older people). Is this the reason the vet techs had?

The issue seems to be that I'm not a good asker of questions. I don't think my concerns through thoroughly enough on the fly. Nor do I phrase questions in a way that would give me a multiplicity of answers. Kate urged me to call the surgeon again to get more concrete explanations. I'm embarrassed for all the times I've called them, but I guess that's what they get for the cost of the operation!

Oh! I forgot to add that this all came about (talking about Kate) because Lucy got her stitches out today! Yahoo!

Release and Redux

Lucy is now 'free to roam about the cabin.' The baby gates are down and she's done her first exploratory sniff and circumnavigation of the main floor of the house. She feels quite liberated and her mood is upbeat.

I've also taken her on her first walk and her foot is still dragging. Did we put her through all of this for naught?

I haven't slept in several nights, so don't have the energy to write more now. My heart is very heavy.

Another kind of waiting

One more week of this 'penning up.' I allow Lucy in a room with me since she stays on her bed in that room. When I leave or do tasks around the house that don't allow me to monitor her, she goes back into the pen. We'll all be glad when that area of the kitchen is back in normal use.

I need to check with the vet about her care once the antibiotics, pain meds and pen are finished. The drug regime should be completed by Thursday—the same day the pen can come down. Five minute walks can begin on Friday, but for how long before we can bump it to 10 minutes? When can she use stairs...or jump in the car? Our neighborhood is one big hill. Can she do hills? Are those any different for her back than stairs?

One of my biggest fears is that once walks start, we'll run into loose dogs. Lucy can be leash aggressive if approached by a loose dog. It seems the dogs that we've experienced being loose are aggressive anyway and that's the LAST thing I want to deal with.

Day to day

Each day follows a similar pattern in Lucy-care.

It begins with a leashed walk through the back yard for morning constitutionals. Even this trip has a routine. After a few steps off the patio (she needs to be standing in grass), she puts her nose in the air and sniffs early morning smells. Her perambulation is counter clockwise around the yard with a long stop by the worm bin to look down the alley. There's another stop at the opposite end of the yard to check out the alley in the other direction. When the loop is closed, she repeats the circuit, sometimes dissecting the yard.

Breakfast follows and consists of kibbles and cooked rice and one antibiotic. By the time we've coffeed and breakfasted, it is time for her first pain pill, plus another back yard sojourn. The morning is spent in the pen. Mostly she sleeps, occasionally she whines for attention.

Lunch time sports another trip to the backyard. When I've finished eating, she gets her second antibiotic. Her pills are wrapped in lunch meat—a little organic oven roasted turkey. Such a deal! Those pills (with enough of a meat wrap) go down like a charm. The afternoon duplicates the morning.

Around late afternoon, depending on the day, we go into the back yard for a snooze. I garden and she gets a snoot full of fresh air. Although I keep her leashed, it's not connected to me as she doesn't wander. I think she's so happy to be out of the pen that she's content to stay put as long as it's somewhere new.

She used to receive her 'cocktail ball' around 5PM. It looks like a plastic golf ball on steroids with a tube extending into the interior kind of like an enclosed bundt pan. I drop some tasty morsels in it and she spends a half hour or so rolling it about the living room in hopes that a morsel will fall out. Very therapeutic for her. However, at present this is too much activity, so instead she just gets dinner. Not bad, mind you, but not mentally stimulating either. I try to thwart the day's boredom with a stuffed kong.

She stays in her pen until after we eat dinner when she gets the day's last pain pill and then is allowed into the living room while we read or watch TV. At 9PM, she gets the last of the day's antibiotics. Eventually it's off to bed only to repeat the routine the next day. I'm going a bit batty with it, so I can only imagine how bored she is.

I had a couple of frights yesterday. Lucy is not supposed to do stairs, so our basement has been closed off since she came home from the hospital. Yesterday we'd come in from the back yard when the phone rang. It was a short phone call, but distracting enough that I realized she was 'loose' in the house. When I rounded the corner from the kitchen and saw the basement door open, I panicked. There are 14 stairs and the one thing the surgeon and vet tech said repeatedly is NOT to let her do stairs. I ran down expecting to see a lump at the bottom, but she wasn't there Luckily, she had just gone into the living room to nap. Perhaps she even knows she can't do them yet.

Then last night, in the middle of the night, I woke to her howling in pain. I don't know if it was a dream (doubt it) or she'd caught her incision at the base of the bed, or rolled over incorrectly. Lots of panting—a clue, they told me that she's in pain. Is her back okay? Are the pins in place? Is her spine tweaked? I don't know. She seems okay today, but I'm being extra cautious.

Sleeping

Lucy is already rejecting the idea of being penned up. Although she'll go into the area, she does it with such a 'hang dog' expression that you know she's cursing us under her breath.

Last night there were fireworks going off because of local summer festivities. She's terrified of firecrackers, so her normal few minutes of whining turned into a production. Now normally she isn't allowed in the bedroom as I'm allergic to dogs and thought at least one room should be 'clean.' However, last night we made an exception and brought her bed in. She hasn't budged. 10 hours later and several different sleeping positions, she is still on her bed.

Soon I'll have to drag (encourage) her out to take care of business and then unfortunately for her, back to the pen. I think we've found a temporary (and I'm sure because she's such a smart girl, she'll make it a permanent) solution.

She's home!

They released Lucy a day early as she was doing so well; we picked her up last night. They said she was getting up and walking on her own the day after surgery. She get’s up pretty slowly (without a sling which they felt she didn’t need), but she can do it. She’s on pain meds (Tramadol 50mg/one every 12 hours) and antibiotics (Cephalexin 500mg/one every 8)—and that’s it.

She hadn't pooped in the three days she'd been at the vet's and I was concerned about that, though they weren't. They said I didn't have to worry for a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks?!? That sounds tortuous—particularly with a bum back and the need to squat and push. However, the tech said it isn't unusual for dogs not to defecate at the hospital and that once she got home, she probably would. Yep! They were correct. None-the-less, with pain meds as a regular—at least for a while—I'm adding a tablespoon of mashed pumpkin to her food.

We have her sequestered with baby gates in the kitchen. She cried most of last night, I think not so much in pain as in unhappiness that she’s penned. She has to stay in the pen for 2 weeks. When I do take her outside, she has to be leashed. I'm guessing that is in case she would decide to bolt after a squirrel. I don't see that happening, but you can't be too sure.

So as for those questions:

1. How long do we have to wait before discovering if the surgery is successful? Time will tell. If after several months she's still stumbling and dragging her toes, it was unsuccessful.
2. How long must she be sequestered and exactly what does that mean? Two weeks of confinement to a 4 X 4 area.
3. Does she need a sling to get up? To walk? No. She's strong enough to get up on her own.
4. What drugs must she take and for how long? Pain meds until she stops looking like she's in pain. This will be tough to decipher while she's on them. They said if I stopped and she looked like she was having difficulty getting up, panting a lot or acting reclusive, those were all signs of pain. Antibiotics must be taken until they're gone.
5. How long before her stitches come out? Two weeks. Lucy's normal vet can remove them and assess her back/movement at that time.
6. Does she have to come back in for a look-see? She doesn't have to see the surgeon again unless I want to; she can go to her regular vet.
7. What kind of physical therapy can we do with her? Massage on her back haunches 4-5 times a day. Also, not as critical as she can walk on her own, but move her back legs through range of motion, i.e., as if she were bicycling 4-5 times a day for 5 minutes at a time. I am pushing very little with this as this seems to 'activate' her. I try to integrate it with her massage. Does it hurt? I'm uncertain.
8. What kind of PT should she have? Acupuncture? Aqua therapy? We didn't talk about this; I forgot. But when I bring her in for stitch removal, I'll ask. I'm thinking the aqua therapy would be good.
9. If we go somewhere, can we bring her in the van and keep her there? Yes.
10. How long before she can be a dog again? Months.

After two weeks of "cage" confinement, I can allow her access to the main floor of the house and start taking her on very, very short walks. I'm assuming after a week of 5-7 minute walks, I can bump it to 10 minutes and so on. We live on a huge hill, so initially I'll just take her up and down a block on the level. It's two bad our neighborhood is laid out as it is—our street is only two blocks long! At this point though, and at her present speed, that length will probably be plenty. Maybe by mid-to-late September or October I can add the hills.

As far as the success of the surgery, time will tell. If her back feet continue to drag, it wasn’t successful, so fingers are crossed that the brain, legs and toes get in sync. Right now it’s just quiet and rest.

Waiting #2

Yesterday they said she would be ready to go home today, but here it is 3:30PM and no phone call. I've called them, but have not received a call back.

Questions I want to know:

1. How long do we have to wait before discovering if the surgery is successful?
2. How long must she be sequestered and exactly what does that mean?
3. Does she need a sling to get up? To walk?
4. What drugs must she take and for how long?
5. How long before her stitches come out?
6. Does she have to come back in for a look-see?
7. What kind of physical therapy can we do with her?
8. What kind of PT should she have? Acupuncture? Aqua therapy?
9. If we go somewhere, can we bring her in the van and keep her there?
10. How long before she can be a dog again?

Lots of questions, but man! that phone is silent!