Luxating Patella Surgery-Post Op Week 7

So we're taking a break from our Christmas programming.

If you're following along at home, you know that it's been 7 weeks since Oliver's luxating patella surgery. And if you've been to my home lately, you know that he is ready to go! He's definitely over being under recovery status.

We have 1 more week. Our recheck appointment is next Wednesday. Everyone here at Casa de Rodgers is excited, and hoping for full activity level status. Not that we don't love the Olliedog, but carrying him up and down the stairs, and inside, and outside, and up on the sofa, then off the sofa, then on the sofa, no wait, off the sofa...well you get the idea. We're all ready for things to get back to normal.

But before it was more normal, it wasn't quite right.

As I mentioned in one of my previous surgery posts, our discharge vet at MU, was well..less than helpful. She certainly put the fear into me. So, we haven't been letting Oliver do much of anything, except walk around the house. He hadn't been on walks or to PetSmart or to Grandma's or anything. At 5 weeks post surgery he still wasn't using his right leg. We're talking like 20% or less on his own around the house. So being the crazyfreakingoutdogowner that I am, I called the clinic to see if I was doing something wrong. I wanted to make sure that he wasn't damaging his left leg by only using it all the time. He was getting around just fine on 3 legs. Well of course MU wanted to see him right away (this is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) so we didn't go. She wouldn't tell me anything over the phone. This left me to my own devices. We started walking him twice a day, super short at first, and now we're up to the entire street. It's been 2 weeks of this, and he's up to 90% usage on his own! I know, I'm awesome.






He has a skip step or two still. I know we have a long way to go, but this is real progress here. Once we get the activity level ok, we're going to work more on making his muscles stronger so we can get back to agility training. We all miss it very much. He'll be needing his agility getaway more than every I'm sure when little sister comes...



Jessica

A Leafy Birthday Card

I've been a bad bad blogger.

I don't really have an excuse..it's been gloomy, and I'm tired.

I did make a birthday card for my father-in-law, his birthday was last week.
I apologize for the picture quality, they're worse than usual..that guy I live with took these because the light was terrible the night I finished the card, so he took it the next morning.

I love fall..since it's a fall birthday, I used fall colors.

I made the leaves. I painted watercolor paper, stamped and cut out the leaves then I used extra thick embossing powder, so they're like leaf chips. I think they're cool.

I have another birthday card done, I just need some good light to take a photo of it (hoping for a light box for Christmas this year...)
And then I've agreed to make 20 Christmas cards for my mother this year...so look for those coming to a blog near you.

**An Oliver Update**
He's doing great, thanks for everyone who's been concerned. This Tuesday was 4 weeks post surgery. His fur is slowly (I mean really slowly) growing back in. His incisions are healed. He's using both legs, but he still definitely prefers the left leg to the right. The vet clinic called last week to ask about him, and I asked them about the leg preference, and they said so far that was fine. He is in fact using it more than he was last week, so we're watching for more and more improvement over the next few weeks. His recheck appointment is December 14th, which is 8 weeks and 1 day post surgery. We're hoping for full activity status by then. Not that we don't love carrying him around, but it's starting to be a real hassle. Full activity status is important, because he's bored to death, and because Cora is coming soon (more on that later).

Jessica

Luxating Patella Surgery - Post-Op Day 7

Today is Wednesday, which means, that yesterday it had been 7 days since Oliver's surgery. It seems like much longer than 7 days.

He's doing really well. The stitches look good, more photos of that below. He's using both legs when he goes out to potty. It's really pretty amazing, that only 7 days ago he had total knee overhaul.

His favorite part of today was that Grandma Carol sent him a get well card. We read it together, and he already feels better. He says "Thank you Grandma!!"

He's already bored with the crate rest, 1 week down 7 more to go. It's going to be a long season.

His poor little back end, he looks so funny with all his fur gone.

Since it's been nice outside, I've been trying to give him a little more time to lay in the yard, as long as he doesn't try to run and play (even though he wants to soooo badly). Yesterday we went for a walk around the neighborhood. I know what you're saying, "but you just said he's on crate rest for 7 more weeks!" I mean that I walked, and I carried him. It looks really ridiculous, but I think he really enjoyed it. He had something different to look at and outside smells to smell...so I think it's going to have to be a regular thing for us all to keep our sanity.

P.S.--that rope is our makeshift leash. We have to use it or he'll take off and run around the yard.

This is what devil tape does to my precious pomeranian. The poor guy, we just got this off tonight. He took it pretty well this time, and God bless adhesive remover pads. We still have the other leg to do (that's slated for tomorrow night). We got a little tape off his ankle last night, and the redness is gone today, so I'm hoping that this will go away and feel better for him by tomorrow.

Earlier this week he managed to get out of his Kong Cloud collar (it looks like a travel pillow, we thought it would be something nicer for him than the regular cone) and pop a stitch..maybe 2 we're not sure. You can see the area in the middle where there is nothing holding it together. Lucky for us, and for him, that it had already healed enough to hold together. We've been taking it really easy on carrying him and moving him around so we don't disturb it...because we all know that we'll be really screwed if that opens up.

The left leg looks pretty good too. It's a little crusty, but not infected or anything. Earlier this week it was a little puffy, so we were keeping a pretty close eye on it, but it's fine now.

He's still on all of his pain meds. I can't tell if he's in any pain or not. The funny thing about dogs is that they will do everything they normally do, even if it hurts. So we're keeping up the dosing, Tramadol 3 times a day, and Meloxicam 1 time a day with dinner.

Here's a little clip I shot yesterday. You can sort of see that he's still having a bit of trouble getting up, but that he's walking almost normally. It's still a little stiff, but he can get around ok. As far as the rehab goes, I'm not sure how much walking he'll be able to do, but for sure there will be no stairs or jumping for at least 8 weeks. This is going to be the hardest part since we have stairs everywhere. So we'll have to continue to carry him outside.

So, overall it's going pretty well, we weren't sure what to expect, but it definitely could be worse.

Happy Wednesday.

Jessica

Luxating Patella Surgery - Post-Op Day 3

Hello.

I suggest if you have a heart condition that you stop reading/looking right now, because this will break it. Also, I should let you know that if you have a problem with pictures of bandages or stitches, you also should stop..because today, it's all here.

My whole point in putting this info out there is so hopefully if someone else has to go through this they can find the information they'll need. I never could find a specific case concerning a pomeranian. There was quite a bit of info on forums and things about malteses and shi tzus, but nothing on poms.

Luxating patella, or slipping knee cap, is very common in Pomeranians, as well as other small breeds. I'm not really going to go into detail about what it is because there's tons of general information out there. Basically the knee cap slides around and out of the groove it's supposed to be in. This causes a skipping when the dog walks. Mostly it's not painful, but in Oliver's case it was becoming increasingly so. (I'm sure if we asked him, he would take that pain over what he's got now..but too bad.)

On to Oliver's story.

It was rapid onset, we were playing, then I guess something tweaked just the right way, he howled and wouldn't use his left leg. Same thing happened 2 weeks later, only this time it was his right leg. So now it's both legs. We got some opinions, and it needed to be fixed. Both of Oliver's knees were Grade 3.

We made our appointment with the MU Vet Teaching Hospital. Today is Friday, our appointment was Monday. We met with our student first, then the actual vet, Dr. Cook. He's a leading orthopedic surgeon...nothing is too good for my baby. Our appointment was short, they didn't really have anything to say that I didn't already know. Oliver was a candidate for surgery, in fact, Dr. Cook said that Grade 3 was really the best situation, because it was bad enough to need to be fixed, but not so bad that anything degenerative had set in yet...so he expects a full recovery. We left Oliver there. That night he had x-rays done and some blood work. Tuesday mid-morning he had surgery. Our student was absolutely wonderful in keeping me updated.

They did what they call the 4-in-1 on both of his knees. The deepened the groove, they loosened the ligament on one side, tightened the other side, and they cut and relocated part of his tibia. They also check the ACL while they're in there, since it can't be seen on an x-ray. They said they prefer to do both legs on small dogs, because they tend to recover so well, and you can just carry them.

When we went back to pick him up we had a new doctor (Dr. Cook wasn't in that day..which was Wednesday) and a new student, it was time for them all to rotate. This was sort of less than desireable, but I figure I can call them as Oliver gets better, because there was some conflicting statements between new Dr. and Dr. Cook, so we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, he's on 2 drugs, Tramadol, the pill, and Meloxicam, which is a liquid. He gets the pill every 8 hours, and the liquid once a day. He's supposed to be on 6 weeks of crate rest. That's not a problem now, but I see it being difficult in the future.

In 6-8 weeks we go back for a recheck visit, where they will maybe do more x-rays, but for sure feel the knees to make sure everything is still in place. AND this I didn't know, I never read it anywhere, so I was surprised when they mentioned this in our discharge appointment. There are pins in Oliver's tibia (this I knew) ((and we got to see the x-rays..straight as a arrow!)) but these pins are smooth, and can work their way out of the bone. New Dr. said that in 95% of her rechecks that she sees, these pins have to be removed. They do it there, under heavy sedation. This was news to me.

So, on to the photos...

He's definitely a sad pomeranian. He likes his crate, so that's working out for now. He can't really walk, and the drugs make him really sleepy. We pretty much get up to go out every 2 hours or so, then he goes back to sleep. It's only post-op day 3, so hopefully he'll feel better as we go along. He looks like a Chinese Crested, they shaved his butt fur.

Right after the surgery they had pressure bandages covering these. But those came off Wednesday morning, leaving this sticky mess. During our discharge appointment, they made it sound like these would come right off (we hadn't seen Oliver yet) with a warm washcloth or something...yeah, that is not true. This was Thursday night, after his meds, so he was drugged up...we started (carefully) peeling the tape off, and he was just throwing a fit! We weren't making any progress either. It's sticky like packing tape. As you can tell, it pretty much covers his whole legs, and his thighs. I can't say I blame him..it looked painful. We had to remove the devil tape so we can look at the incisions, to stay on top of any infections. So what does it take to remove the tape? It takes, 2 college educated adults, a 50 something second career nurse, a cone of shame, 2 giant dog cookies, part of a can of puppy EZ-cheese, adhesive remover pads, and it has to be 10 o'clock at night.

And this is what you get. Poor Oliver was so snappy and snarly (I can't really blame him, I'm sure it hurts a lot)((he bit both me and Jon)) that we only removed enough to see the stitches. This is his right leg, which was worse. He doesn't stand on this one at all.

This is his left leg, the wound looks much better on this one...well the other one doesn't look bad or anything. He'll balance on this leg when he's out in the yard.

We're going to work in the next few days as he's feeling better at removing the rest of the devil tape. I suggest if something like this is in your future, that you make sure they don't send you home with a dog that had this crap on their legs...for what you pay, they should take this stuff off...and I'm sure they would, but MU is 2 hours from here.

Turns out, Oliver maybe has a career as a circus dog.

Actually it was pathetic. We got home sort of late Wednesday night, well, at least it was dark. They had told us that he was still refusing to walk on this back legs, and that we might need to use a sling to help support him to potty. Well....we tried that, with no success. We were trying to hold him up with a piece of fabric under his legs, while trying not to bump his knees. Turns out this is impossible with a boy dog. The bits get in the way. We gave up, went in side and regrouped. Tried again, and turns out, all you have to do is set him on his front legs first, and he'll take off on his own. I'm really glad the sling isn't something we have to keep using. It really is amazing, because this was the practical part I was worried about, the dreaded potty time, with only 2 working legs. He mostly just takes off like nothing is wrong, balances on the back left leg when he goes, then picks it back up to walk back to you. He gets tired really quickly, and you have to pick him up and start over if he hasn't gone yet..but so far we haven't had any potty problems.

So far it's going pretty well. He's slept for the 2 days we've been home, but he seems comfortable and fairly happy.

I'm glad it's over with, that's for sure. I plan to have more updates on his recovery, so that anyone who wants to know can see what it's really like. If you fall into that category, feel free to contact me with any questions, and I'd be happy to tell you anything you want to know.

Jessica

Oliver's First Swimming Practice

So, as promised, I have some photos and video of Oliver's surgery preparations. We're assuming that he's going to have to have some sort of hydrotherapy to help keep his muscles strong while his knees heal..the problem here is that he doesn't like to be wet. So we're preparing as much as possible by having him swim a little before he has the surgery...so far it's not going very well.

On another note...my mother thinks she's hilarious. She sent this jar to our house in a box with Wayside Waifs return address on it. Poor Ollie doesn't know his grandma is a nut!

Moving on, he doesn't really like the life jacket I bought for him.. (I think it's adorable)

But he'll stand up and walk around in it for a treat...he's easily bought.

Waiting for his treat...he doesn't know what's about to happen to him in that jacket.

So here's the footage of our first swimming attempt. It's 5 minutes of FAIL. He can touch the bottom, and as you can gather from his face, he has no interest in playing my little game.

I've got a few more things, RenFest pictures and video, and a few more cards. It's only a few days until our trip...I'm so excited!

Jessica