Wow! What a journey we have been having trying to get Deon's left femur to heal along with his psyche. Three days shy of his 8 week post surgery we discovered on a routine x-ray that the pin in his leg was backing out which caused one of the rods next to his femur to slip up - putting pressure on his siatic nerve. He had been so miserable for the preceeding week, I thought that he had lost the will to live. This is what makes trying to communicate with your pet so very difficult. He couldn't tell me that his leg was killing him and to get him to the doctor. Poor guy! Well last weekend he had another surgery to remove the pin and replace it with a screw as well as removing both of the rods in his leg. So 8 weeks post-op and we are back to square one. Since his leg is pulling all of his strength and energy to heal - his kidneys are remaining status quo (which is not a good thing). Having bad kidneys totally restricts the types of medications he can be on for pain. The only available pain meds to him are a synthethic based morphine derivative. This causes him to be nuts! He moans and complains nonstop - in particular all night long which means one of us does not get much sleep. This time the doctor also gave him some valium which has helped some. Try having a life when you dog needs a variety of medications at least 6 times per day. Gosh do we love him.
He still prefers to not to use his broken leg (the good news is that the bone is basically healed) so he looks like a giant rabbit hopping around. We have a long hard battle with physical therapy and I hope that at his follow up appointment Monday, we get the go ahead. Although his leg has lost most muscle tone and strength - he can get around if he wants to. I think half of the physical therapy will be healing his head while the other is to gain strength and functional use of his leg again. He is such a sweetie - but at times my life is only about caring for dogs.
My baby Diva will have her 2nd birthday next month and is doing very well in finally starting to mature. She has not eaten any furniture is the past few months. We have been walking about 22 miles per week and then coming home to get our special needs - Avalanche and doing another mile or so per day. What a family, but I couldn't imagine life without them!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Old Guys Shouldn't Play With Teenagers
I haven't blogged much lately about my dogs, since we were plugging away with everything status quo. Avalanche continues to make amazing improvement and he went back and saw his surgeon 1 1/2 years after the last post-op follow up and he is truly amazed at how well he is doing.
On another note, as per my title to this blog, my old doberman, Deon (he is 9) was busy playing rough with his baby sister Diva (she is 21 months) in the backyard while I was getting Avalanche's shoes on for our normal morning walk. But this morning was not normal. All of a sudden I heared screaming like I have never heard before. I ran to the backyard and Deon was on the ground and Diva was standing over him barking - like come on let's keep playing. When I moved her so he could get up, it was horrid! His left leg, just hung there. We had no idea what had happened - but he was in a lot of pain. After thinking about where to take him (it was a Sunday morning), we thought about our local emergency hospital for pets in Mission Viejo, but knew that if they couldn't deal with it, we would have to take him some place else Monday morning. So we decided to take him to All Care Animal Referral Center, the same place Avalanche was referred for his spinal cord injury.
Well, my old guy had severely broken his femur - the largest bone in the body! The break was a bad one (as the vet said it was like he was hit by a car). They thought that maybe he had bone cancer, since how could this huge bone break by a fall in the backyard. He was scheduled for surgery for the next morning and they had a bunch of tests to run. They found out that he is in the early stages of renal failure, which created some complications with the surgery - but it went off without a hitch. He had some new state-of-the-art prosthetic device put in his leg to stabilize the bone which only required one hole to be drilled into the bone and no wire! Five days in critical care were up and down trying to stabilize him medically, but he came home to us prior to Christmas. His 40 staples were taken out after his first post-op visit and he was such a good boy, we didn't need to bother with the e-collar, he left his incision alone.
He is on the road to recovery, but now much go on separate walks from his brother and sister since he needs to move slow. We have him on a special diet for kidney disease (this is another blog about the horrors of K/D Hill's Prescription Diet Dog Food) and he is doing GREAT! On his last checkup, the doctor could not believe how great his bone was healing for an old guy with kidney failure, he will show them that he might be down but not done yet! We sure love this guy and he is eating up the attention. The biggest problem is now he can't hold his bladder all night so we are doing 3:00 AM potty calls which is killing us - but we have our boy home and he is so sweet!
On another note, as per my title to this blog, my old doberman, Deon (he is 9) was busy playing rough with his baby sister Diva (she is 21 months) in the backyard while I was getting Avalanche's shoes on for our normal morning walk. But this morning was not normal. All of a sudden I heared screaming like I have never heard before. I ran to the backyard and Deon was on the ground and Diva was standing over him barking - like come on let's keep playing. When I moved her so he could get up, it was horrid! His left leg, just hung there. We had no idea what had happened - but he was in a lot of pain. After thinking about where to take him (it was a Sunday morning), we thought about our local emergency hospital for pets in Mission Viejo, but knew that if they couldn't deal with it, we would have to take him some place else Monday morning. So we decided to take him to All Care Animal Referral Center, the same place Avalanche was referred for his spinal cord injury.
Well, my old guy had severely broken his femur - the largest bone in the body! The break was a bad one (as the vet said it was like he was hit by a car). They thought that maybe he had bone cancer, since how could this huge bone break by a fall in the backyard. He was scheduled for surgery for the next morning and they had a bunch of tests to run. They found out that he is in the early stages of renal failure, which created some complications with the surgery - but it went off without a hitch. He had some new state-of-the-art prosthetic device put in his leg to stabilize the bone which only required one hole to be drilled into the bone and no wire! Five days in critical care were up and down trying to stabilize him medically, but he came home to us prior to Christmas. His 40 staples were taken out after his first post-op visit and he was such a good boy, we didn't need to bother with the e-collar, he left his incision alone.
He is on the road to recovery, but now much go on separate walks from his brother and sister since he needs to move slow. We have him on a special diet for kidney disease (this is another blog about the horrors of K/D Hill's Prescription Diet Dog Food) and he is doing GREAT! On his last checkup, the doctor could not believe how great his bone was healing for an old guy with kidney failure, he will show them that he might be down but not done yet! We sure love this guy and he is eating up the attention. The biggest problem is now he can't hold his bladder all night so we are doing 3:00 AM potty calls which is killing us - but we have our boy home and he is so sweet!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Avalanche Continues to Amaze Me
Even after living with this beautiful and sensitive Siberian Husky for over 5 years and nursing him after his debiliating spinal cord injury, he still can continue to amaze me. Those of us that really live and love our dogs know how intelligent they are, but it certainly seems that when I have a heart-to-heart talk with this boy, he truly understands. I know years ago a favorite vet of mine shared with me that she felt that bright dogs had the same comprehension as a 3 year old child. Sometimes I feel they might even be brighter than this. I have had the 3 year old child and yes, often my Avalanche acts just like one. He becomes stubborn and single minded and I have to work and manipulate to get him to see things my way; but his ability to remember and apply conversations seems very uncanny. But then again, I haven't had too many opportunities in my life to be as close to a dog as I have been with him.
As an example, he has bonded with me more than my husband since I do more of the care-giving. He has recently started to refuse to go outside in the evening with my husband if he knows that I am not coming out right away to walk him. On nice afternoons, we often let him lie in the shade of a tree in the front yard to see the happenings of the neighborhood. He is such a social animal this is very important to him. Then after a while I will take him for his evening walk which is a slow saunter around the block without leash, shoes, or walkabout (the things he usually has to have on for his morning walks with his dobie brother and sister. I let this be at his pace so he can smell as much as he wants and visit with neighbors, other dogs, etc. Recently he has decided that if I am not available to do this with him, he would rather not even go out. If my husband gets him outside he will hang for awhile but then want back in and wait until I have the time to walk him.
Last night I had to rush off to my son's Back to School Night so I couldn't walk him. He decided to wait and when I walked in the house he got up - ready to go! While we were on our walk I let him know that since it was late we couldn't go that far but that I would make it up to him in the morning and by gosh, he remembered and we had a wonderful 1 1/2 hour walk this morning and he is as happy as a clam! What a great guy!
As an example, he has bonded with me more than my husband since I do more of the care-giving. He has recently started to refuse to go outside in the evening with my husband if he knows that I am not coming out right away to walk him. On nice afternoons, we often let him lie in the shade of a tree in the front yard to see the happenings of the neighborhood. He is such a social animal this is very important to him. Then after a while I will take him for his evening walk which is a slow saunter around the block without leash, shoes, or walkabout (the things he usually has to have on for his morning walks with his dobie brother and sister. I let this be at his pace so he can smell as much as he wants and visit with neighbors, other dogs, etc. Recently he has decided that if I am not available to do this with him, he would rather not even go out. If my husband gets him outside he will hang for awhile but then want back in and wait until I have the time to walk him.
Last night I had to rush off to my son's Back to School Night so I couldn't walk him. He decided to wait and when I walked in the house he got up - ready to go! While we were on our walk I let him know that since it was late we couldn't go that far but that I would make it up to him in the morning and by gosh, he remembered and we had a wonderful 1 1/2 hour walk this morning and he is as happy as a clam! What a great guy!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Where oh where has my little dog gone...
Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged for almost a month. I guess my life really has been crazy. My puppy girl, Diva went to the vet a few weeks ago and I was shocked to be confronted with the reality that my baby girl has grown up - she is now 80 pounds! Holy cow, now I know why I have no time or money. We have settled into our summer routine which means shorter walks due to the heat and mom usually sleeping in some so we start later.
Avalanche continues to show improvement and a couple of weeks ago, he heard some dogs playing around the corner and he tried to run, scoot, and hobble to get to them. You got to love that guy who always tries to keep up and loves the other dogs. I have taken them to the dog park in Laguna Niguel a couple of times recently and overall they have done pretty good. Avalanche loves the place, but after his injury I avoided it since the one time I took him in his wheelchair - he was not very at ease. Now, he is strong enough to walk around on his own and then he parks himself in a strategic location (by the water dishes) to visit with everyone who comes his way. Diva sometimes needs reminding that she is NOT is charge of the whole place and by simply showing her my pearl whites and licking her on the nose she can settle down and enjoy the day. She likes to chase runners, but doesn't want them to chase her. Go figure - she's a girl!
Avalanche continues to show improvement and a couple of weeks ago, he heard some dogs playing around the corner and he tried to run, scoot, and hobble to get to them. You got to love that guy who always tries to keep up and loves the other dogs. I have taken them to the dog park in Laguna Niguel a couple of times recently and overall they have done pretty good. Avalanche loves the place, but after his injury I avoided it since the one time I took him in his wheelchair - he was not very at ease. Now, he is strong enough to walk around on his own and then he parks himself in a strategic location (by the water dishes) to visit with everyone who comes his way. Diva sometimes needs reminding that she is NOT is charge of the whole place and by simply showing her my pearl whites and licking her on the nose she can settle down and enjoy the day. She likes to chase runners, but doesn't want them to chase her. Go figure - she's a girl!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Home Repair Causes Doggie Disruption
A couple of weeks ago we had the unfortunately experience of having a slab leak in our home. Well, what an experience this has been for our family. At first the cats thought this was very cool, when all of the furniture and items were removed from the room, lots of great stuff to explore and smell. But then, the HazMat team kept coming back and establishing "containment" zones within the house. The icing on the cake was after they had to move out the built in ovens and built in refrigerator which made the normal paths of ingress and egress impossible. The cats were blocked off from their normal eating location and where their litter box is kept. The dogs could not get to their backyard, garage, etc. without a roundabout path that they found extremely confusing. Well, one day of messing with the dogs lives and my dobies started vomiting and have loose stools. By day three, I had just about had it and the containment zone was removed and the loud de-humidifiers were shut off and removed.
The disaster is not yet over but the external stress has been lessened. Dogs and cats are such creatures of habit that this type of problem cannot be explained to them and becomes extremely stressful. Trying to keep two cats and three large dogs out of the way of plumbers, drywalls, general contractors, etc. is practically a full time job. My husband had the right idea and went on a business trip! Oh, well this adventure will keep on growing and we are learning patience (at least the humans in the house).
The disaster is not yet over but the external stress has been lessened. Dogs and cats are such creatures of habit that this type of problem cannot be explained to them and becomes extremely stressful. Trying to keep two cats and three large dogs out of the way of plumbers, drywalls, general contractors, etc. is practically a full time job. My husband had the right idea and went on a business trip! Oh, well this adventure will keep on growing and we are learning patience (at least the humans in the house).
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Avalanche: The Hunter
Even as Avalanche continues to recover from his spinal cord injury, he is so determined to resume his old life. Now that he has some mobility he is trying to get back into his bunny hunting. You should see him trying to scramble through bush trying to catch rabbits. He has bunny on the brain and thinks of nothing other than trying to catch his next rabbit. Good luck my special needs friend!
It is his determination that has gotten him this far, so who knows where he can be in another year!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Watch the Weather With Your Pups
With warmer weather upon is, you really need to remember that your pets can get stressed from the heat. Avalanche, our special needs Siberian Husky definitely slows down on warmer days and enjoys the coolness of our tile floors. Diva and Deon, being Dobermans, with black coats cannot handle the heat either even with a whole lot less fur. My son, not thinking took Diva for a run at 4:30pm the other day while it was still in the upper 80's. Needless to say, the pads on her feet got really sore from the hot pavement, and it took her a long time to cool down. Remember, dogs cannot sweat to cool themselves down. Their only option is to pant to release the carbon dioxide in their bodies, so take it easy with the pups and remember shoes are always on option on those hot days.
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