Winston's Tightrope and TPLO surgeries

Goodbye my friend

2011-04-18T19:48:00.001-06:00

Since my last post Winston continued to have good days and bad days. Unfortunately the bad days started to outnumber the good days. We tried to keep his pain under control but he started to have days where he just couldn't cope with it. He would stand all hunched up with his head down and pant. He couldn't get comfortable lying down, he couldn't sit, he struggled to walk, but he was in so much pain that when he did walk he'd kind of shuffle along. The first time this happened, we were able to get the pain under control again, but it got to the point where the relief he got only lasted for an hour or two.

After an especially bad night, I walked out with him to go potty and he told me that he was ready to go. I sat out in the yard with him for awhile and cried. We took him to AMVS that morning and we stayed with him to the end.

Doing better than expected

2011-03-27T13:13:00.000-06:00

So on Friday we let Winston try the stairs and so far so good. He's a little limpy when he first gets up but once he walks for a little while he limps less. Today we did a 5 minute walk and he was so happy to be off our property! He limped a little more on the way home than he did on the way out, but still... not too bad.

One week since front leg sprain

2011-03-24T16:37:00.000-06:00

Winston is walking better and must feel better because today he actually wanted to chew on a chew bone that is down in his pen. Tonight/tomorrow I might try letting him go upstairs and we'll use a baby gate. He's still got swelling around the joint, but most of the welling in the leg around the joint has gone down, so it's looking much better. I think we've got a week to go before I try taking him for a walk down the street though.

It's hard to have only one good leg!

2011-03-19T09:29:00.002-06:00

Winston is on three legs again. Last month he and Josie ran out the door like crazy people (like always) and we didn't realize the back patio was a sheet of ice. He slipped and landed on his front leg with his foot bent over (normal bend, but put a little too much flex in the joint). We've been pretty careful with him since then keeping his activity level down and not going for walks with him when he seemed sore. Everything seemed good and he appeared to be nearly normal again so we've been a little less careful than we apparently should have been.

He played with Josie in the yard a couple of days ago (usually this involves her running around like a wild girl through the whole yard while he spins in small circles egging her on and lunging at her as she goes by). Apparently he must have re-aggravated the sprain because he's got a little bit of swelling and some warmth in his wrist, and he's been hopping around mostly on three legs when he does get up.

Our vet said we should tack him to the floor for awhile, so he's back in his pen in "his room" with short potty breaks as his only exercise. So far he's ok with this, so that makes it seem a bit more serious, but at the same time, he refuses to eat meals in bed (he gets up and stands to eat), so it's also not as bad as we've been through in the past.

Running around nearly every day

2011-01-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

For the past week or so, we've had pretty decent weather. Lots of sunshine and a few days in the 60's so I've been opening up the gate between the yards or just letting the pups go out into the southwest side so that they can enjoy the grass and sun. They've both been playing with the balls out there and Winston has gotten in some running. Probably helps a little with the muscle atrophy. So far so good on the pain, I haven't had to increase his dose yet, though I have given him his dose early a few times, and sometimes we shorten the walks if they've been really active in the yard.

Still doing ok -- no more incidents so far

2011-01-22T15:19:00.001-07:00

I think I'm being more careful in my monitoring of him and erring on the side of just increasing the frequency of pain pills if I see any behavior that is a little "off". So far so good; it looks like the plan is working. Winston hasn't had any more really bad days. In fact we've had some recent decent sunny days in the high 40s and 50s. I've let both dogs out into the big yard and they've been running around and having fun.

He's definitely got a "weather leg"

2010-12-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

My poor boy. Winter is definitely harder on him than summer. Changes in the barometric pressure definitely seem to affect him. Mostly we can manage this through pain meds. It's too bad that he doesn't do well on Rimadyl, so we're stuck with Tramadol. I don't know if Tramadol ER is available for animals, but I might have to check into it.

We have had a couple of "incidents" since the weather got colder where he was in a lot of pain, but it came to a head a couple of weeks ago. He was outside with Josie enjoying the nice weather for most of the day. We were in and out using the tile saw (we're re-tiling a bathroom) and every time we went outside, they were just lounging about enjoying the sunshine. Once the sun started to drop, it got really chilly so I brought them inside with me and I sat down to read a few chapters of the book I'm reading when Winston got up and moved in front of me with a weird little noise. I looked out the window and saw the poor 3-legged fox out there eating something. If I'd paid closer attention, I would have realized that Winston was trying to tell me he hurt and I could have thrown more pain meds at him then.

A couple of hours passed before Winston tried to stand up again and it was a struggle. Once he got onto all fours, he was leaning as far forward as he could be to take weight off of his back legs. I gave him Tramadol then. He moved downstairs and laid down in "his room" and stayed there. I fed him a little food at dinnertime, but he wasn't all that interested. At bedtime he decided he needed to go out and tried to stand up. He kept trying but wasn't able to. I finally tried to help him stand up and he screamed in pain.

He made it outside, but he was leaning forward and shuffling along and grunting and moaning in pain with every step. It broke my heart. I gave him more Tramadol and then set the alarm for every 4 hours to give him more Tramadol all night and laid down on the couch at the top of the stairs so that I would know if he needed anything. At midnight he woke me up shuffling and making small pain noises. I really didn't know if "now" was the time that it would be kindest to put him down. Sure seemed like an easy decision at the time. Unfortunately with him not able to stand up, there was no way I could load him into my car by myself. When I woke up my husband to see if he would help me, he refused. He wanted to wait until morning and see if it was better then.

I gave him more Tramadol and every 3-4 hours I gave him more. By morning, he seemed slightly more comfortable and could stand up after a struggle. I kept up with the every 4 hours schedule for the next 3 days. By that time, he could stand up without too much struggle and it seemed as though most of the pain was in his left leg (the one where the hardware was removed from). We slowly extended the time between pills and after a week, we are back to every 8 hours which is "normal".

I wish I knew what caused this and I'd take steps to prevent it, but it's still a mystery. After 5 days I started walking him again for 5 minutes, and after 4 more days, we're walking around the little block again which is a 15 minute walk. Today I might do the next block (20 minutes) and see how that goes. They're bored just walking around the little block.

We've put his ball away where he can't get it, but yesterday when I went out to pick up poop, he and Josie ran around the yard chasing each other. It was only about 5 minutes of running, but he seemed ok afterwards.

Standing on that left back leg?

2010-10-19T17:36:00.000-06:00

Since my last blog entry I've been paying more attention to the little details about how Winston uses/doesn't use his back legs. For a long time after his last surgery, he wouldn't fully stand on his left hind leg. Most of his weight was on the right leg and he had the left foot down, but I could tell it was more for balance than anything else.

Lately I've been noticing that he really looks like he's standing on that leg. I can see that the toes are more splayed on the right foot than on the left foot, so I suspect that there's still more weight on the right leg than the left, but he's doing better. He also doesn't shuffle around as much to push off with the right leg when he stands up. Again, it's still the right leg doing most of the work, but there's definitely some left leg use.

Amazing how little improvements like this make my day!

5 months post TPLO explant

2010-10-01T17:18:00.001-06:00

I can't believe that it's been 5 months already!

I'm happy to report that Winston is doing pretty well. We can walk 3 decent length walks (we're limited by his size and ability to cool himself down at this time of year before we're limited by his back legs). He also gets some free times in the entire yard, but we can't do that daily or he reaches a tipping point where he gets too sore and then we have to cut back on all exercise. We limit this to every other day or every third day. He won't restrict himself, so we have to evaluate how sore he seems before we open the gate between the yards.

He's still on pain meds, and that's how it will be for the rest of his life. We've been able to cut back the dosage a bit as long as we manage his exercise.

He's still got some muscle atrophy in his back legs, but not too bad. I also notice that he doesn't fully use the left hind leg. For example, when he stands up, he shuffles his back legs around under him until he gets the right one in place, and he uses that one as his "push off" leg.

He runs and plays soccer with his big green horse ball, and is generally a happy guy, so we can live with the restrictions that we've got.

10.5 weeks post TPLO explant

2010-07-18T10:46:00.000-06:00

It's been a bit of a roller coaster since Winston got his hardware removed. He has had kind of a rough time and I questioned the decision more than once. At the same time, I really don't think the main problem is the hardware or the removal. He's just a big guy and he's got arthritis and it's just going to get worse over time.

He's on pain pills for the rest of his life, and some days seem to be better (or worse) than others. Yesterday was one of those days, and today there's some lingering soreness.

At the same time, he's a pretty happy dog and he gets to play and he can go for "normal" walks and life is getting back to normal for us. I just think the definition of "normal" is slightly different now than it was before.

Day 5 post left TPLO "explant"

2010-05-11T18:31:00.000-06:00

Not much change between yesterday and today other than today Winston stood up to eat instead of being served in bed. He also seemed a little more concerned about me doing his leg exercises. He's been standing up more, so maybe his leg is a bit more sore? He doesn't really stand on it yet (still), so I'm unsure. Still no word on the results of the lab culture, and as far as I'm concerned no news is good news.

Winston's incision looks good. The swelling is going down and his skin doesn't feel as warm as it did on day one.

Today it's rainy and gloomy and Winston wanted to wander around the yard during his potty breaks, but we don't want his incision getting wet, so that didn't happen. He's bored in his pen, but doing ok.

Day 4 post left TPLO "explant"

2010-05-10T20:10:00.001-06:00

Winston continues to get better. He is moving more easily today and when I did his leg exercises, he just relaxed onto his side and seemed unconcerned. I was able to do a full bicycle motion today.

When standing, he is still toe-touching, but when he walks, he is putting even more weight on the leg than he has in a month. The back pad of his foot looks fully engaged, and his back looks straight as he walks.

Today is the first day I don't feel so guilty about putting him through yet another surgery. I'm hopeful that he can get to a more "normal"state.

Today is also the first day that I might have heard a result of the lab culture (though maybe that depends on when the sample got to the lab... so realistically maybe tomorrow would be the first day). No news at this point is good news. I'm hoping for the best.

Winston's incision looks good, and some of the swelling has started to go down.

Day 3 post left TPLO "explant"

2010-05-09T18:59:00.013-06:00

Winston is doing much better today. He's walking more normally on his right leg and is actually putting some good weight down when he walks on the left leg. He isn't struggling so much to stand up. He's interested in both food and water.

I'm feeding him while he is lying down. Our next major step in "progress" will be when he starts standing up to eat.

Today he let me do his full set of range of motion exercises without being too concerned. The leg feels tight and he's worried about what I'm doing, but the action in his knee feels smooth not "clunky" like it did before.

Saturday, Day 2 post left TPLO "explant"

2010-05-08T19:49:00.021-06:00

Last night was kind of rough. Winston was uncomfortable and restless. He's in his "room" in a pen down on the landing and I slept on the couch at the top of the stairs. Every time he moved and rattled his big e-collar I woke up. I think I kept one ear open for him all night. He gets pain pills at midnight so I just stayed up til then and then tried to sleep afterwards. He wanted to go out at midnight but then even though he shifted around a lot, he stayed put until the cat alarm went off at 5:30am. He was really stiff, but was able to stand up under his own power.

As the day went on, he wanted to go out and go potty nearly every two hours. There were a few times that I just told him to settle back down. I sat in his pen with him and read a book to keep him company. He was happy for that. I tried to move his leg and was able to move it for about 5 repetitions, but it's still pretty swollen and he finally leaned over to put his head across my arm. I figured this was an improvement, so I let it go and we did the same thing again later in the day.

He's eating ok, but wasn't really interested in water until evening.

Winston's back home after TPLO plate removal

2010-05-07T21:34:00.000-06:00

We picked Winston up at noon today and I was a little surprised to see that the recovery for this surgery is very similar to the previous surgeries. Two weeks of almost no activity and then we can start walking again starting with 5 minute walks. The difference here is that every few days we can increase by 5 minutes instead of every week or two weeks. Actually, I guess this makes sense because he hasn't had regular exercise in over a month and his muscles have noticeably atrophied in that time. If we do too much too soon, he'll be too sore to move.

We're to start PT asap, and that will be critical as he heals. I'm to start doing the passive exercises with his leg 20 repetitions three times a day every day is what our paperwork says.

I was a bit horrified to see him walk as they brought him out to the car. He looks awful and it looks like his right leg doesn't work right anymore either. It might have been kinder to just put him down instead of putting him through this again.

We got him home and I sat with him for a bit. He finally struggled to stand up and couldn't manage it so I helped lift him up with the sling and helped him outside to go potty. This is not a good sign. He came back in and went to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.

At dinner time I helped him up again and we went out for a potty break. He is definitely not walking normally. It looks he went horseback riding for several hours and his legs are bent into that "cowboy" shape. I'm pretty worried.

I fed him dinner in bed, and he was interested in food, but not water. I tried to do his passive exercises and he leaned over and took my arm gently in his mouth to tell me to stop. I remember how I felt the day after my shoulder surgery and if someone had tried to move my arm for me that day I would have gladly shot them, so I decided we would try again tomorrow.

Later in the evening, Don took him out to go potty and said that he'd stood up on his own. Winston's incision had drained all over his leg and made a puddle on his bed. It looked ok, so I blotted up the puddle and left the residue on his leg alone.

Left leg TPLO plate removal today

2010-05-06T18:17:00.022-06:00

We dropped Winston off this morning for removal of his TPLO plate and a check of the meniscus in his left knee. Putting him through this again was heart wrenching. He figured out what was up as we loaded him into the car, and he was not a happy camper. When we got to AMVS and we went into one of the exam rooms, he started crying and buried his head in Don's lap and begged us in doggy body language NOT to leave him here. My poor boy. I wish I could explain that we were trying to make him better.

I chose the DNR option again, and there was a part of me that honestly expected to get a call that Winston had died during surgery. I wouldn't be surprised if he just gives up. The hours crept by, and the more time passed without that call, I figured that he'd made it through surgery.

Finally, Dr. Duerr called to say that the surgery had gone well. He said that a couple of the screws were loose, and he hardly ever sees that, so he's going to send off a culture to the lab to see if there's an underlying infection going on. Also the meniscus was torn and frayed, so they removed part of it. He wasn't sure if they were going to keep him overnight or if he could come home later, so he said he'd call back in a couple of hours and make the decision at that time. After another hour, they called back and decided to keep him overnight.

Checked by the vet

2010-04-21T10:40:00.023-06:00

Winston has been in pain off and on since my last blog. I tried taking him off the pain pills but every time I do and then walk him farther than around the block (about a 15 minute walk), he ends up on three legs again. It's a little depressing.

Today we went to AMVS to get his leg checked. Without doing surgery it's hard to say exactly what is going on, but they suspect that he's torn his meniscus. We're to continue with pain pills and continue resting him while we consider our options. The best option for Winston is to remove the TPLO plate, and check/repair the meniscus. It sounds like the recovery from surgery isn't as bad as having the TPLO done in the first place.

We're expecting a tax refund this year. I guess it's going to Winston.

Another setback?

2010-04-09T20:28:00.031-06:00

For the past month, Winston's been getting some limited free time in the back yard. First we walk and then he gets some time to be loose in the yard while I pick up poop and small branches that the tree has dropped. We don't have any toys back there for him to play with so he thinks it's a little boring, but I don't want him running a lot yet.

The foxes have taken up residence in the neighbor's old pool shed next door, so there are times that Winston has run along the fence, and he seems to do ok with that. Josie is so excited to see him run that she's been trying to get him to join her running around the yard. Sometimes he does, but not always.

Yesterday I let them into the side/front yard (we live on a corner) and that's where Winston's big (horse sized) jolly ball has been sitting for over a year waiting for him. He was so excited to see it and get to play with it that of course he did. He didn't run hard, just an easy trot, and then he lay down and squeezed it a bunch. After awhile I called them back to the back yard and shut the gate between the yards.

All seemed well until last night before bed. When I called the dogs to go potty before bedtime Winston was on 3 legs. He wasn't using his left hind leg. Hmmmmm..... I guess he overused it today? I gave him some pain pills and we all went to bed.

This morning he was extremely limpy but at least was using his leg again. I've continued the pain pills and he doesn't get to walk or play today.

4 month update

2010-04-02T22:23:00.009-06:00

Winston is doing well, and our walks are getting longer. We get to walk through the neighborhood to the east of ours in addition to ours to make our longest loop and the walk takes about 50-60 minutes depending on how fast or slow we are. Both dogs are loving the extra time and sights.

I've been loading them into the car and taking them with me when I run errands so that Winston learns that not all car rides end at the vet. Sometimes we'll park and walk in a different area, but it's been so long since we've been out in "public" that the dogs need a refresher course on manners around other people. I'm working on it.

March 9, 2010: Week 14 and all is well

2010-03-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

Winston is allowed anywhere in the house except for beds. He thinks this stinks. We figured if his leg bone was only 80% healed at 12 weeks, it's best to wait until at least 16 weeks before we risk him hopping off of one of the beds. He's still got a lot of muscle atrophy in his left back leg, and a little bit in his right hind leg, but with any luck and a little time and some more PT exercises that will get better.

I've started Winston (and Josie because whatever he does, she wants to do too -- especially when there's biscuits involved) back on some of his physical therapy exercises at home. Also when we encounter people (with or without dogs) on our walks, I'm asking both my dogs to sit while the other folks go by. I need some more practice with timing on that one. If I give them the biscuits too soon, they'll both stand up and bark or lunge. This is new behavior since Winston had all of his surgeries and Josie joined our family. I think it starts with her, but I could be wrong. I can tell that Winston isn't as trusting of people as he was before all of this. Anyway, distracting and bribing them with biscuits seems to be working, so hopefully with time they'll just focus on me instead of whatever's going on around them.

After our afternoon walk, Winston gets some off-leash time in the back yard. I take him out on the leash and wait until Josie has run around looking for any stray bunnies that might be in the yard, and then I let him off the leash. So far so good with this. He has done a few trots and a little gentle run from time to time but so far not a lot of activity and no full-out "get the bunny" running. I won't let him in the front yard until he's built up his leg muscles a bit more.

March 4, 2010: Things that go bump in the night still scare me

2010-03-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

I happened to wake up at 4:00am this morning and while I was dozing trying to fall back asleep, I thought I heard a noise downstairs. It wasn't loud and I kept listening and didn't hear anything more. I guess I fell back asleep because next thing I knew, the "cat alarm" was going off at 6:15. Our cat, Tyler's internal clock is a little off and he starts each day by loudly complaining that we haven't fed him his canned breakfast treat. Sometimes he starts this behavior at 3:00am. Lately he's been closer to the correct time, but that could have something to do with me chasing him down the hall telling him that it's not time, and he needs to be quiet.

Anyway, my first thought after being slightly annoyed with Tyler, was about Winston. Was that noise I heard him falling somewhere? We gave him full stair privileges last week, and since then both of us have been really worried that he's going to fall down them again, or that he's going to hurt himself coming upstairs to let us know that he needs to go potty (Winston likes to spend the night on the couch downstairs since he's still not allowed on the beds). Don's been leaving a light on so that the stairs aren't completely dark.

When I got up to check on them, I found both dogs downstairs on the couch together, so I have no idea what the noise was. I'm just thankful that it wasn't Winston.

He's doing really well, and having an easier time walking. He still doesn't totally engage the pad on that foot when he's standing, but he's getting closer. I tried a little off leash time in the yard after a long walk this week for the first time, but he wanted to run so I put his leash back on and we went back into the house. I'll try it again soon, but maybe without Josie out in the yard.

February 19, 2010, 11 weeks post TPLO, good news again

2010-02-19T20:14:00.001-07:00

Winston seemed almost back to normal this morning. He is standing up much easier than he has in the past few days. The rest appears to be helping him. I debated calling AMVS and rescheduling our appointment for next week since I know they're shorthanded this week, but then I thought if something happens this weekend that I'd regret changing the appointment, so we went as scheduled.

Dr Flynn did an exam and said that everything felt good and as he would expect. They did x-rays and said that while he's still not fully healed, he's at 80% and everything looks good. We're to keep doing what we're doing (letting him rest with some 5 minute walks) until Monday when we can return to 25 minute walks, and then if he does ok with that, we can try increasing to 30 minutes on schedule at 12 weeks.

I got the impression that little blips like this aren't unusual. It was just a bit shocking to me how quickly the pain seemed to get really bad, and then how quickly he seemed to get over it.

February 18, 2010, 11 weeks post TPLO, a little better

2010-02-18T20:51:00.007-07:00

Winston seemed better though he was still slow getting up. I left the baby gate up and we didn't walk other than potty breaks during my work day. I called AMVS to see what they thought and they suggested that I come in this week for a check instead of waiting until next week for his 12 week check. We go tomorrow morning.

After work I took the pups out for a potty break and they both stood at the front door and really really really wanted to go for a walk. I took them for a short walk up the street and back, for about 5 minutes total. I gave Winston some Tramadol before bedtime since he seemed a little uncomfortable.

February 17, 2010: 11 weeks post-TPLO, had a scare

2010-02-17T23:35:00.002-07:00

Moving up to 25 minute walks has been more of a struggle than when we moved to 20 minute walks. We started by just changing the time on one walk, and after a few days we did two longer walks and then after a few days we did all three walks at 25 minutes. After a day or two of that, Winston was really sore and limpy so we dropped back down.

Last Wednesday was 10 weeks after surgery and two weeks after we found out that the bones hadn't fully healed, and it was the earliest that the surgeon wanted us to give Winston some more stair privileges. Up to this point, he's only been allowed to do the half-flight when one of us is with him. We decided not to push the healing, so we didn't just take the baby-gate down all the time, but starting this past weekend, we've been taking it down for limited amounts of times. Sometimes after we come back in from a walk or going potty, Winston wants to lie down in "his room". Now we can start letting him stay down there and come upstairs or go downstairs on his own. We still leave the gate up overnight, and if I expect someone, or think he might run down the stairs, I put the gate up. So far he's been very good about going up and down at a reasonable speed, but he has definitely been doing more stairs than he has in months.

Monday was a sore day so Tuesday we dropped back down to 20 minutes each walk. On Wednesday Winston seemed better so I thought we'd try for at least one 25 minute walk and the morning was nice (sunny and pretty warm), so we went for our long walk then. He seemed like he felt fine and was enjoying life.

At lunch Winston was really slow to get up when we went out for a potty break, and seemed really subdued. When he got up for our afternoon walk, he struggled to stand up and once he was standing, he had his head hung down like he thought he was in trouble. I thought it was weird, but didn't really put two and two together. We got about 3 houses down the street before I realized that he still had his head hung down near the ground and it wasn't because he was sniffing. I think he was trying to keep as much weight off his back legs as he could. We turned around and headed back home and I gave him some Tramadol. By dinnertime three hours later he seemed better and was no longer hanging his head down. He wanted to go for a walk, so we tried again and went for a 20 minute walk. I am sooooo STOOOOOPID!

I think the pain pills started wearing off or he just got that much more sore that by 9pm he was panting and pacing and was really a very unhappy camper, so I gave him 4 more Tramadol. An hour later he was still pacing and panting and was velcroed to me so that if I tried to hide in the bedroom, he stood outside the door panting and whining. I thought I'd have to take him into the emergency clinic. When he was getting Tramadol after surgery he was getting up to 8 pills at a time (yep, he's a big boy), so I figured I'd give him 4 more so that he would have a full dose and then we'd decide whether to head to the emergency clinic. Within an hour the rest of the pills kicked in and he seemed comfortable and we both got to go to sleep.

February 5, 2010: 9 weeks post-op

2010-02-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

Not much to report here. Winston is slightly improved over last week. He didn't really stand on his left hind leg when there was standing to be done (wating to get his leash on before we head out the door), and kind of limped around on it. If he had to stand for too long (waiting for ME to put my socks and shoes on before a walk), he'd sit or lie down instead of standing while waitng for my slow pokey self.

Seems as though that's finally changing. We were getting ready for a walk this week when I decided at the last minute I'd better take a nature break myself before we got out the door. I shut the bathroom door because sometimes I don't appreciate Josie "helping". She's so funny; just barges on in and puts her head in my lap for a pet cuz I'm conveniently stuck there. Anyway.... when I opened the door, Winston was standing right there and had to back up so that I could come out. Up to this week, he would have stood there or moved forward or sat down or even more likely been laying down nearby. He wasn't able to put enough weight on that leg to use it to back up. HOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday at 9 weeks, I wondered if he was well enough to try increasing his walks again instead of waiting for two week increments. We increased one of our walks by 5 minutes and so far so good. Depending on the weather, maybe we'll bump up the time on a second walk. We're due for snow on Sunday. :-(

January 27, 2010: 8 week TPLO check

2010-01-27T17:21:00.002-07:00

Well, today we went for Winston's 8 week check. He wasn't too upset about going to AMVS. I guess it's been long enough that he didn't automatically expect bad things. Good to know that he's willing to give us all the benefit of the doubt. Good boy!

We got to go into an exam room right away and Winston paced and panted. He also didn't want to go back for x-rays, but did it anyway. He's so funny.... you can pretty much do anything with him.

Dr. Duerr looked at the x-rays and then did the exam. The bone has started healing but isn't fully healed. He seemed pleased with the progress considering what we've been through. The result will never be as good for a "fresh" TPLO (not following a previous repair). I asked whether we could take down the baby gate across the stairs. He asked whether Winston walks up and down them and I said yes, but then qualified it by saying that if someone rang the doorbell, he might run down them. He recommended waiting another two weeks before we take it down.

We're to keep increasing his walks as well as he can tolerate them so that we can work on the muscle atrophy. Today we bumped back up to walking around two blocks instead of just our own. The pups were both happy when we went that far.

As far as increasing any other exercises, we're supposed to wait on that too and go back for another check in 4-6 weeks. All in all, it was pretty much what I expected and good news.

January 22, 2010: Day 51, healing on track?

2010-01-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have been uneventful for the most part. At 6 weeks we moved to walking around two blocks instead of just our own and Winston got more sore. At first there wasn't a noticeable difference but the more we did it, the more he seemed to limp, so we've cut back to going just around our block again and he seems like he's doing better. This is a marathon instead of a sprint so I don't mind if our progress is slow.

What I see as progress:

His leg looks good; there's no swelling anymore.
The little lump where the seroma was has gone down a lot and is pretty hard. It doesn't feel like there's any fluid in there anymore (if there is, it's well hidden between the lumpy hard stuff).
He's having an easier time standing up from a sitting or lying position.
He's using the leg to step onto or off of the couch (it's a lateral move so there's no jumping involved).

The things that worry me:

He's still not using his leg fully while we're in the house or when he's standing still.
He's got a noticeable limp while walking.

His 8 week check with x-rays is scheduled for next Wednesday, so I'm hopeful that the bone will be fully healed and we'll be able to move onto some of the harder exercises that will force him to use his leg (lifting his other foot and walking in figure eights), but I won't do any of that until we know more. It could be that he's just healing slower this time and we need to wait.

January 11, 2010: Day 40 - back to longer walks

2010-01-11T17:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I tried taking Winston around the block for three of our four walks. He didn't seem overly sore, so we did it again on Sunday and then again today. I think we've officially moved to this distance/time. About time! On Wednesday we reach the six-week milestone and we're supposed to start increasing walk time/distance again. It seems like our progress is slower than last time, but I think that the weather is definitely a factor at times. Not only the weather, but the roads must be considered. The county budget must have tightened up because our street doesn't get plowed during the snowstorms anymore. The street to the west side of our property does. The snowpack and then ice is slick at times and we don't want Winston to slip and fall.

January 8, 2010: Day 37 - Slow but steady

2010-01-08T20:55:00.001-07:00

The temps crept up a bit today so we did a 5 minute walk at 9am when it was coldest and then by the time I got off work at 3, it was in the low 30s so we went around the block. Winston seemed fine with that, so this evening after dinner I bundled them up in their coats and we went around the block again.

January 7, 2010: Day 36, Winston is less sore

2010-01-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

So it's REALLY (ok, for us anyway) cold today. When I woke up it was -11F and windy, so it was pretty ugly outside when we went for a potty break. Winston seemed pretty uncomfortable on his leg in that cold, and I don't blame him. Newly healed tissue, healing bone, and metal plates and screws aren't much fun in the cold. We didn't go out again until about 10am when it had warmed up to about 5 degrees and the wind had died down. We did a 5 minute walk all bundled in our coats. When out walking today and around the house, Winston seems more comfortable on his leg than he was yesterday, so we did a 10 minute walk at midday and then another quick 5 minute walk at 3pm. Our only outings after that were potty breaks in the yard.

January 6, 2010: Day 35 - Winston's pretty sore

2010-01-06T18:27:00.001-07:00

Ok, so the three longer walks yesterday was tough on him. There were a couple of times that he stood up, and just didn't want to use his leg at first. He did start walking on it, but I could tell he was saying, "Ouch." It's snowing and in the teens, so even though we've walked 3 times today, I've kept it to 5 minutes per walk. He still wants to get out and do it. Once he gets going, he's not limping too much.

January 5, 2010: Day 34 - increased time on another walk

2010-01-05T21:33:00.001-07:00

The weather is still holding nice and Winston seems to feel good, so we tried 3 around-the-block walks and one 5 minute walk. This evening he still seems fine, but the true test will be tomorrow. I expect he'll be more sore, but I'm just not sure how bad it will be.

January 4, 2010: Day 33, Increased walk time

2010-01-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

Not much to report here. We've been able to increase two of our walks to around the block (about 12 minutes each) and we've been doing two 5-minute walks in addition to that. Winston has gotten used to the additional time and activity. Depending on the weather, we should be able to bump up one of the other walks to around the block. We're supposed to get a cold snap with some snow on Wednesday, so we'll see what happens.

January 2, 2010: Day 31, Walking around the block again

2010-01-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

The weather has warmed up (it's 47 right now according to our little weather station) so there's more dry pavement to walk on. The rest of the street is either slushy or snowy depending on where we are and what time of day it is, so we tried walking around the block for our last walk of the day on December 30th. Winston was noticeably tired afterwards, but didn't seem much more sore from it. On New Years Eve and New Years Day we walked two 5 minute walks and one "long" walk -- it's about 12 minutes rather than 10 so we increased the time just a bit more than the recommended increase. Winston is no longer more tired from it. I'm thinking that we might try for a second round the block walk today. We've already done one 5 minute and one round the block walk.

December 30, 2009: Day 28 The ice is melting

2009-12-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

The ice on our street has melted enough that we have a clear path for 3 houses before we have to cross a short patch of packed snow to get to the clear path on the south side of the street for 3 more houses. This works out pretty well for our 5 minute walks, but we're going to increase our time by 5 minutes on one of our walks tomorrow, so I'm not sure what we'll do -- 2 laps in the same area?

Maybe tomorrow morning we'll try the other direction and see if we have a clearer path down the street on the west side of our house. It's a busier street, so there's more dry pavement, but there's more of a chance of meeting a car and since Winston wants to chase them, I try to avoid that while we're practically in the middle of the street.

Decisions... decisions....

December 28, 2009: Day 26, Close call with the ice

2009-12-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

The ice on our street is starting to melt, so if we can make it across the middle part of the street, we can walk on clear pavement. Before today, it hasn't been bad; the ice is crunchy and has traction. Unfortunately today that changed.

I bundled up the dogs into their coats before we left the house and we walked down the driveway to the street. The driveway is totally clear of snow and ice, but there is a thick patch of ice on the street right at the end of our driveway. Once Winston stepped onto that, all of his feet slipped. Luckily his reaction to slipping was to immediately sit down. I was't sure if he could stand back up safely, but I also wasn't sure how to get him back onto dry pavement so I tried coaxing him back toward me. As soon as he started to stand back up, his feet slid again and he sat back down. I finally ended up grabbing the neck and tail ends of his coat and dragged him back towards me. He slid so easily it was like he was on wet glass. Scary! I got him to the edge of the ice and he stood back up and we walked back up the drive to go into the yard instead.

Winston doesn't think walking around the yard "counts" as a walk, so he's been bugging me to take him out for a real walk. He stands at the baby gate across the top of the stairs and stares at me. Then he'll walk to me and walk back to the baby gate (just to make sure I understood what he was asking). Once we get downstairs, he goes to the front door and isn't happy when I tell him we;re going out back. Of course, once we're out there he's happy enough to walk around both the back and the front yard -- it just doesn't count as a walk.

In the house Winston doesn't really walk on his leg. Outside, he puts weight on it, but in the house he's still treating it like he did before his surgery. I'm not sure if this is just habit or if there's some other reason, but I suspect that it's habit.

December 26, 2009: Day 24, All is well

2009-12-26T16:22:00.029-07:00

We've had a pleasantly uneventful holiday. No new snow yesterday but it was COLD. We bundled the dogs up into their coats and got them out for three walks in addition to regular potty breaks. At this point there's not much difference between our walks and their potty breaks other than for a potty break we don't put their coats on (trying to encourage speed there...) and Josie isn't on a leash. They both circle the yard sniffing all the smells. In the snow, I can see tracks of everyone who's been in the yard. Cats, rabbits, and even a fox. The "backyard rabbits" are living under our shed, we can see the hole that they've dug to get under there. One of these days I'll have to make a little one-way trap door and see if we can get them out of there and finish putting rocks around that side so that they can't easily dig their way under there again. I just don't have the heart to do it right now when it's so cold and snowy.

Today we woke up to snow. It showed just enough to cover the bare asphalt on our driveway before it stopped and then it got sunny. Sunglasses were a must for me on our walks today. The dogs don't seem to mind, but I'm sure the glare must still affect them. Our street is snow packed and icy in places. I could see Winston slip a little every once in awhile. I tried to keep him walking in the middle rather than towards an edge since that seemed to be more snow and less ice. Hopefully we'll warm up enough to melt the street soon. If we don't, I'll have to resort to doing laps in the yard. I'll open the gate to the front yard and we'll walk the entire perimeter. It's not bad when we're only walking 5 minutes, but gets boring when we're aiming for 10. Luckily we're still at 5 for most of this coming week. Towards the end of the week, we'll start increasing one walk to 10 and then after a couple of days I'll move that to two and then in a couple of days we'll do all three walks at 10 minutes each.

December 24, 2009: Day 22 Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

We've broken out the dog coats to walk in the snow for the past couple of days. Today the snow has stopped and it's bright and sunny and beautiful. The snow on our street is still fluffy and "safe for Winston to walk on", so we've already been out a couple of times today. We're all so happy and thankful.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

December 22, 2009: Day 20 -- GREAT NEWS!

2009-12-22T19:33:00.005-07:00

It's supposed to snow tonight, so I figured if we were going to get Winston's bandage changed again this week, we'd better get it done today otherwise it will be too hard to get him loaded and unloaded safely. When we got to AMVS, he started shaking like a little dog. Poor guy, I feel bad that he's so scared to be there again. There was a while that he didn't mind going -- hopefully we'll get to that point again.

They took him back to remove the bandage and next thing I knew Dr. Flynn came out and asked if I'd seen the seroma lately. I said that I'd been peeking at it but that it was hard to get a good look or perpective while it's in the bandage. He said that it was pretty small and that he didn't think that they could get the bandage tight enough to put enough pressure on it. He thought it would be a better idea to get Winston moving so that the lymphatic fluids can do their thing (my words, not his). I know that Winston would rather be walking than laying around in a bandage so this sounded good to me. Dr Flynn thought they were putting a new bandage on so he went back to see. He said if it was already on, I could take it off in a day or two.

A few minutes later he came back out with an unbandaged Winston. The seroma does look smaller. I felt it and it feels totally different than it did last week. It's all firm and lumpy with no thin patches that feel like I could poke a finger into it. HOORAY!

We went for a five minute walk as soon as we got home. I also let him try going up the stairs. No problems there. Later on he had no problems going back down (that's the scary part), so I decided to move him upstairs permanently. I moved his bed up there and both dogs settled in a circle around his bed like yin and yang. I tried to get a picture, but by the time I got the camera, Winston sat up and watched our neighbor walk her dog by. It's a happy picture anyway.

December 21, 2009: Day 19 -- It's going to be a long week...

2009-12-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today was the longest day ever..... I worked downstairs next to Winston's pen so that he doesn't have to have the e-collar on and all he's done all day long is pace and pant and push at the pen. Occasionally he's played with a toy, but mostly he's just been telling me over and over how much he wants to be OUT OF HERE.

The bandage hasn't moved any farther down and the top part is above the seroma, so I think we can wait until tomorrow before we think about a bandage change. I triple bagged his foot and took them out for a short walk. It's the first we've done besides potty breaks since the bandage went on. By the time we got back, the outer bag was totally worn through and the middle bag had a bunch of holes, but the inner bag (a quart-sized freezer bag) had stayed whole. What a process!

December 20, 2009: Day 18: Trying to keep the bandage another day

2009-12-20T18:59:00.001-07:00

Winston has stayed pretty quiet today. He hates having the e-collar on, but every time I take it off, he licks his toes and the bottom part of the bandage. Ugh! I spent most of the day in his pen with him again so that he can have the e-collar off.

The bandage has slipped a bit, but the stiffer upper edge is still above the seroma and whenever his leg is bent (most of the time), it's tight across the seroma so it seems as though the bandage will make it to tomorrow. We're taking it day by day. I doubt it will make it to Friday, but you never know.

December 19, 2009: Day 17, Bandage slipped

2009-12-19T18:37:00.001-07:00

I set the alarm for every 3 hours last night but Winston was so restless that it never actually went off. I'd hear Winston get up and thump around and I'd get up and check his toes and then reset the alarm for another 3 hours, and Winston would get me up again before it went off. Needless to say that neither of us got much rest. There was no change in his toes all night -- they stayed all snuggled together just like they were supposed to. The lower part of the bandage also looks good and hasn't shifted at all. The upper part of the bandage has fallen down his leg and the soft padded part has also curled over so that now I can see half of the seroma over the top of the bandage. Obviously it's not doing what it was meant to do, so I called AMVS and asked them if I should bring him back. They said that I should so we went back in for a bandage change.

They wrapped thick sticky tape around the upper part of the bandage. It didn't seem to be sticking really well to his fur, but it definitely made the top edge of the bandage a lot stiffer and taller than the first bandage. As soon as we got home, I encouraged Winston to lie down and I brought a book and my Crazy Creek chair into his pen. Every time he started to get up, I'd tell him to lie down. Less movement = less bandage slippage. Eventually he got the hint and went to sleep. I read for awhile (Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol") but found myself nodding. Eventually I grabbed a huge throw pillow and lay down next to him and napped a bit as well.

He's much quieter today and seems to finally get that he's not going to be walking while he's got this thing on his leg. The only time he got up was to go out for potty breaks. He's even been eating while lying down. I took a break from his pen in the evening and when I came back downstairs I found that he'd been licking and chewing on the bottom (around his toes) of the bandage. I cut away the padding and wet edges and put his donut on, hoping that would be enough to keep him from trying that again. No such luck. I heard licking pretty soon afterward. That's probably the only time I appreciate Mastiff jowls; there's definitely some noise when they open their mouth and the sounds of licking carries up into the living room. Busted! We broke the big cone e-collar back out again and now he's got that on. He hates it.

December 18, 2009: Day 16, Physical Therapy and back in a bandage

2009-12-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

Winston's attitude is great and he's happy to be walking. I had to go to the office yesterday so Don watched the pups in the morning and my mom came to sit with her "granddoggers" as she calls them. Winston didn't get a walk until I got home, but by the time we went to bed, he got three walks so we're still right on schedule.

When I got home yesterday it seemed as if his seroma was slightly larger than it has been. It's so hard to tell when you look at the thing every day. That's why I end up taking a lot of pictures so that I can compare pictures to each other. It also looks different when he's standing up than it does when he's lying down. Best to compare it when he's standing up. Anyway, when I did the hot compresses for the rest of the day, it seemed as though there was a real thin spot in his skin. It almost felt like I could push my finger right through it if I tried.

Today we went in for physical therapy and the therapist also noticed the thin spot and she wanted to have the surgeons look at it. After our therapy session we saw Dr. Duerr and he thought that they should bandage the leg to put pressure on the seroma and give the tissues a chance to seal. They put the full-leg bandage on and I'm supposed to watch it closely for either slippage where his toes get covered or separation of the two middle toes which would indicate swelling. I'll be setting the alarm tonight so that I can check on him every few hours. If I see either swelling or slipping, I'm supposed to take the bandage off and call them (and we'll probably get a new bandage put on). If all goes well, they'd like to see the bandage stay on for a week. I doubt we'll make it that long before we'll have to go in for a change just because it gets all bunched up, but we'll sure try.

December 16, 2009, Day 14 - We're walking again!

2009-12-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Today we started our walks. For the next two weeks we will walk 2-4 times per day and 5 minutes per walk. Both pups are really excited to start walking together again, but can't understand why we're turning around so soon. Winston is walking on his leg better than he was before his surgery and when I told him that was as far as we're going he gave me a look like, "My leg feels better now than when we used to walk around the block... how come we have to go back?" We walked 4 times and he seems ready for more.

We stopped giving him pain pills yesterday and he seems fine. I would rather have him be a little bit sore so that he's more careful, but so far I can't tell whether he even feels sore. Yesterday he came upstairs twice and we had to scold both dogs because Josie was trying to instigate a play session. She did the puppy tail tuck and started running around the living room and kitchen trying to get him to chase her. Uh... there's not enough room for two mastiffs to race around any part of our house, nevermind his leg. Luckily Don was petting Winston while Josie started this so he held on and kept Winston from following. We told Josie "No" a couple of times and finally she settled down.

Today Winston has come upstairs 3 times in addition to his 4 walks. He's chewing on chew bones and wandering around the living room to check out all those smells that he didn't get to smell for the past two weeks. He's also able to get onto the couch which he hasn't been able to do very easily since October. We let him on the couch because he's big enough to be able to just step sideways off of it. We don't let him on any beds because he will jump off of them.

The seroma is still there. It seems like it gets smaller overnight and then as the day goes on it gets a little bigger, but it's still no bigger than it has been. I'll keep hoping for the best.

December 15, 2009: Day 13, staples out

2009-12-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

We took Winston to AMVS to have his staples (and stitch) removed and for his 2 week check. He was scared to be there, but handled it fairly well. There was some big dog shivering going on. Poor guy!

Yesterday morning Winston's seroma was nearly gone, but by the time he went to bed, it was larger again. I did the hot compress thing again last night. This morning it was down a little, but definitely still there. When Dr. Flynn brought him back to us after they removed the staples, he asked me about it. I told him what I've been seeing. He said that it might be joint fluid leaking from the bone tunnels, and that the incision might open up, and if it does, they can do something about it otherwise they just want to leave it alone because they don't want to risk introducing an infection. Hmmmmm...... Definitely not what I wanted to hear. For now, he said to keep doing the compresses and keep watching it. Now I get to worry worry worry again. If I think about it too much, I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. UGH! I'll keep doing the compresses and hope for the best (and try not to think too much about it).

December 14, 2009: 12 days post-TPLO

2009-12-14T12:10:00.001-07:00

The seroma on the outside of Winston's leg is mostly gone today. He's continuing to do better and walking better on the leg when we go out to go potty. He's definitely ready to start his PT. Today after he went out for his late morning potty break, I let him try going upstairs to see if he was interested. He was and actually went up them pretty easily. Going up is usually harder than going down because he can go down them on three legs. He just ate lunch and seems like he's going to settle in for a long nap. Once he goes back downstairs, I'll leave him there, I don't want to do the stairs too often at this early stage.

Tomorrow we go get the staples out. It's a big milestone, but he's got enough scabs still that he'll have to continue wearing the donut until they all fall off.

December 13, 2009, 11 days post TPLO

2009-12-13T12:44:00.004-07:00

Today it looks to me like the redness on the inside of Winston's leg is gone. He's not cooperative about letting me look, so I have to try and sneak peeks as he's walking around on potty breaks. He switches off lying on one side or the other and I keep hoping that when he's lying on his left leg, I'll be able to look at the inside of it, but no... he keeps it tucked way up under himself. I finally asked him to sit and pushed him around a little so that his leg was sticking out like a bat wing and I grabbed the camera so that I can compare photos. The lighting isn't great at this time of day. Just got it uploaded, and you can see for yourself there's no more redness. HOORAY!

His attitude is better. Meaning that he's more active and there are no signs that he's not feeling well. He's standing up quite a bit to look out the front door and to push at the pen with his nose to let me know that he's tired of being in it. He's chewing on his nylabones (he has a chicken flavor and a beef flavor one) and he's been squeezing the heck out of his tennis ball. So far it's intact, but that's only a matter of time before it breaks in half. We buy a cheap bag of them every once in awhile since he breaks them in half pretty regularly. He's bored and letting me know it, but there's not much we can do about it yet. I just have to pet him or talk to him and distract him. Not much longer before we get to start walking and I think we'll get to carefully take him upstairs.

December 12, 2009: 10 days post TPLO

2009-12-12T11:50:00.002-07:00

There's no real change in Winston's leg from yesterday. I've been using hot compresses on both sides of it. Winston doesn't mind this on the outside, but is unhappy about me doing this on the inside area where the little reddish patch is. I was talking to my mom about having to do this. Ok, I'll be honest -- I think I was whining a little bit and how it didn't seem to make any difference last year. My mom said, "But you don't know that it didn't make any difference. If you hadn't done it, you don't know what might have happened." Hmmmm... my mom is a wise woman. So. I'm continuing with the compresses even if there's no obvious difference this year too.

His attitude is the same or possibly better. He's been standing up to eat for several days now, and prior to yesterday he would remain lying down until I actually put his food dish down in the plant stand that we use to raise the food dish off the floor. Then he'd get up and eat. Last night when I came downstairs he was already standing up waiting for me. Same for breakfast and lunch today. His leg must feel better for this change. Hooray!

December 11, 2009: 9 days post-TPLO, Deja vu -- it's a seroma!

2009-12-11T15:32:00.004-07:00

I just realized that it was 9 days after Winston's Tightrope surgery on this leg that he developed a seroma. Today is 9 days after the Tightrope implant was removed and he's definitely developed a seroma. It's smaller (so far) than the one last year (see December 10, 2008 photo). So far it's not worrying me too much because the skin color looks good and it's not that big.

On the other hand, I am a little worried about a spot on the inside of his leg near the TPLO incision. It feels like a little fluid pocket too, and it's red I don't remember there being a red area before today, but I also couldn't swear that there wasn't. I took a picture of the incision on the 9th, but that part of his leg is in shadow, so I have nothing to compare it to. I'll have to compare today's picture with how it looks tomorrow.

I called AMVS to see what they think and they said that I should try warm compresses and watch for any changes for the worse. Unfortunately I've been through that scenario already so I know mostly what to look for, but if something new pops up or I'm just not sure, or I've got questions, I don't hesitate to call them. They're open 24x7 so I can take him in anytime if I need to. They also want me to call them back on Monday with a status if everything stays the same or gets better.

So... what are the signs of a change for the worse you ask? I check for skin color changes and wound seepage and whether it feels like the area is hot. If it feels hotter (or I'm just not sure), I'll take his temperature -- he just loves that (kidding!). Every dog is different, but Winston's attitude is one of the first things to change, so I've found that to be the most important thing to pay attention to. When he doesn't feel good he won't eat, or he won't stand up to eat (hmmm.... I guess we all like being served a meal in bed when we're sick, don't we?), and he won't play with his toys. Some dogs will be more restless or lethargic too, but that doesn't seem to apply to Winston; his restlessness or lethary all seems to be centered around the time of day and what he thinks should be happening at that time. He does like to stick to his schedule.

As far as doing warm compresses, it's really important to keep the leg dry and clean, so I soak a thick washcloth in really hot water and then put it inside a gallon-size ziploc bag. Then I wipe the outside of the ziploc bag off so that there's no moisture on it. Then I put that onto the seroma until the washcloth cools down. Winston doesn't always like me doing this, so sometimes I just have to tell him that it's happening whether he likes it or not. Last year I did the compresses several times a day for a week and there was no change to the seroma, so I figured I'd just have to live with the lump until it disappeared. It did eventually go away on its own.

December 10, 2009: 8 days post-TPLO, boredom sets in!

2009-12-10T15:26:00.001-07:00

The good thing for today is that we could finally stretch the tramadol to every 8 hours without appearing to affect how Winston feels. This is great for me since now I don't have to get up to give him pills between 10pm and 6am. The bad thing for today is that Winston is REALLY bored, no matter what I've done to entertain him. He's tired of being in his pen and he wants to walk. He doesn't care about any of the toys, and even the tennis ball (usually a favorite because he squeezes them until they burst in half) only held his interest for a few minutes at a time. He's been very whiny and has kind of an attitude. He's even been pushing at the pen with his nose. Mastiffs do this short sharp poke with their nose if they think you're not moving along fast enough ("get going" is what they're saying). He's doing it to the pen today, "Take this thing down and let me upstairs."

Josie is even bored today and has been whining at the door. I'm going to change into some warmer clothes and we'll see if we can sneak out and take a short walk. That only helps her, and not Winston. :(

December 9, 2009: 7 days post-TPLO

2009-12-09T15:36:00.002-07:00

Yesterday Winston was walking almost normally when we went out for potty breaks, and I thought it seemed almost too good to be true. Today he's limping again, but hey, it was 16 degrees below zero this morning so even Josie said that her feet were freezing off. She ran out and peed and ran back to the door and hopped from foot to foot saying HURRY HURRY HURRY to us. Winston, on the other hand, stretched the time out as long as he could because he is bored in his pen. He peed then went to the far corner of the yard to think about pooping. Then got distracted. Then started to wander so I told him we were going to go back inside which put him back into the, "oh but I have to poop" mode. So he searched again for just the perfect spot and started to circle. Then got distracted again. We headed back toward the house 3 times before he finally found the perfect spot and assumed the position.

I'm doing range of motion and "bicycling" exercises with his leg. He's not overly happy about them, but at the same time, doesn't seem too concerned about them either. His leg feels pretty stiff when I try to stretch it out. I'll have to do some more work on that.

I think that Winston has also permanently graduated from the cone of shame to the donut e-collar. Yesterday Don put the donut on him after he went out at 7pm for a potty break. Winston went to sleep and stayed asleep longer than I expected. I woke him at 10pm to give him his antibiotics and then at 11pm to give him his tramadol. He woke me up at 3:30 this morning needing to go out. After we got back inside, I attempted to put the cone on him (seems like it would be more comfortable to sleep in than the donut) but he kept ducking his head to avoid it. I put the donut back on and we all went back to sleep until 6am. The donut makes me a little nervous because I know that he can still get to his incisions if he really wanted to, but so far he hasn't showed the slightest interest. I spend each day working down here so that he can have company and no e-collar, and he's never even sniffed at his leg.

Today we were out for our afternoon potty break and I saw how Josie was with Winston, I realized that the really sad part in all of this is that all the animals seem to think this is normal: every few months Winston has some kind of surgery and we all have to do/not do these things or act this way....

I sure can't wait for the day that this isn't normal and it's all some distant memory for all of us. I have a good feeling about this surgery. It's the same good feeling that I had with the last TPLO.

December 8, 2009: 6 days post-TPLO

2009-12-08T15:31:00.006-07:00

How quickly things change! The little swollen patch on the outer incision that I thought was turning into a seroma yesterday is pretty much gone today, probably because even more of the swelling in the leg is gone. You can see some definition around his hock in the lower picture. There is still a little bulb of fluid on the back of the callus on the hock itself. It jiggles when he walks.

I went back to pain pills every 6 hours since stretching it to 8 hours didn't work yesterday. I did reduce the number of pills from 6 to 5, and that seems to be just fine. Winston is less restless and seems more comfortable today. It's all trial and error.

December 7, 2009: 5 days post TPLO

2009-12-07T16:09:00.003-07:00

Winston is doing great so far. He has been standing to eat and drink as of yesterday and he wants to go out a lot more than he is allowed. He keeps standing up and trying to convince us that he really needs to go potty, but then doesn't do anything other than walk around and eat snow. There are times that I can't really blame him. If he's got the cone of shame on, he can't reach the bucket to get a drink. I'm trying to stay near him so that I can leave everything off of him so he can get a drink whenever he needs to. When I leave the house or go to sleep, he gets the cone of shame, and when I run to somewhere else in the house, I've been putting the inflatable donut collar on.

The swelling in his leg has gone down a lot, but now that it's gone down, I can see that he's got a slight seroma (or at least I'm going to assume it's a seroma for now) directly where the tightrope used to be. When we picked him up, they told me that incision was draining A LOT (more than they expected by the way they said it). Once the incision sealed up, there's no where for that fluid to go so it makes sense that he might get a seroma. He doesn't seem to mind me touching it, and it's pretty squishy just like the leg around it, so maybe it's still just part of all of the swelling that he's had. The tissue around the incision looks good and is a nice healthy color and the little bump out is not as large as the last seroma that he got on this same leg with the Tightrope procedure (see December 10, 2008 for a picture). I'm going to keep watching it closely as well as his attitude. If it gets larger I'll try hot compresses, but so far I'm just in the watch state rather than the total worry state :)

December 5, 2009, 3 days post-TPLO

2009-12-05T09:50:00.003-07:00

Winston got me up at 3:30 this morning to go out and go potty and we've all been up ever since. I see a nap in my future. Winston's leg seems a little less swollen around the knee area but about the same in the hock area. He wasn't as happy today when I tried to ice his leg as he was yesterday. I think I managed only 5 minutes before he stood up. He definitely feels better because he has grabbed a Nylabone to chew on a couple of times already this morning and he is finding it easier to stand up. The standing up part isn't so good; he wants to go outside every time he stands up but I'm not letting him. He's gone potty twice since 3:30 (though no poop yet this morning which I know will need to happen sometime), but last time he convinced me that he needed to go out he just went out and ate snow and stared at our neighbor who is out doing something on his ATV again. Now every time Winston stands up I just tell him to lie down. I figure he'll whine at me if he's really serious. He's been trying the sad eyes so far and I'm not falling for it. I don't think he's figured out yet that if he whines I will take him out. Up to this point the only time he whines is when he REALLY needs to go bad.

I'm enjoying spending time in his room with him these days because we finished the remodel from the floor up in this room. The popcorn on the ceiling is gone, the drywall repairs are done, the walls and ceiling have been re-textured and painted, and all the new doors are in and the casing is up and the new light, and switch/outlet covers are all installed. I'm toying with the idea of putting up crown molding, but we've only got 8 foot ceilings, so I'm still debating. I got a short piece of molding to see how it would look and I think it will be ok. Anyway, as long as I don't look down, it's really nice to be in here. Too bad about the floors because we've got a heat mat that will go under the slate once everything is installed. Winston would have had a nice toasty place to lie down. The new flooring in this room has to wait until it's safe for everyone to go down the deck stairs since that's the only other exit from the house.

December 4, 2009, 1st Full Day Home

2009-12-04T12:39:00.003-07:00

Winston did great overnight. He went out at 8pm and peed and pooped (hooray!) and then slept through the night until 5am when he needed to go out to pee again. I wish I could say the same for me. I slept on the couch at the top of the stairs so that I could hear him and every time I heard him I got up to see if he'd gotten up. He was only shifting in his sleep. By the time I felt exhausted and tried to really fall asleep myself Josie would thump her tail on the floor at my slightest move. I must have fallen asleep around 4am so I nearly slept through the 5am alarm but Josie got me up (good girl!).

When he went out for his potty break, his leg didn't leak at all so I think maybe we're beyond that now. I lay down again until 6am when he had more pills due and also breakfast. He wanted to go out to go potty again before I actually got him his breakfast and it was probably a good thing. He peed and pooped, but this time it was a bit loose. I decided not to include any canned food with breakfast and see how he did with his regular kibble with a bit of water and Flexicose. He ate it just like normal. I guess I should mention that he is still eating lying down. He had some water afterwards and I watched the weather report on the news (it was 2 degrees when we went out at 6am) and then went back to sleep.

When I got up, I iced his leg. Yesterday he didn't want me near it, but today he said, "Ah, that feels pretty good." It's definitely more swollen today and a bit bruised and when he stands up there's a little bit of fluid around his hock, but this is all normal. At 11am he wanted to go out again and peed. At 11:30 he wanted to go out again. I don't think he needed to go potty so I tried to get him to lie back down but he kept getting up. Finally he went over to the corner and drank some water from the bucket. I have a bucket in the corner so that he can drink standing up, but I also keep a bowl with water in it nearby so that I can offer it to him while he's lying down. Once he finished drinking, he remained standing up, so I figured maybe he wanted to eat lunch standing up. We were a little early, but not that bad, so I got his food and as soon as he saw it he sat down on his bed. I put it on the edge of the bed and ran back upstairs to feed the cat who was screaming at me that I'd forgotten him (he's old and getting a bit senile).

When I came back Winston was lying down and hadn't touched his food. It was cold by then, but I offered him some in my hand and he ate it. I kept trying to get him to eat from the bowl himself but he'd just put his head down so I ended up feeding him the entire bowl by hand and he ate it all. I figured I'd have to give the few pieces left to Josie when he suddenly decided that he'd lick the bowl by himself afterall. Not sure if it's because he doesn't feel good or he was hoping for more canned food. We'll find out at dinner.

After feeding them I put the e-collar back on and tried to grab myself some lunch. He whined a few times while I was upstairs but I couldn't see him so I figured he was still lying down. Once I headed back downstairs to him I found him standing up and whining again. He wanted to go out again. It had been an hour so I took him back out and he peed again and ate some snow. He was pretty restless when we got back inside, but since then has settled back down.

December 3, 2009, Home again

2009-12-03T14:32:00.012-07:00

I met Don at AMVS at 11:30 this morning to pick Winston up. They went over his discharges with us and then Dr. Flynn came and talked to us for awhile. He didn't give us the angle of the correction (he said he'd leave that for Dr. Duerr), but said that it was better than the TPLO on the right leg. There was no damage to the meniscus (hooray!) but unfortunately there is significant arthritis in this knee now. We will have to keep him on joint supplements for the rest of his life. We have been using a product called Flexicose which is a grape flavored liquid that we add to his food each morning. It's worked out really well for us because we're big on convenience. Also his cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) was now completely ruptured, so sometime in the past year (at Abilene?) he tore it the rest of the way through even with the Tightrope in place.

We've been through this enough that I didn't have many questions, but the one that occurred to me last night was to ask about the bone breaking around the TPLO plate and if we need to worry about that in the future once Winston gets back to normal. He's a pretty active guy, so I wondered if we'd have to be really super careful with him for the rest of his life. Dr. Flynn said that usually happens if the post surgery recovery instructions aren't followed to the letter and the dog is allowed to be too active too soon. Once he's fully healed up it shouldn't be a risk any more than breaking a bone on his own. No worries there, we've got lots of practice going slow and keeping him contained. Dr. Flynn asked us if he had been dribbly with urine for his previous surgeries, and the answer is, "yes" (poor guy). Dr. Flynn said that they had expressed Winston's bladder so that hopefully he wouldn't be as bad for us when he went home. Guess he made a mess there?

Once we finished talking to Dr. Flynn, they brought Winston to us from the back. He had the huge satellite e-collar on and you could tell that he still hates it. "I do not like the cone of shame" is a perfect line from the movie "Up"! Obviously whoever wrote that has experience with the cone of shame. He's already walking on the leg better than he was two days ago and didn't seem to mind the sling. I backed the car up to the door since there was a nice patch of ice right under the hatch and Don and the nurse Joshua team lifted him up into the car.

By the time we got home, he was doing that moan whine thing like he had to poop. We got him unloaded and headed to the back yard with the sling. Nope, he had to pee REALLY BAD. He peed and then started back to the house, then turned around and paced a little. I thought he was going to squat, but instead he peed again. We headed back to the house only to turn around and he peed a third time. I was pretty eager to get him into the house by that time because it was only 17 degrees out and I think he walked too much. His leg was bleeding from the TPLO side and draining clear fluid from the Tightrope side (where they'd removed the fiber tape and the lower toggle).

I fed him a small meal for lunch, which he ate and he slept for a few hours before needing to pee again. He settled back down on his bed and I iced his leg (wasn't too happy about that this time but he let me). He was falling asleep and would start to roll to the side and then jerk himself upright every few minutes, so I finally put the cone of shame back on and went upstairs so that he'd have total quiet for awhile.

He got up when Don came home, and got some hugs and pets before dinner. I fed him another small meal with some canned food in it. He ate it all and then drank some water and then velcroed himself to my lap while I pet him. He felt a bit cold. His back half felt normal but his ears and front legs were a little cold. I turned up the space heater that's in his room and Don went downstairs and started a fire. Pretty soon the room was toasty and Winston felt normal again.

December 2, 2009: Second TPLO Surgery

2009-12-02T19:18:00.004-07:00

I was scheduled to drop Winston off at 9:00am for surgery. This is different than in the past. Before it wasn't a big deal to get up and get going instead of feeding them breakfast. It was pretty bad this morning to wake up to sad puppy eyes wondering where the food was. I was going to work until 8:30 when we had to load him up and get going, but I didn't think I could stand to have them looking at me for 2 hours. Plan B -- go out for breakfast so we didn't have to be home and see the sad puppy eyes.

Of course the weather decided to do winter today so it's cold and snowy and icy. We made it to breakfast and back and then had to load Winston up. He knew something bad was up because he refused to go up the ramp and I was on an ice spot so as he pulled back, he was pushing me backwards. Luckily Don was at his front end and we got him up into the car without too much hassle. I drove him to AMVS and got him unloaded by myself since Don had to head to a job site. Surprisingly Winston was willing to go into the building even though he saw the huge satellite dish e-collar that I was carrying. They got me checked in and I chose DNR again, but told Winston that I had chosen it last time and it hadn't jinxed him so I expected the same outcome please.

I went back home and set up Winston's room so that it will be ready for him when he gets home tomorrow. I could practically see a light bulb go off over Josie's head when I moved Winston's bed downstairs and started adding layers of blankets and sheets to it (protection against leaky dribbly issues). Then I "went to work" -- luckily the stuff I'm doing right now takes all of my concentration, so the day went pretty fast until 3 when I normally get off. I hadn't heard from AMVS yet, so I watched the minutes tick by very slowly even though I was trying to work. Ugh!
Finally at about 3:20 I got the call I'd been hoping for. Winston did really well in surgery and was recovering from the anesthesia. I asked Dr. Duerr what had happened to the Tightrope, and he said that it was just loose; the bone tunnels were a little enlarged, but other than that everything looked like it should (the knot was tight, the toggles were where they should be, etc.). He removed the fiber tape and the lower toggle, but left the small toggle on the femur in place just like last time. I was so interested in hearing about the Tightrope that I forgot to ask more about the TPLO, so I'll have to do that tomorrow when we go get Winston.

Once Don got home from work, we headed to PetSmart for Greenies Pill Pockets (these are absolutely necessary in my opinion) and some small cans of dog food in case I need to tempt him to eat.

Tightrope Failure Confirmed

2009-12-01T16:58:00.007-07:00

I took Winston to AMVS this morning to get his leg checked out. We got there a little early so quite a few of the folks there got to visit with him while we waited in the lobby. One of the nice things about having a very large dog is that he can have some treats without having to worry too much about his figure. He wasn't happy about being there, but he was happy to see everyone that visited with him. He gave out a few big wet kisses, some of which included cookie crumbs -- eeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

They took x-rays and performed an exam. The x-rays look fine, in fact Dr. Duerr said that if there was a textbook picture of a successful Tightrope repair, we were looking at it in Winston's x-rays. The bone tunnels look fine and normal and the toggles are at the end of the tunnels just like they should be. It will be interesting to hear what has happened to the fiber tape.

Despite the way the x-rays looked, the exam confirmed that his left knee is unstable. Luckily his arthritis hasn't progressed too much, so I guess that was the good news in all of this. They also agreed with me that his right leg looks bigger and almost back to "normal" -- tomorrow will be 6 months from his TPLO surgery on that leg. The recommendation for his left leg is also a TPLO (as I suspected). They were willing to work with us on cost since we've been through so much with them. Have I mentioned lately that I love these guys?

Since cost was our biggest concern and that is (hopefully) going to be manageable, we're going to go ahead with the TPLO repair. It may not turn out perfectly but hopefully he'll get a chance to play and have some quality of life. I don't have any good reason to wait, so we scheduled it for tomorrow which will be one year to the day from the Tightrope repair on the same leg.

Stay tuned....

Tightrope repair failure?

2009-11-25T14:54:00.010-07:00

I've been off line for awhile because we went on vacation and some home improvements have been taking my off-work time.

For our vacation, we decided to take a camper trip to Texas. It wasn't quite what our Hawaii cruise would have been, but it was warm and not that far away, and best of all we could take the dogs. For the most part it was relaxing and what we could afford.

Winston seemed to be recovering from his 3-legged incident and was able to walk and stopped limping. The first stop on our vacation was an overnight stop at Torrie Lake State Park in New Mexico. This was Josie's first camping trip, so we didn't want to drive too far each day until we were sure that she was ok with all the driving. Once we got settled, both dogs were eager to get walking out to the lake. It's pretty dried up, but the setting was much nicer than stopping at a KOA. The Sandhill cranes were migrating, so we got to hear them flying nearby as the sun set and then again the next morning.

We drove to Bottomless Lakes State Park in New Mexico the next day and got to spend a good part of the day there. The lake right at the campground has very clear water and the visitors center was closed, so both dogs were able to walk up to their bellies in the water and try to catch the little fish that came too close. It was nice to relax and just take them for walks every few hours.

The next day we drove on to one of our favorite parks in Texas: Davis Mountains State Park. We didn't plan ahead and get tickets to the star party at McDonald Observatory, but our Texas state park pass doesn't expire until next summer, so maybe we'll go back in the spring and do that. There are javalina and deer there, which makes things a little interestng with the dogs. Our dogs sure wanted to "get those critters" but were willing to behave. We walked them on a few of the trails, and they were both happy. By this time camping seemed like something Josie has done all her life, and Winston has done it all of his life, so he was happy to get back to "normal". We stayed for a few days at the park and while we were there, we heard that the Mexican government was opening the flood gates to Lake Amistad (our next destination) because of the hurricane so all the campers who had been near there had moved farther away. We decided to change our plans and start heading more north.

We drove to Abilene State Park next which I'd never been to. It's beautiful. It's also very close to Abilene and an Air Force base, so you have to be prepared for jets flying low overhead. We didn't mind -- I got some nice pictures of an F18 coming in for a landing. We decided to stay for a couple more days. Since it was off season we pretty much had the place to ourselves and it was nice to go hiking with the dogs on the trails there. Near the pool there is an area that is nearly fenced in, it just has a single opening instead of a gate, so we decided to let the dogs off the leash and I'd guard the opening so they couldn't get out. They both ran, and suddenly Winston's left leg (the tightrope side) collapsed and bent in such a way that it interferred with his TPLO leg which caused him to fall. He got back up and then lay down again. After resting a few minutes he got back up and when he walked he definitely had a limp, but was putting weight on the left leg so we got him back to the camper and gave him some Trammadol. By nightfall he wasn't putting any weight on it.

I hoped that it would be like the last time and after a few days he'd be back to normal. Josie and I walked for the rest of the trip, but Winston was restricted to very short potty strolls only. On our way home, we stayed at Copper Breaks State Park, Caprock Canyons State Park and finally Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Winston's right leg (TPLO) seems fine and he's actually learning to depend on it more which up to this point he hadn't since it has been his problem leg. When I compare the size of each back leg, his left leg is now more atrophied than the right leg, so the TPLO repair seems like it's been more successful than the Tightrope.

When we got home, I was a little concerned about our stairs, but Winston managed them just fine. He was slow going up but went down them on 3 legs at first. Now he is starting to put a bit of weight on the left hind leg, and he's walking on it again but has a significant limp. He also seems to be ok without any pain medication, but that could change as time goes by if the knee is unstable. He is bending it normally and we don't see any of the "sitting with the leg straight out" behavior like we did before either of his surgeries. Before we got home, we decided the best course of action was to start the recovery process over. He's got no off-leash privileges and he was restricted to potty walks for 2 weeks and then we'll increase the walking time by 5 minutes every 2 weeks if it seems possible (so far so good with that).

We need to take him back to AMVS and find out what's happened to the tightrope repair. We've been going through a lot of "what if" scenarios. We don't know what we'll do. I think that's why I haven't already taken him in. I'm also going through some of those "I wish" scenarios. I wish I'd just done the TPLO repairs in the first place. I am also feeling guilty for making a bad decision that Winston has to suffer from. Sigh...

Three-legged dog for a day

2009-10-11T15:04:00.004-06:00

Friday evening Winston seemed very sore on his left (the tightrope side) hind leg. By late night he was only toe touching. The temperature outside had dropped dramatically (down to 15 according to our digital weather station), so we figured the soreness was due to the change in the weather since that always seems to affect him. We put the baby-gate up across the stairs and decided to watch him to see if he got better in the morning.

Saturday morning he struggled to get off the bed and ended up going off like "super dog" (back legs stretched out behind him) and didn't walk on his left hind leg at all. I had to support him as he went down the stairs. He's not used to depending on his right hind leg (the TPLO side). We went outside to go potty on the leash and when he came back in he refused to go up the stairs. I brought a bed down to the entryway so that he could get comfortable. I gave him some trammadol left over from his surgery and he ate breafast lying down. Josie had a 7:00am appointment with Dr. Courtley, our regular vet, so she and I left for the appointment and we talked about Winston's situation. He's not an orthopedic surgeon, so he suggested waiting until Monday to see the specialist. That's exactly what I was thinking.... if we took him in, no matter where we went, we would be told to go back to the surgeon.

When we got home, I took his temperature (I'm always concerned about an infection with the tightrope...) my thermometer isn't digital, so I'm not sure of the exact temp but it was around 101.1 or 101.2. No fever. Hooray!

Winston rested all day, eating lunch lying down. I gave him trammadol at 2pm and then again at 10pm. It seemed to help because by evening he wanted to go upstairs to eat dinner (standing up) and by bedtime he was walking on the leg again though with a significant limp.

This morning he is still walking on it, and he isn't struggling as much to stand up today either. It's possible that he strained it playing in the yard on Friday and we just need to take it easy for a few days. Now that he's getting around better I'm debating the need to take him in for a check, so we'll wait another day or two and see how it goes.

If I could go back in time and do things over knowing what I know now, we would have done TPLOs in both legs instead of trying the tightrope procedure. That's just us with a huge dog.

Hanging out in the yard unattended

2009-09-26T13:54:00.003-06:00

This is Winston last night after enjoying some play time with a small Jolly Ball. I tried to get a video of him playing soccer with either a small ball or the big one, but he wouldn't cooperate. As soon as the camera came out, he'd pick it up and walk with it toward me. Finally after he decided he'd had enough I was able to get this shot.

Today is the first time in a LONG time that Winston got to spend as much time out in the yard as he wanted to. The weather is fantastic today and both dogs wanted to go outside this morning and didn't want to come back in until lunchtime. Right after lunch, they both wanted to go back outside, and now (2 hours later) they finally decided that the sun is a little bit hot and the house is a nice place to hang out in.

Good News at the Vet

2009-09-25T07:00:00.003-06:00

We got good news at AMVS on Wednesday. Winston's leg has healed a lot since last time we were there. He is off of all restrictions now (hooray!), but we just need to watch him and take things slow. He still has muscle atrophy in the right leg, so it will take awhile to get that built back up, and we may experience some "bad days" where Winston gets stiff and sore after a good day of activity.

This is so great! We took the baby gates down so now he can have time on the bed. He didn't notice this Wednesday night but last night he got to sleep on the bed again. Yesterday I got out the big Jolly Ball (the horse-sized one) and let him have some play time with it. I'll have to take some pictures or video of him playing with that because it's pretty funny. He's a little too obsessed with it since it's been a year, so I had to take it away from him again after 15-20 minutes, but he'll get it back again soon.

He's a little stiff this morning, but not bad. I guess I just need to get used to the step forward step back pattern. It's such a relief to hear that his leg "felt good"!

16 week check set for next week

2009-09-15T19:17:00.003-06:00

We have our next vet check scheduled for next Wednesday. To be honest, I'm scared to hear what they have to say. I expect that they'll tell me that there hasn't been significant change in Winston's leg from our last appointment, and I don't know what that means for our future. Will he have to stay on a leash for the rest of his life?

Today during his brief off leash time in the back yard, he decided to run. Not a nice easy step up from a trot, but a "get the bunny" full-on run. He seems to be fine with the nice slow "galumph" of a run that he has been doing up to this point, and that he'll stop when I call him, but today he ignored me totally.

He's been back on the leash since this morning and I cut back the walks today. He's not limping, but he's struggling a bit to stand up. At the same time, he's also bending his leg normally instead of keeping it straight out like he tended to do before all of his surgeries. It's so frustrating. I know that ligaments and tendons can be slow to heal, and that Winston is going to have more problems because of all the damage from the infection and the extra surgeries, but I wish I had some sort of timeline. Hopefully I'll get that next week?

Happy Dogs!

2009-09-09T15:27:00.004-06:00

Winston seems to be feeling better and is back to his old self, chewing on chew bones and being goofy in the house. Any time I give him "free range" in the yard, he runs so his time is limited, but I haven't totally stopped it either. I'm hoping that a little running won't hurt him and will help build the muscles that he needs to re-build. Josie eggs him on. I had to take all the Jolly Balls out of the back yard, and keep the gate shut between the front and back yards to keep the fun down to a minimum.

I watch him stand up to gauge how he's doing. He never limps anymore, but sometimes he struggles slightly to stand up after lying down. It seems as though it's muscle soreness because the pattern is day 1, he runs and day 2, he is slow getting up, so I keep him on a leash, day 3 he gets up normally again and I keep him on a leash and day 4-6 we repeat the cycle.

We go back for another vet check in the next 2 weeks, so I hope it will be good news.

A little down these days?

2009-09-01T15:59:00.003-06:00

Winston's been getting some limited off-leash time in the back yard, and since we started that I've noticed that he seems "quieter than usual" the rest of the day.

I keep watching for signs of any problem cropping up and so far I don't see anything. He seems just the same as always when we're out walking, and there's nothing else I can put my finger on.

I decided not to worry about it and that it must just be my imagination, but I had to go to the office on Friday and my mom babysat her grand-doggers. When I spoke to her next on Sunday she asked how Winston was doing. I said, "Fine, why do you ask?" and she said that he seemed much quieter than she was used to.

hmmmm

I've cut back a little bit on his walks and he's back on the leash in the yard to see if that makes a difference.

hunting in the field

2009-08-28T18:09:00.003-06:00

The field in our neighborhood has waist-high grass for most of the summer, it's mostly pasture grass but there are a few patches of this or that where rodents like to hang out or build little tunnels to travel along from one patch to another. Winston is well enough for us to go back to using the Flexi-Giant leads which are nice for two reasons 1) they're like carrying hand-weights for me, and 2) when we're in the field, the dogs have 25 feet to use as they roam, trot, sniff and hunt.

The hunting part is new. Winston was raised as a suburban guy; before Josie came along he didn't know that catching things could be part of the fun of chasing things. He and Nala (our first Mastiff) used to chase bunnies out of the yard or squirrels up the tree, and pretty much ignored birds altogether. Since Josie came to live with us, she's teaching him some new things, though he has yet to actually catch anything. Josie on the other hand is pretty good or bad depending on your perspective. I DO NOT like the catching of birds or bunnies in my yard so I've tried my best to discourage it.

Out in the field, I'm gaining a different perspective. I was horrified the first time she caught something (a mouse? a vole?). She pounced, and I didn't think much of it. Then I noticed that she had something in her mouth and I tried marching her faster, thinking she would drop it. Instead she gave me an irritated look as though she was thinking if only I'd stop for a minute, we could all have a snack. Seeing that she wasn't about to drop it, I stopped. She set the little wet thing down on the ground so I hurried away thinking that she'd leave it. No such luck. She picked it back up and gave me dirty looks until I stopped again and waited long enough for her to crunch crunch swallow (EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW).

The next time she caught a snack, I didn't actually witness the catching. I saw that she had something in her mouth and since she's been known to eat poop (just lovely, eh?), I stopped and told her to drop it. She did and took a step back as though offering me the first bite of her tasty snack and once I got a better look at the poor little wet body, it was not poop afterall. It was also very dead already. I stepped away and told Josie that it was all hers. Now I try not to pay too close of attention until lately.

In the past couple of weeks there has been A LOT of pouncing going on, and even Winston has gotten in on the action. They look just like cats pouncing with their front paws. Surely the mice haven't started coming out to see us as we walk by?

Well, the field just got mowed and now I found out the reason for all of the pouncing. It's grasshoppers!

Week 12 post TPLO

2009-08-26T17:26:00.002-06:00

Monday was Winston's 12 week anniversary of his last surgery and since he stopped swimming, he's been doing great. We've slowly increased the walks and since we want to build muscle in that leg, I've been alternating "light days" and "long days". On our long days we go for three 30-40 minute walks, and if we can squeeze it in, we go for a fourth 15 minute walk. The weather has gotten cooler so we haven't had to cut the afternoon walk short. On the light days, we're doing two to three 15 minute walks and one 25-30 minute walk.

In addition, he's gotten some limited off-leash time in the back yard. We live on a corner lot with wire fencing, so if I let him out into the "front" yard where he can see people/bikes/dogs as they walk by he will run along the fence barking at them, silly thing.

I can tell that he's feeling better because his energy has increased dramatically in the last couple of weeks. He's going through kind of a butt-head phase out on our walks where if a car or bike goes by he wants to chase it, and when we pass other dogs, he barks and pulls. Time for me to go back to some basic obedience again. I didn't want to hurt his leg by making him sit a lot, but I think he feels well enough that I'm going to have to push him a bit. He outweighs me and I don't feel like getting dragged down the street. He should be fine again after a couple of months of having to sit anytime "something interesting" goes by while we're on a walk. Unfortunately Josie barks and eggs him on.

Today as we passed our neighbor Betty who has two Shih-Tzus, Josie barked at them and that set off Winston who lunged around and barked and while he distracted me, Josie slipped her collar (which I thought I'd tightened up enough again... sigh). I was worried that she'd run across the street and scare poor Betty even more, but she stayed close and when I called her, she came right to me and I put her collar back on. Betty apologized to ME for some reason, and we both continued on with our walks. I feel bad; it's not good to be out in public with huge unruly dogs.

Walking in the field

2009-08-13T17:36:00.002-06:00

Winston finally seems to have recovered from swimming. I still can't push him too much, but he's comfortable again. We walk for 25 minutes in the morning and that takes us through the field at the back of our neighborhood. Prior to this week it was waist-high grass and both dogs enjoyed trotting through the grass and searching for rodents. I'm using the flexi-leads again, so they've got 25 feet available for use, and in the field they're usually both out at the end of the leads. It's a nice mid-walk break for me too where I don't have to worry about cars or dogs or people or other distractions.

Our afternoon walk is usually around 4pm, and it's been hot, so we've only been able to go 10 minutes which keeps us in the shade.

Sometimes we get to go for another short walk at 6pm, but it depends on what else is going on. It's usually still hot, so we've kept the time down.

Our evening/night walk is at sunset and usually it's cooled down a lot. While Winston was sore from swimming I had to keep that to 10 minutes too, but now we're trying to extend that a bit. I'd like to do another 25 minutes, but that might be too much. Last night we went just over 15 minutes so maybe we'll try for 20 tonight and see how things go.

Speaking of walking, the dogs are hovering around me because it's that time and they're very hopeful!

A little setback

2009-08-05T17:25:00.005-06:00

Well, it seems as though things can never be easy can they?

Winston got more and more uncomfortable as yesterday went on and refused to go down the stairs to go potty a few times in the evening. He was panting and pacing and just wouldn't settle down. I gave him a Rimadyl at 8pm hoping that would help settle him. Finally at 10pm he decided that he needed to go bad enough and went down the stairs. He yelped as he went down them. I checked his knee -- no swelling. He definitely had a limp though. He went potty and came back upstairs. We put the baby gate up across the stairs so he didn't try the stairs without us. I tried to go to sleep, but he stood outside the bedroom door (there's another baby gate) panting and then paced down the hall and back. I ended up giving him some Trammadol. It didn't seem to make a difference.

After a few times of telling him to lie down, I headed back out to the living room. When I sat out there, he circled a few times and then sat down near me but wouldn't settle down to sleep. He got up and paced a few more times and finally around midnight he lay down on his bed. The construction crew overlaying concrete on the highway outside our neighborhood was still sawing the concrete at midnight; there was no way I could sleep in the living room, so I headed back to bed and hoped for the best. I woke up in the morning to find that he'd vomited overnight, and was still panting a bit but wasn't pacing anymore.

We went for a short walk this morning since some movement is better than no movement at all and he did ok once we got going. I wondered if I should call AMVS but decided to give it a little more time and see if he settled down. By 10am he was still panting so I gave him some more Trammadol. That seemed to settle him down and he slept for awhile. We did another very short walk at lunchtime and he did ok and he settled down again afterwards for another nap but would pant whenever he woke up. Time to call AMVS. They asked me to bring him right in so they could check him out.

His temperature is normal and his knee is a little warm but other than that it checks out much like it did last time (no bad changes from the swimming, and no sign of infection) so they think that something about the way he uses it as he swims is irritating the soft tissues (tendons/ligaments) so we're to stop swimming and come back for a re-check in 2-8 weeks depending on how he seems to be doing; bad=2 weeks, good=8 weeks.

Dr. Duerr asked how long we were walking, and I said that we're up to 20 minutes and even did a 25 minute walk on Sunday. He said that we should continue increasing the walking time as much as Winston can tolerate since it doesn't seem to bother him as much as the swimming does. We have a short "sledding hill" in the neighborhood next to us, so as soon as he can walk far enough to get there, we are to try walking up and down that as much as he can tolerate. Also once he's over the soreness we should continue with the sit-stands. He's been so sore getting up and lying down that I haven't done them since last Thursday.

Dr. Duerr also suggested that I call CRCG (the physical therapists) and see if they have any other ideas on what we can do to build the muscle without swimming.

The good news (I think!?) is that he was so stressed out by going to AMVS that he came home and went right to sleep without pacing or panting.

Walking outside the neighborhood

2009-08-02T12:09:00.006-06:00

Now that I know it's ok for Winston to load and unload on the ramp (we were trying to avoid it as much as possible until we heard the bone had healed), we're starting to venture out of the neighborhood for some of our walks. Mostly it's working out great, the dogs love getting away, we get to practice loading and unloading (that's important since it's only me, and I have to control both dogs while I get the ramp set up and taken down), and we get to practice manners in different surroundings.

Winston had his second swimming session yesterday, and it was better than the first time. I took Josie with me which seemed to make it easier for Winston; he was perfectly willing to follow her through the building out into the pool area. They just let Josie wander around that area while they got him into the pool. I was worried that she'd go over to the fence where the doggie daycare is and bark at them through the fence, but she just ignored them (good girl!).

Winston didn't want to get into the pool, so they had to help him along into it, but once he was in the water, he swam normally without the panick that he had the first time. He made it to four minutes this time, so 30 seconds more than last time. He was pretty exhausted when he got out, and is a little limpy today, so again we've shortened some of our walks, but not all.

July 30 2009, first time swimming

2009-07-31T15:08:00.002-06:00

We drove up to Boyd Lake Veterinary Center in Loveland yesterday for Winston's first swim. Everyone that I met was really nice, and the lady who was in charge of him being in the pool had just adopted a Mastiff, which set my mind more at ease (I'd been worried up to this point that I'd have to explain about their soft personality). Hooray!

I got all checked in (they needed shot records and wanted his history) and then they brought out a life jacket for him and asked if he needed it. Since he hasn't been in deep water since he was 6 months old, I had no idea whether he would know how to swim so we thought it best to put one on him. She seemed a little concerned that he wouldn't like having the jacket put on, but he was fine; it buckled in the front so it was easier to put it on than his winter coat which we slip on over his head.

I'm not allowed in the pool area, so I had to watch through a large picture window. He went out into the pool area just fine, but didn't want anything to do with getting in the pool itself. Since it was his first time, she didn't want to make it a traumatic experience for him so she came back into the building (the pool is outside) and asked one of the other employees to ask Dr. Doherty if I could come into the pool area to help coax Winston into the pool. A few minutes later, the employee came out and said that Dr. Doherty was going to help get him into the pool. I watched them get him in, and it didn't seem too bad. He wasn't happy about it, but they got him in there and weren't mean about it.

I don't know how deep the pool is, but it's over his head because once he got down the stairs into the pool and had to start swimming, he went totally under for a second and when he came back up, he was panicked and flailed about a little before he got balanced back out and into a more normal swimming motion. The pool is pretty small, so to keep him swimming, they have long lines hooked to the handle on the top of the life jacket, and they keep him between two people. They keep enough tension on the lines to keep him pretty centered in the middle of the pool. He swam normally for a short time and then almost made it to the edge of the pool before they pulled him back away from it and that caused him to flail a bit again, but then he got settled and swam normally for just a bit longer. He was definitely using his back legs, but I could tell that he was really tired.

They could tell the same thing, so they pulled him towards the steps so he could get out. They toweled him off and put his own leash back on and brought him back in to me. Dr. Doherty came in to say "hi" and also that Winston wasn't able to swim for 5 full minutes, but made it to 3.5. I'm really glad they didn't try to push him further because he was pretty exhausted.

They said that was a really good start. They'd had one client's dog who had to start at one minute and after 4 weeks built up to 13 minutes. I forgot to ask how often the dog swam to build up to that.

I can't afford to go more than twice a week, so we'll see how he does with that. Our next visit is scheduled for Monday.

Winston didn't seem too sore last night but today I can tell that he got to his limit. He's a little limpy, but not too bad, but once when he came over to the bed at my feet, he sat unexpectedly while he was circling before lying down. You should have seen the look on his face: "OOPS! Uh, I meant to do that."

We're taking a break from the sit-stands today but we've been walking several shorter walks so that he gets to stretch his legs out and doesn't get too stiff.

July 27, 2009 - 8 wk post TPLO checkup

2009-07-27T16:10:00.002-06:00

We just got back from AMVS for Winston's 8 week check. Boy did he NOT want to go in there! They took him back for x-rays and said that he was just facing toward the door the entire time, poor guy. Dr. Trousdale has finished his internship and has moved on to his residency in California. They told me that it was a prestigious position with a lot of competition, so they were all really happy for him to have gotten it. Hooray for Dr. Trousdale!

So I met with the new intern, Dr. Flint (I think?) and with Dr. Duerr. They said that Winston's bone hasn't completely healed, but has healed enough that we can move to the next step in his rehabilitation which is swimming and doing more muscle building activities. They said that they could feel some movement in the joint still most likely due to all of the soft-tissue healing not catching up to the rest of the healing. He's got a tougher road ahead of him because it wasn't a "fresh knee" with no trauma. We had a lot of damage to the soft tissues because of the Tightrope and the infection, and then some further degradation because of the atrophy.

Of course, I would have loved to hear that everything is peachy-keen and we never need to go back, but they want us to start more muscle-building activities and then go back in 4-6 weeks for another re-check to see if the movement in the joint is better. At this point they feel that with some more muscle on his leg to hold things in place, the movement will go away.

We have the "ok" for him to do stairs on his own (no leash) as long as he's not tearing up and down them. He is usually pretty sensible about that, so I'm planning on leaving the baby gate down while we can watch him and put it up if we're not around. I'm also going to start doing the series of sit-stands that we did with the last two knee repairs. He sits for a tiny biscuit then stands up then sits again to get another biscuit, and so on until he's done 5 reps, and we do this 2-3 times a day. It's kind of funny because Josie thinks it's wrong for him to get a treat without her, so she caught onto all of his exercises just as quickly as him, so they both do the exercises together.

I called the Boyd Lake Veterinary Center in Loveland to check on their pool again. Last time I spoke with them it sounded like I'd be doing all the work with getting Winston to swim, but now they've changed it so that their staff is doing all the work. The time of the session has dropped from 30 minutes to 20 (we're supposed to only start with 5 minutes of swimming so that's fine), but the price has also gone up. His first session is set up for Thursday evening at 5:00pm.

We've been having evening thunderstorms lately, so there's a good chance we'll have to reschedule. I've got my fingers crossed!

July 26, 2009, 8 weeks post TPLO

2009-07-26T10:27:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow Winston has his 8 week post-op check. We've got our fingers crossed that the bone will be healed and that nothing has moved. We've increased the time on one or two of his daily walks by 5 minutes and so far so good, he's still getting up ok after lying down and walking up and down the stairs easily.

One thing that has happened twice this week is that he has yelped and either jumped up (he was sitting down) or shot forward (he was walking), and then looked around with surprise like someone had poked him with something sharp. This had happened one other time many weeks back and he's been fine since then, so I made note of it and figured I'd just watch to see if it becomes regular. I mentioned it to one of my friends and she said that she's had a sudden sharp pain like that following her recent surgery and her doctor told her it was the nerve endings healing and a part of the normal process of healing.

If we find out that the bone is healed, we'll be able to start taking him for walks somewhere other than in our neighborhood because it will be ok for him to go up and down the ramp into & out of the car. Hooray!

July 21, 2009 - on the couch again

2009-07-21T17:09:00.003-06:00

Ever since he got the infection Winston hasn't been on either of the couches in the living room, at first because his leg was so unstable that I don't think he could manage it. He could stand on his good left leg, but couldn't manage to lift the bad leg up enough to step onto the couch. He'd also walk up to it in the other direction but you could actually see him think, "now how am I going to do this if I can't stand on that leg?" Poor boy.

After his TPLO surgery he didn't get on either of them again. I'm not sure why.... pain? habit? I don't know. All of a sudden this week he has been lounging about on "the dog couch" just like always. I guess he'll "do stuff" when he's good and ready to do it; at least it seems to be another sign of healing.

July 18, 2009 - what a beautiful day!

2009-07-18T11:40:00.003-06:00

It's one of those wonderful sunny summer days where the temperature is just right. We've already been for a walk this morning and it's almost lunchtime. Both dogs are sleeping at my feet as I write this.

Winston is happy and starting to play more. He sort of trots around the living room with the squeaky snowman and he's been chewing on the nylabones, and he bounces around when we pass bunnies on our walks. Whenever we pass other dogs, he gives his best Lassie impression.

We've been spending a little time outside while I pull weeds out in the yard. We have fields to the west of us where the wind nearly always blows from, so there is no hope of ever having no weeds, but this year has provided us with a bounty of them. I hate just sitting around outside, so whenever we go out, I give my hands something to do. Josie is loose in the yard and Winston is attached to a cable and the other end of the cable is either clipped to my weed bucket or just near me like a long leash. Mostly he's happy to lie in the shade of the tree, but sometimes he gets up and acts silly as people walk by.

AMVS called earlier this week to check on Winston. We have our 8 week check scheduled for the 27th, but since they haven't heard from us in awhile (hooray!), they wanted to make sure that he's still doing well. They asked if I had any questions and I figured since I had them on the phone that I'd ask if we were "out of the woods" as far as infections go. She put me on hold and asked one of the surgeons about this. The response was that 99% of the time, an infection will occur in the first 2 weeks. Since we were already that 1% that didn't fit the pattern, and there's an implant we should always watch for changes, but we were most likely past the worst danger. Huh. Wasn't quite the answer I was hoping for, but it also isn't awful either.

Back to the standard care that I think each of us goes through daily for our furry family members -- are they happy today? Are they eating and drinking normally? Do all four legs work right? Any tenderness anywhere? Does their fur look good? Does their breath smell normal? and so on....

July 13, 2009 -- still doing good!

2009-07-13T05:55:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we went for 3 "around the block" walks and 1 walk to the edge of the field and back which is just slightly shorter than around the block, and this morning Winston got up more "normally" than he does when he's really sore.

Last night he "ran" around the living room squeaking his squeaky snowman. He didn't really run, but he walked excitedly around just squeaking away, having a grand old time. What a big goofy boy!

I think I can finally say he's definitely on the road to recovery without that nagging worry in the back of my mind. Today I feel like I mean it.

July 12, 2009 - 6 weeks post TPLO

2009-07-12T11:38:00.003-06:00

Winston seems less sore and we're back to walking around the block again. My goal is to walk around the block every time we walk, but if Winston is too sore or it's too hot, we'll shorten it up. Yesterday was pretty darn hot when we went for our mid-day walk so we stuck to the shadiest route which is a bit shorter than the block. We got out for 4 walks total and 3 of them were around the block, and today Winston is fine, so I'm still convinced that when he does start limping, it's muscle soreness from that poor atrophied leg trying to get built back up.

I've been trying to figure out where I can take him so that he can walk in water. I described in an earlier blog how he doesn't fit in the treadmill, so I've been trying to figure out where I can take him. There are a few dog swimming pools in the Denver metro area, but when I've called around, it sounds like there are only two options for us where he'll fit (one of the perils of having such a large dog), and one is WAY too far away to go regularly, and the other isn't all that far, but they expect the person swimming their dog to know what they're doing (they don't have support staff, so I would just reserve and pay for a 30 minute block of time and I'd have to know what I'm doing). I haven't driven up there to see what it looks like yet and it didn't sound like there was much area for walking, it sounded like it was just a ramp into the pool and then we could do swimming. Winston hasn't been cleared to swim yet, so that will wait. The physical therapist recommended waiting for 12-16 weeks before we tried swimming with him after the TPLO. By that time, the pool will be closed for the season as it's outdoors. Maybe we can try it next year.

There is a "dog training beach" at a nearby reservoir, but the water is murky like most lakes around here, and it's also a stocked fishing lake with boating, so last time we were there (years ago), there were dead fish and fish hooks/fishing line washed up on shore, even in the dog training area.... not really my idea of a "safe environment". Guess I should check it out again to see if things have changed. In the meantime we'll just keep walking on land for now and he'll build muscle on that leg more slowly.

Happy belated 4th! -- 5 weeks post TPLO

2009-07-07T16:44:00.005-06:00

We all survived July 4th with surprising ease. Before we got her, Josie ran loose. She was the only mastiff who regularly left her owners property with their lab. She lived in the country with a lot of farmers, some of whom raised sheep, and apparently kept guns nearby. Anyway, I figured out pretty quickly one day while we were out in the field walking when some distant neighbors (we've got a lot of farmland north and west of our neighborhood) were either goose hunting or target practicing that Josie knew what gunshots were. As soon as she heard the guns go off, she practically dragged me home. She couldn't hotfoot it out of there fast enough. Up until July 4th, she'd been bothered by the sporadic fireworks that were going off in our neighborhood, she often hid in the main bathroom which is the only room in our house that she can get to that doesn't have a window.

On the 4th, we had two or three big parties on our street, and there were a lot of fireworks going off. I worried that Josie was going to go ballistic once the "real fun" started. During one of the lulls, I headed out with the dogs for a quick down the block and back walk. Just as we went past one of the neighbors, they let off a whole string of black cats or something similar. At first both dogs jumped, but then they both seemed to shrug it off, and the fireworks just kept going for the whole walk, and by the time we got back home, neither dog seemed to really care. We kept them inside except for a brief potty break before bed, but they just stayed in the Living Room just like normal.

Winston has been struggling to stand up for the past 2 days. Of course my first fear is always that he's getting an infection since he still has what appears to be a seroma at the bottom of the TPLO incision. I am watching him like a hawk for any other changes, but so far nothing else has changed. His leg looks the same, he doesn't seem to care when I poke and prod and squeeze his knee, and there's no other swelling, and he's eating, and once he gets walking he does pretty well. Is it overuse? grrrrr!

I stopped walking him around the block yesterday and again today. We've just been doing about 8 minute walks, and I've been massaging his leg muscles more than usual in case it's muscle soreness. Today he seemed to get up a bit more easily. It's been 5 weeks since his TPLO, I don't know if this is "normal."

July 1, 2009 -- walking around the block!

2009-07-01T15:46:00.003-06:00

Last week we were still doing 5 minutes per walk, but we were walking 4-6 times a day, and towards the end of the week, I increased one walk to 10 minutes. On Monday this week we cut back to 3 walks per day -- it's starting to get HOT during the day, so our walk frequency will depend on the weather. It's hard to cool yourself down when you're close to 200 pounds and all you've got is a tongue to do it with! Uh... I'm talking about Winston of course :)

We increased the time of each walk to 10 minutes. Winston handled that well, and so last night on our last walk I got to the far corner of the block (the halfway point for that direction) and wondered if he could make it all the way around the block. The block is kind of wedge shaped and we're at the fatter end, so depending on how fast we walk, it's more like 12-15 minutes. He managed it fine and seemed ok again this morning, so we did it again on our morning walk. HOORAY! It's a little less boring.

We're going to head out for a short walk and hope for shade.

June 28, 2009: 4 wks post-TPLO & house paint

2009-06-28T10:53:00.006-06:00

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since Winston's surgery. He's doing great and his leg looks good. He's actually gaining some leg muscle back on both hind legs. Since he was only using his left hind leg for so long, I would have thought that leg should have gained some size to make up for not using the right hind leg, but I guess it makes sense that he would have overall atrophy since he wasn't getting any regular exercise at all. The only time he got to walk around was to go potty, and the rest of the time he was laying down. He even ate laying down. I haven't paid much attention to his front legs, but I suppose he lost muscle there too. Swimming will be good for him once he's healed up enough to be able to do that.

Today we moved him out of his room in the "lobby" of our split-level house and into the main part of the house. I moved both of his beds upstairs and removed the baby gate from the lower stairway. We have a baby gate up at the top of the upper stairs so that once he's upstairs, he can't go back down unattended. Hopefully at his 8 week check we'll be able to take the baby gate down and let him have stair privileges again -- depends on whether they say the bone is fully healed or not. He's managing the stairs really well. He walks up them with each leg, even the TPLO leg, and I have to have him on a leash to go down since he would go too fast on his own, but he's also placing each foot on the stairs as he goes down -- HOORAY!!!

We just re-painted the exterior of our house this weekend. We're not quite done, but most of the body color is done. We have the east side of the garage left and some brush-work to do where we had to put tape on the siding itself (it doesn't stick to the bricks very well), and all the trim color is still waiting for us, but wow -- what a difference a new color makes! We're on a corner so the house is more noticeable... it used to be this ugly light green color on top with reddish multi-tone (some darker, some lighter) bricks on the bottom -- not a good combo if you ask me. Anyway, the house used to just jump out at you and I wanted to find a color that would recede into the background. I picked out a pretty rust color that complimented the bricks. It was pretty on the paint chip anyway. Then I bought a quart of it to try out in different areas. I painted a couple of pieces of wood that I could put in different places to catch different lighting. It still looked pretty good, but was a little brighter than I expected.

We have these two huge doghouses (that have never been used by either of these dogs...) that used to be on our back patio, and we decided to move them underneath our deck, since they wouldn't take up useable space, and they'd be in a location where if the dogs got stuck out in unexpected weather while we were out and about, they MIGHT use them. Probably not, since we've got a covered porch that they'd probably hang out under instead, but hey, the dog houses are well insulated and heated, so we don't want to get rid of them just yet since future dogs might use them. So... before we moved the dog houses under the deck, we painted them the "new house color" -- uh oh. They looked ORANGE and not a color orange that most people would want on their house. We live in Denver Broncos country, so neighbors might have thought we were the biggest Broncos fans on earth. I sure didn't want to be known as living in that orange house on the corner. Time to find another color!

I tried a bunch of other "rust" tones and ended up buying 6 quarts of different rust tones, and none of them looked good on all sides of the house. Some looked ok under the coverd porch but got shockingly bright in the sun, and some looked ok in a small area, but when we re-painted the dog houses with the "ok" color, it was still not something I wanted on my house. That was always the ultimate test -- if it looked ok on the dog houses, we could paint the house. I finally had to give up on the rust color. I went for 2 more quarts -- one that was more red toned and one that was more brown toned. Don finally gave me the OK to actually put some paint on the house, so I went around all sides and put some of each color onto the siding. Both looked good. I painted one doghouse red and one doghouse brown. hmmmm.... I like them both. I finally decided to go with the more brown tone because I think the red would have been too much with the brick. Well, now the house is pretty brown looking, but I think it will be fine once we get the cream trim color up. And... the best part is that the house really does recede into the background. I always heard that, but never actually saw a house change so dramatically right before my eyes.

June 23, 2009, 3 wks post TPLO & foxes

2009-06-23T16:05:00.005-06:00

The rest (and pain pills?) seemed to have helped Winston. I stopped the Trammadol on Sunday, but gave him Rimadyl until this morning.

I guess when I think about it, it makes sense that he wouldn't want to use his leg if it was really sore. He's got no leg muscle to start with and then if we went too quickly to a 10 minute walk, the muscle would be really sore and he wouldn't want to stand on it. I can remember when I started Deep Tone (www.deeptoneonceaweek.com)... I swear I couldn't walk or sit or stand up without yelping for about a week. Then every time the routine changes, we're all sore again!

We went for four 5-minute walks yesterday and he is fine today and seems to be using his leg more normally. He doesn't totally straighten it out behind him as he walks, but he's got less of that "seat to short" bicycle action going on. He actually stood on the bad leg today for about 2 seconds to lift his leg, then went back to the horse-pee squat.

He's also doing better at home on the stairs. Up through the weekend, we only let him up and down the 7 steps once a day, but we tried twice yesterday and he seems fine. He's using the bad leg and he's no longer hopping down the stairs on three legs. I keep him on a leash to help support him and to keep him slow.

Today when we went out for our late morning walk there was a fox lying down in the yard across from our driveway. I was lucky that I was the only one who noticed him! I have to stick to the back yard when I take Winston out in the mornings. We've had a bunny population explosion this year and that seems to have caused a fox population explosion too. I'm sure that there were at least two litters if not three in the neighborhood. We've lived here just about three years and up to this point I've only seen them out at dusk, night or very early morning, but nowadays it's not unusual to run into one on a mid-day walk. They see us coming and if there's cover, they duck behind a tree or a bush and watch us as we go past. One night we ran into one where there was no cover and it just laid down in the grass and waited for us to pass by. There's one cheeky big guy (I think it's a guy) that comes over in the evenings and sits just outside the fence while Josie barks her head off at him. He's got this look on his face like he's just laughing at her.

June 20, 2009 - 3rd PT visit

2009-06-20T21:18:00.000-06:00

Well, Winston still seemed pretty sore. He's still mostly toe-touching in the house instead of using his leg. I can't tell if his left leg feels hotter than the right leg... maybe??? It doesn't look any different than it did before, so.... I'll wait and see if things improve. We didn't walk this morning before our PT visit.

Don is helping some friends move today, so I was on my own getting Winston to and from AMVS for his PT appointment. He didn't think a biscuit was enough motivation to go up the ramp by himself, so I got to carry his back end up it for him. Silly thing. Going down the ramp is no problem, though he was still mostly on 3 legs for that. No pressure on the repair, so I'm fine with that.

PT went well, he doesn't mind the laser therapy, and he seemed mostly ok with her picking up his other leg. She only had him stand on the "bad" leg for 2 seconds, and she repeated that 3 times.

Got him loaded up and unloaded at home, no worries and he went up the stairs and lay down for a long nap. I was reading when he suddenly bolted off his bed and hopped across the room on 3 legs. Then he stood there all hunched up and gave me the sad eyes. What is up with that? I told him to lie back down but he wouldn't and so we went outside. He was on 3 legs down the stairs (there's 7 steps) and then toe touching outside. This really made me wonder and of course, worry. What else is new? I decided I'd better give the vet a shout. They wanted me to bring him in so they could look at him. Got him loaded up and headed back to AMVS.

Good news there, they took his temp and it was normal, and the vet who saw him (one of the emergency vets on staff) said that he didn't seem to mind having his leg manipulated, and she couldn't see any signs of swelling, and the tissue looked pink and healthy. They took an x-ray and compared it to the same view as one of the x-rays taken right after surgery and everything looked the same, with the exception that the swelling inside the joint has gone down (hooray!). She thinks it was overuse and sent us home with some pain meds and instructions to rest and then start walking again slowly and for only 5 minutes at a time. If he doesn't get better, call back on Monday when the surgeons are back in the office.

We went home and had a quiet day in the yard and in the house. It's WONDERFUL now that his incision has healed so he can spend time out in the grass while I pull weeds. Ok, this is my life right now with this yard.... but that's another story! Maybe not so exciting an activity, but we're outside listening to the birds and watching for the bunnies and foxes. Winston is on a cable, and I have to keep him pretty close to me so that I can stop him before he jumps up and does something silly if people walk by.

June 19, 2009 - Physical Therapy

2009-06-19T18:42:00.000-06:00

Winston is so eager to walk, we've been walking more than 5 minutes for each of our walks. He does pretty well during the walk, but still has kind of a "bicycle seat is too short" pedaling motion rather than a normal reach with his leg.

Our physical therapy visit was pretty short today since Winston is too long for the underwater treadmill. We did another laser treatment and she evaluated how he's doing. In another couple of weeks we can start some of the same exercises we did after the tightrope surgery. In the meantime I should walk Winston in clockwise circles since that will force him to use the leg. Also I'm to start an exercise where I lift his left hind leg for a few seconds so that he's standing on the right hind leg. She also recommended that I increase the frequency of the walks rather than the time. I've read this before with other people's experiences. Since I work from home, that's possible for me.

She said that she didn't think there was much swelling or fluid, just a tiny bit at the bottom of the incision. I asked about the "lump" that I'd noticed from time to time on the outside of his knee and she poked and prodded and said that it was hard and she thought it was scar tissue from the way it healed after the infection. Basically she told me to try not to worry too much. I had mentioned that I was worried about another infection. She said that it seemed that Mastiffs or any of the really large dogs seemed to have a harder time with that. She said she'd read about a theory that it was because they were under anesthesia longer.

Since our appointment was so short she asked if we could come back tomorrow for another quick laser treatment. Sure, but Don is busy helping a friend move, so I'm on my own. Can I get him unloaded by myself? If he can walk down the ramp, I can.

After we finished our appointment, I stopped by the front desk and mentioned that Dr. Trousdale wanted one of the surgeons to take a look at Winston while he was there to check on his leg. Dr. Hanzlik was there and she had scrubbed into his surgery so she was familiar with how his leg looked on the inside. She said he had a lot of scar tissue, which was the whole point of the Tightrope, but it's unfortunate that it had broken down in such a way that his knee wasn't supported. She thought the knee looked good and he didn't seem bothered by any manipulation. Hooray!

We used the ramp to unload him from the car and he went down it mostly on 3 legs. That's ok. It doesn't put any unnecessary pressure on the TPLO repair.

Once we got into the house, he seemed very sore and hardly used his leg at all -- just toe touching. Hmmmm. I decided not to walk him again and see if he was better in the morning.

June 17, 2009, 2.5 weeks post-TPLO

2009-06-17T15:24:00.002-06:00

Ever since we came home from the vet on Monday, I've been worrying about the fluid around the incision. Is it getting bigger? I have a hard time telling since I see it every day. They wanted me to call if anything changed. Well, yesterday he was up and restless all day and when he walks around "his room", he's limping pretty good. Is this a change? Is this just because he hurts because we're walking and that's new? I would expect some pain when walking on a newly broken leg.... When we go for a walk, he uses it really well, and he seems less sore while we're out there, and he also isn't as slow on the way back as he was on Monday.

Yesterday afternoon I called AMVS back and asked if they could give me some more specific instructions about what I'm supposed to look for. They clarified that if I should see more of the knee become swollen, or swelling traveling down the leg, or if he starts limping during our walks, or stops putting weight on it while he's in his room. Whew! I'm not seeing any of that yet.

I also asked about stairs. Since we live in a split-level, he's stuck down here in the "lobby" of our house. I don't want him to do anything that he shouldn't do yet, so I figured we might have to wait for awhile, but they said if we're very careful and keep him on a leash we can try the stairs. Take it slow... only try it once one day and see how that goes. If that goes well and doesn't seem to bother him, maybe we can do it again the next day and so on. They just don't want him doing it a lot -- no up and down the stairs several times a day to go potty.

I told them that he seemed to be doing really well with the walks, and they said I could increase either the time or the frequency by little bits as long as it doesn't bother him. Since I've already been through 2 surgeries and an infection, I think I can judge pretty well how he's doing, so I bumped him just past 5 minutes and I might try adding one more walk (5 minute) walk into our day and see how he does with that.

Today he hasn't been restless at all. I kinda think the restlessness yesterday was because of the sudden change to his schedule. He was up and hoping for a walk all day long. Silly boy!

June 15, 2009, staples removed & 2 wk evaluation

2009-06-15T18:25:00.000-06:00

Winston got his staples out today. Ever since his TPLO surgery, I've been really happy with his progress and pretty excited that everything seemed to be going so well. They burst my bubble :(

Dr. Duerr was in an emergency surgery so Dr. Trousdale did the evaluation and he noticed that there is a little fluid pocket along the line of the incision. He was happy to see that Winston is walking on the leg and actually puts it underneath him when he walks, but the fluid pocket may indicate the presence of an infection. I guess this is pretty likely since we just battled an infection, so he's going to be more prone to another one. It's not really what I wanted to hear or even think about. I've been watching the swelling go steadily down ever since surgery, so I thought it was just a normal part of the healing process. I didn't realize that he shouldn't have any swelling anymore.

He said that a little clear fluid leaked out when he removed the staples. Clear is good, but still....

Dr. Trousdale asked us to put hot compresses on the incision 2-3 times a day for 3-5 days, and to call them if ANYTHING changes at all. I'm guessing that the hot compress will also cause the infection to come more to the surface if there is one? Our last 2 doses of cephelexin are today, so I asked whether we should extend that, and he said no because if there's an infection present, it's resistent to that anyway.

Ugh! I hate this.

After we got home, I soaked a washcloth with hot water from the faucet and put it into a zip lock bag and held it against his leg for about 10 minutes. I'll be doing this about 3 times a day from now until Friday.

We walked again a couple more times and Winston is definitely putting his weight onto his leg and wants to go farther than he's allowed. It's hard to get him to turn around. At the same time, he's a little slow on the way back, so I think we're going far enough for now.

June 14, 2009, our first walk post-TPLO

2009-06-14T18:12:00.000-06:00

This evening Winston got to walk off of our property for the very first time since April 17th. All of us were pretty excited. We walked for 2.5 minutes out and it took us just a little bit longer to walk back. He seemed to do ok. His leg moves a little differently than it did before, so I think there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve for him on how to use his leg.

As soon as he got home and had a drink of water, he slept for awhile. Not much stamina yet! After that he seemed pretty sore when he first stood up and walked inside his room, but when I took him out to go potty, it seemed to work itself out after a few steps.

June 13, 2009 - 1.75 weeks post-TPLO

2009-06-13T20:28:00.000-06:00

Almost all the swelling is gone is gone in Winston's leg, and he's walking on it pretty normally considering he's got so much atrophy in that leg.

We go to AMVS on Monday to get the staples out. He's still got some small scabs, so he's going to be stuck with the donut until the rest of those fall off, but it shouldn't be long. I'm excited to start walking again. Even though we'll only be able to go about 3 houses in either direction, it will be the first time he's left the property on his own four feet since mid April. He is going to be SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!! I can't wait.

Josie is also going to be happy since she misses walking with him.

I'm unsure of when we will be allowed to help him up and down the stairs. With the Tightrope, we were able to start taking him up into the main part of the house at 1 week. I suspect that he might be down in his room for awhile yet. I'm going to guess at least 4 weeks post-surgery, but I won't be surprised to hear that they want to wait until 8 weeks. It seems that each surgeon has a different opinion. We'll ask about that when we go on Monday.

We took down the exercise pen today and put baby gates across the stairs. Now Winston has 2 beds, and a bunch of floorspace to choose from. It's not as good as being able to "live upstairs like normal" but there's enough room for Josie to hang out with him, and there's enough room for me to work down there during the day with the two of them at my feet. Life is good!

June 12, 2009: Standing straighter already

2009-06-12T15:42:00.007-06:00

This picture sort of shows the muscle atrophy that has happened with the infection. No picture that I've taken really does the "real thing" justice. He has started putting some weight on his right leg now, so his back isn't as twisted as it has been for the past few months.

June 10, 2009, 1 week post-TPLO

2009-06-10T19:58:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how easy Winston's recovery has been up to this point. We ran out of pain pills on Monday, and though we could tell that he was a bit more painful after that, it didn't look like he was too uncomfortable and he's still walking on the leg even more than ever.

He had some swelling around his hock last week, but that's all gone now and the incision looks like it's healing nicely.

He's eating just just his Iams Lamb and Rice mixed with a bit of water now, and even stands up sometimes to eat. I never have to offer him water anymore because he always gets up to drink now, so we're seeing definite progress.

He also hasn't shown any signs of being interested in licking or sniffing at his incision. We have been using the satellite dish e-collar up to this point, but I'm switching him to the donut today so that he can get a drink or chew on a chew bone if he needs to.

The passive exercises are just going ok. At some point during a massage of his thigh muscles, I must have pushed too hard and made him yelp. He now gets that worried look when I sit down next to him to start exercising his leg. He puts his mouth around my hand to stop me. I'm watching him closely, and he IS stretching and bending the leg quite a bit on his own, I just don't think that he's pushing the outer limits of the range, so I'm still getting some of that in.

June 4, 2009, 3 days post-TPLO

2009-06-04T16:36:00.000-06:00

I almost feel guilty that I took 2 days off work, because taking care of Winston seems SO easy this time. I guess when you compare it to what we went through with the infection, it's pretty anti-climactic, but that's also a GOOD thing :)

The saran wrap stuff is peeling down at the top, but it's still sealed at the bottom, so it forms a perfect funnel along his incision. If he should happen to splash or otherwise "pee wrong", it looks like the urine would would just go straight down the funnel and pool at the bottom of the incision. While we were out on a potty break, I worked at peeling it the rest of the way off. He was ok with the peeling action on the front side of his leg, but VERY unhappy about any kind of skin tugging on the back half of his leg. He tried to grab my hand in his mouth to stop me. I kept peeling from the back going towards the incision, but no matter what I tried, he was unhappy. I finally took the "bite the bullet and just rip it off" approach. He didn't like it, but it was quick and then we were done.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how small the incision is. Somewhere I'd read about someone who's dog had a really huge incision, and I somehow expected that. I should have known better. This incision is no bigger than the main one on the outside of his leg from the Tightrope, and there is only one incision. Of course, most of what's going on with a TPLO is on the inside. Don kept telling me that Winston would be in more pain from this surgery because one of his friends who had TPLO on their dog said it cried nonstop for weeks. He kept telling me that Winston would be the same way. I'm happy to say that I haven't noticed any difference so far between this recovery and either of his Tightrope recoveries.

When I tried to ice his knee today, he kept trying to block me from getting near it with his head. He was also giving me the, "What the heck are you trying to do to me today anyway?" look. I figured it had been long enough.

We took him for his first phsyical therapy visit today. They did a laser treatment that is supposed to promote cellular level healing. It sounded like something a day spa would say. I was skeptical, but I didn't think it could hurt, so we went ahead and did it. She also showed us the proper way (and improper way) to do the passive exercises with his leg, so now I have a new torture for him. She said that his range of motion was nearly 100% but that he wouldnt' quite let her straighten his leg all the way. Then she said that it might be due to the 14 degree angle for the repair. I have no idea, but I could see how straight she was able to get his leg, and it's much straighter than you would think from her comments. It looks pretty straight to me.

June 2, 2009, 1 day post-TPLO

2009-06-02T19:06:00.000-06:00

We went to AMVS at 2pm to get Winston. They gave us a bag of medicine and then went over his discharge instructions -- we got another report with his picture on the cover. It was color again, but they took it when he was groggy (either before or after surgery) and he looks really sad. Poor boy!

Anyway, I was surprised that the instructions are very similar to the Tightrope surgery. He's to be confined for 2 weeks and then we start walking. We aren't supposed to increase the lengths of the walks as often though. At week 2-4 we walk for 5 minutes 3-4 times a day and then weeks 5-6 we increase it to 10 minutes per walk, and so on. They have also changed the way they do physical therapy. Last time, our first PT visit was at least one week after surgery and we were supposed to do the passive excercises on our own before that. This time they want us to schedule the first PT visit 2-3 days after surgery so that the physical therapists can show us how to do the passive exercises. This seems like a much better way to do it because I was unsure of what I should and shouldn't do and I had to wait a week before the physical therapist could show me right and wrong ways to do it.

We were ready at home; we washed all of his bedding and vacuumed and mopped his room, and put the exercise pen back up, and I took 2 days off of work so that I can take care of him. Don isn't as busy, but will probably still go to work each day.

When they brought Winston out with his satellite dish on (he just hates that because he has to swing it around from side to side so that he can see!), we were pretty excited to see that he was already putting more weight on it than he has since mid April. Wow! Instant success. They had shaved a larger area on his back for the epidural and we laughed because he's got a tan line from his previous surgeries.

I was prepared with extra towels in the car for the urine leak issue, so it didn't surprise me that he was leaky. I'd wondered before we went to get him how we would try to keep the incision dry since it's on the inside of the leg, but I shouldn't have worried. They had some sort of plastic sheet over the entire incision. It looked like saran wrap. They said that it would eventually start to peel off on its own, and we could remove it once that started.

He gave out a loud moan as we turned onto the highway before our house, and kept whining for the next 10 minutes until we got home. Don thought he was in pain, but I recognized that as his "I've REALLY got to go potty NOW" noises. As soon as we stopped the car, we dashed around back and got him unloaded as quick as we could. He hurried into the yard and took (left) a big old dump and then peed for about 5 minutes. Poor boy! He seemed to feel much better once that was out of the way, and immediately went to bed and slept for several hours.

He's shifting from leg to leg as he sleeps again. First he'll lie on the surgery leg, and then he'll lie on the other one. When he's on the surgery leg, he keeps it kind of tucked up so that I can't get to the knee or even see the incision, so I have to wait for him to leave that side up so that I can ice the joint. He seems to say, "Ah.... that feels good" when I use the ice pack.

At dinner time, he's interested in food. I'm unsure how much to feed him so I try a cup of kibble and one of the 5.5 oz cans of Mighty Dog on top. He eats it all.

The pill schedule is off again, so I set my alarm for 2 am and get up to give him pills, but he didn't need to go out again until morning. That's odd, but kind of nice.

June 1, 2009, TPLO surgery

2009-06-01T17:51:00.000-06:00

We dropped Winston off at 7am this morning (with his satellite dish e-collar and his sling). I'm beginning to feel like a pro at this. In the first two Tightrope surgeries, I chose to resusitate him if something should go wrong during surgery. This time I signed a DNR. I think he's been through enough. If something goes wrong, I think we should let him go, and Don is now ok with that. As I was signing the form, I had that little voice in my head question whether I was jinxing him, but I'm not superstitious enough to do anything other than acknowledge I heard it.

My co-workers ask all morning if I'm really nervous and so far that hasn't set in. I've got a really calm feeling about the whole situation. I think we've been through some pretty bad stuff so far and we've all come out ok, so I think we can handle whatever comes our way from this surgery. Of course, I still hope it turns out well!

I wasn't expecting anyone to call me until later in the day, but Dr. Duerr called later that morning and said they were all done and that it had gone well. There was no sign of infection, but there was a lot of scar tissue in and around the joint. He removed some of it but had to work around the rest. Because of all the scarring he was unable to get the "ideal" 5 degree angle, and instead got it to 14 degrees, which is still in the range of acceptable. He said that the knee was really stable and that the long term prognosis is good. I'm fine with the angle, I'm just happy that he's going to be able to walk on it again. HOORAY!

They kept him overnight, and I got to sleep in my own bed again. Such a treat!

May 27, 2009, 1 week post-antibiotics

2009-05-27T17:40:00.000-06:00

We met with the surgeons again at AMVS. They're happy that he seems to be doing well and there is no sign that the infection has come back. We talk some more about the TPLO and the plan for the future. Don wasn't there for the original description of the TPLO surgery, so they spend a little time with him showing him what they'll do and what to expect for recovery. It sounds similar to the Tightrope, but a bit slower.

Prior to this visit, I've been on the internet again reading about TPLOs again. I've read that the outcome isn't always perfect for a knee that has had a previous surgery. I'm prepared for that. I just hope that he's able to use his leg again (even if not perfectly) so that he doesn't have to be on a leash in his own yard for the rest of his life.

We scheduled the TPLO surgery for next Monday, June 1st.

May 17-23, 2009, end of the antibiotics

2009-05-23T19:46:00.000-06:00

Winston has continued to toe touch since last Friday. Sometimes he actually gets the pad of his foot onto the ground, but he's not putting a lot of weight on it. He's doing so well getting around that we offered to help him up the stairs with the sling but he wants nothing to do with them. I think he remembers falling, so he seems scared of them. I've been leaving the baby gate off of the one that goes upstairs so that Josie has an easier time getting to the door when she needs to. She has taken to spending some time with Winston down in his room, she's so sweet!

We've been spending nearly every afternoon outside in the yard. I got out a couple of our camping cables -- we always keep cables with us when we go camping so that we could keep the dogs securely near us. This breed has no respect for tent zippers, and they will go investigate sounds in the middle of the night, so we learned with our first one that we'd have to keep her on a cable even when she is inside the tent. That's the only time that they're ever tied up and they're always with us, so there's no risk of them running to the end of a cable. Anyway, Winston learned about cables as a puppy and he's fine being on one, so I've been spending time weeding in the yard so that he can be outdoors. Weeding is pretty much a hopeless cause since we've got more weeds than grass, but I'm slowly eliminating certain types of weeds. LOL! I'll keep telling myself that and maybe one day it will come true. It gives me something to do while I'm out with the dogs.

Winston can't be loose in the yard because he wants to play soccer with one of his (now Josie's) balls, and he wants to play with her. Even on a leash he tries to do both and I have to scold him. That's all it takes to stop him, but he's not happy about it.

As kind as Josie is, she is not very careful of him. When she sees him getting attention she will come over and flop down to get some too. They have no sense of personal space, so she often flops right down on his leg and bends the joint sideways and makes him yelp. I have to push her away and tell her to be careful, but she doesn't really "get it".

Winston just came upstairs! It was dinnertime and I just brought them in from the yard and came up to get Josie's dish (the dog food is in the garage so her dish is the farthest away) and she followed me up and after a few seconds hesitation, so did Winston. I just about had a heart attack, but he seemed to do ok. He was very careful and I think going up is easier than down. I quickly put the baby gate up across the top of the stairs so that he doesn't go crashing down. They ate dinner and he spent a nice evening lounging about while we watched some TV. When it was time for him to go out to pee before bed, I got the sling and leash out and attempted to help him down the stairs. That didn't work so well. I seemed to make things worse than if he had done it on his own, and he nearly dragged me down with him. Oh well, the baby gate gets moved to the bottom of that stairway so that he stays in his room until tomorrow. I don't want to have him try it too much at first.

He seems scared of the stairs again. I keep offering to help him up, but as soon as he sees the sling he goes to his bed. hmmmm... finally I just leave the leash on and offer to go up with him (to keep him slow and controlled). Again, he goes to his bed. Ok, he's going to stay in his room today. Later in the evening Don walks him to go potty and next thing I know he's coming up the stairs on the deck. These are steeper and there are 10 steps instead of 7 so this doesn't really make me happy, but I guess they're less scary than the ones inside the house. I don't want him going down these steps though. He gets to spend another evening with us, and this time when it's time for bed, I only use the leash to keep him from going too fast down the stairs. He kind of hippety hops down them mostly on 3 legs but with a dash of toe touch in there somewhere. Doesn't give me a great feeling of comfort, but he's safe at the bottom again for the night.

Today I didn't try the sling, but offered to go up with him on the leash and he actually went up the stairs. He got to spend the day upstairs with me while I worked and then we went outdoors for a few hours and then he came upstairs again for the evening. He's handling himself on the stairs much better with every attempt. I'm not as worried about him anymore.

We ran out of antibiotics on Tuesday. I can't remember if we were supposed to call AMVS when we got to this point? I called them and they said that I should set up an appoint for next week and they'll evaluate him at that time.

Cross our fingers that the infection doesn't come back once all the antibiotics are out of his system.

May 10-16, 2009, stitches & staples removed

2009-05-16T19:55:00.000-06:00

Winston's wound has healed and he doesn't even have scabs left, so once the stitches and staples come out, he can leave the evil e-collar behind -- HOORAY! He hates it every time we put it on, but he's resigned to the fact he has to wear it.

He's eating and drinking normally. I've cut him back to 6.5-7 cups of food per day because he's really not getting exercise and I don't want him to get overweight, but I'd like him to regain a little of the weight that he lost while he had the infection. It's a constant juggling act, but I guess everyone goes through that even with a healthy dog (or ourselves!). I'm just happy when his backbone isn't as prominant as it has been. He had gaunt hollows on either side of his backbone, and to me, that's a little too thin.

In the pictures, you can see in the first one how he stands now -- on the tops of his toes. The second picture sort of shows how much atrophy he's got in that leg, but believe me, the picture doesn't do the real thing justice. His leg is literally 2 (or less) inches thick when you look at it from the back or front. There is also no muscle tone in his thigh. I can push my hands together on either side of the "wide part" of his leg (if you look at it from the side) and feel his thighbone. With his leg so thin you can really see the medial buttress on the inside of his knee. AMVS suggested that I poke it with my finger to see how it feels. If it's pretty firm, all is well, but if it begins to feel softer like I could push my finger into it, then the infection is back. Oh joy!

You can also see how he has to curve his back so that he's got most of his weight centered over the left back leg. I'm sure his back aches. I've been massaging it.

The stitches and staple are OUT! The weather is nice so I think we can spend some more time sitting in the yard so that Winston gets a break from his room. He's been in there so long that we've actually started calling it Winston's room. He's getting around better, and even doing a little bit of toe touching to help balance himself, so we took the exercise pen down and we've got baby gates across both stairways. Josie and Tyler (our 5 pound 16 year old cat) find the gates a little inconvenient but they are learning to live with them.

May 6, 2009, 1 week check following wound closing

2009-05-06T22:26:00.000-06:00

Winston's wound has been healing nicely and we're scheduled next week to take the stitches and staples out, but AMVS wanted to see him a week after they closed the wound.

Even though the wound itself is healing, and the infection seems to be gone (he's still on antibiotics until May 19th), he isn't using his leg. The swelling is gone and now his leg is shrinking right before our eyes.

Don and I are still team lifting Winston in and out of the car, so he comes home for lunch and we get Winston loaded and unloaded. Both Dr. Trousdale and Dr. Duerr are really happy with the way the wound is healing -- apparently it's doing better than they expected. Hooray!

After all his visits to AMVS, "skeptical Don" is finally a true believer that they genuinely care about their patients. The lobby has often been crowded when we've gone, and all the doggie parents commiserate with each other. Often we've seen each other before and we're able to ask or see for ourselves how so-and-so is doing now. As the staff comes out to take patients back to exam rooms or into the back, they all stop and say "hi" and give a little hug and a pet to the other pups that they know. It's a nice friendly atmosphere.

During our exam, Dr. Duerr brings up what they'd like to do next. They can't do another Tightrope because there is too great a risk of re-infection, so they would like to do a TPLO. There is still a pretty high risk of infection because he's already had one, but at least if he gets one this time, they don't have to remove any of the implants and his leg will remain stable. He also mentions that they know of our financial concerns (unfortunately I think we didn't hide the fact that we were seriously worried about money with each of his recent visits) and that the owner of the practice is willing to do the surgery at a large discount.

I'm still not excited about the TPLO surgery itself, to quote someone else out on the internet, "it seems wrong to break a bone to fix a ligament," but after all that we've been through, it actually doesn't sound that different from some of what we've already done. Also, last fall Winston had 4 "mostly working" legs and now he has 3. I'm willing to go ahead with the plan, but we have to go step by step before we know whether we can try the TPLO.

May 2, 2009, the bandage comes off

2009-05-02T21:42:00.000-06:00

The bandage is starting to bunch up behind Winston's knee. I'm hoping that we can at least keep it on until evening so that it will be on three full days. It's pouring out today so I use another bag over his leg, but I'm running out of newspaper bags and I can't find the "old roll" of them left over from my paper girl days (wow... I've kept those around a long time!). I'm trying to use sandwich bags rubberbanded onto his foot, but as he drags his foot, they come right off. I use an old towel to dry off the bandage as well as I can each time we come back into the house.

Winston is getting used to the umbrella, and ignores it now. Late morning we go out again and he attempts to squat to poop. Finally! But he can't get his bandaged leg pulled forward enough to manage it, so he's half squatting on his left leg with this pegleg all bent behind him. I grabbed his leg and maneuvered it forward so that he could try to squat again. What came out of him sure didn't look natural. It was a tarry consistency and pretty bright orange in color. Hmmmmm.... At least it's a step in the right direction so I decided to not worry about it until we see how strange looking the next one is.

When we got back into the house, I tried to dry off his bandage, but after having gone out a couple of times this morning, the bottom part around his foot was pretty wet. I didn't think it would dry out all that quickly and in the meantime his foot would stay wet and cold. I guess it's time to take the bandage off even though we didn't make it to 3 full days.

I'm sure glad that I'd watched Dr. Trousdale put it on, because it helped me remove it in pretty much reverse order without having to worry about getting scissors out. I found the end of the vet wrap and unwrapped that layer by layer until I got down to the non-stretchy cotton bandage layer. It looks like an ace bandage, but it's very thin and has no give to it. I unwrapped that layer by layer until I got down to the cotton padding layer. I could see that his wound had drained a little bit, but probably only for the first 30-60 minutes that the bandage was on. There wasn't much fluid that had soaked into the padding at all, and it was all rock hard and dry.

Once the bandage was off, I figured I'd better be really careful handling his leg. Even I can tell that there's no stability there. It feels like I could just take the lower leg and bend it in any direction that I wanted. I don't see any way that this is going to heal up on its own. That really killed the small hope that I had up to this point that he'd be able to use it normally. The wound itself looks really good. It's held together with small blue stitches and it looks like a plastic surgeon had done it. It was a very fine line and all of the tissue seemed pink and healthy and as far as I can tell, it was adhering to the layers of tissue below the incision. I'm pretty pleased with the way it looks.

Winston has to wear the big sattelite dish e-collar at all times when I'm not sitting with him until we go get the stitches and staples out.

Winston isn't walking on the leg at at all, not even to toe touch. The swelling has gone down a lot, but not entirely. He seems more comfortable being on three legs now and the left leg is holding up under the extra weight now that it's not being too overburdened with a huge infected "thing" hanging off of it like it was a week ago.

His appetite is increasing a little, so I've increased the amount of food I'm offering him, but it's been so long since he's eaten normally, I'm still going to keep going slow with it. If I try to jump back into a normal amount of food for him, he'll end up with diahrrhea, and we don't need one more thing.

Dr. Trousdale called that evening to check on Winston. I told him that I had to remove the bandage that day and why I decided to. He said that it was the right thing to do.

May 1, 2009, rain

2009-05-01T21:23:00.001-06:00

It's been raining. This is good for us in Colorado; we've been in such a long drought that there are people who moved here even 5 years ago that think this is unusual. This is how it used to be every spring.

The rain makes it hard to keep Winston dry and even harder to keep the bandage from getting wet. I've been putting newspaper bags over his foot and keeping them on with a rubber band so that I can remove them once we get back inside. He's still having a hard time bending his knee enough to keep his foot from dragging. We have to cross cement from the front door to the gate in the yard, so by the time we get across the cement and the flagstones and into the yard and back, the bag over his foot is trashed. They're definitely one time use! I'm also using our big "golf" type umbrella in an attempt to keep him dry. He's only three and a half now, so he grew up in the drought and doesn't know umbrellas since I usually wear a raincoat if I need to stay dry on a walk. The umbrella scares him when he happens to notice it out of the corner of his eye. I try to keep it farther up and back away from his head.

Now when I feel the bottoms of his two middle toes after getting back in the house, they do feel cold to me. They were just outside on the cold wet ground, so each time this happens I decide I'd better wait and check them again a little later. I wait 30 minutes and by that time, I don't feel a difference between my fingers and his toes.

He's eating a little more today. I'm not expecting miracles with his appetite change, so we're taking it slow. He ate a 5.5 oz can of dog food mixed with a quarter cup of kibble for breakfast. I increased that to a half cup of kibble at lunch and he struggled to finish it so I did the same for dinner. I also offered another can before bed.

He's peeing regularly, but no poop. Not really surprising. No input, no output...

April 30, 2009, our new reality

2009-04-30T20:26:00.000-06:00

Winston is finally home and we don't see any surgeries in his immediate future. We're just working on trying to get him healthy again after his knee infection. He's here with his pegleg bandage.

He finds it hard to walk with because he can't bend the knee enough to keep from dragging it behind him. That looks awful and really uncomfortable. I try to use the sling to help him out, but that doesn't seem to work very well either because the only way for me to get the leg up off the ground is to totally lift his hind-end and he hates that.

I'm trying to feel his toes. I can barely even find his toes, and the only part of them that I can feel is the horny calloused bottoms of the two middle toes. Are they cold? It's hard for me to tell because I am usually cold these days so when my cold fingers are feeling the rough part of the two toes, I don't feel much difference. It doesn't feel warm to me. Is that cold? Or am I just "normal cold" and so is Winston. I (of course) worry about this, but decide that since they don't feel a lot different from my finger temperature that they're probably fine -- my fingers are fine and not ready to fall off.

He's eating today. He ate about a can and a half (those 5.5 oz Mighty Dog cans) of food for breakfast, so at lunchtime I thought I'd add a little kibble to it. I added about a quarter of a cup of kibble to a can of food and he ate it, but wouldn't eat any more. He did the same at dinner time, but then before bed he ate another can of food.

April 29, 2009, 12 weeks post-op

2009-04-29T19:04:00.001-06:00

We dropped Winston off at AMVS again for what we hope is his last surgery for the infection in his knee joint. Later in the morning Dr. Trousdale called to say that they were unable to push fluid through the joint (he told me this is a sign of healing) and that he trimmed away the granulating tissue on the edges of the wound so that he had a good bleeding edge to sew together. After a wound has been open this long, I guess there are other concerns about whether all the layers will heal to each other and whether the wound will stay closed. He seemed pretty concerned, but since I don't have any experience with any of this, it's hard for me to really understand all that could happen. All I know is that if my vet is concerned, I should be too.

He said that the knee is still very unstable and that's probably how it is going to stay, but our first priority right now is to get him out of the woods with the infection before we worry about next steps. They'll be sending him home with antibiotics for 2 more weeks, so that he'll be on them for a full month, then we have to wait another two weeks to see if the infection comes back. At that time, we'll see where we're at.

We picked him up this evening and took him home with a "pegleg" bandage on his leg. It fully covered his leg from the tips of his toes (which did just peek out from the end) all the way up to cover most of his thigh. We got to watch Dr. Trousdale put it on, and I thought the process was pretty interesting. They want us to try and keep the bandage on for at least 3 days, and hopefully 5, but said that we could remove it if it got wet or really started to bunch up behind his knee. We're also supposed to feel his toes a few times a day and if they feel cold, we're supposed to remove the bandage. Don paid the final bill for today's care.