January 30, 2011
Running around nearly every day
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.
January 22, 2011
Still doing ok -- no more incidents so far
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.
December 22, 2010
He's definitely got a "weather leg"
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.
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.
October 19, 2010
Standing on that left back leg?
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!
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!
October 1, 2010
5 months post TPLO explant
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.
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.
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