Sam Recovery Day 2

Hubby decided to sleep downstairs on the aero bed with Sam while I slept upstairs with the other dogs and had the baby monitor on. Ok, the baby monitor does work pretty well, and caught him whining at midnight. I went down to check and we decided to take him out. No pee yet.

We slept through the rest of the night without incident. I got up at 6am when the dogs wanted out and fed. Since Sam and hubby were both asleep, I let them sleep and we all went back to bed.

9:00am
Woke up, and there was Sam, laying in his crate smiling as usual. Woke hubby up and Sam was raring to go outside, so we took him out. No pee. I don’t think its a matter of not being able to go, he just doesn’t have to go, since his bladder doesn’t feel full, plus he’s more interested in sniffing. He’s using his back legs better, and for short periods while he leans on my leg he is able to support himself on his back legs, good sign.

I gave him his antibiotics and pain pills, but decided to hold off on the sedation to see if he would be calm without them in the crate. Feeding. The little brat, he’ll lick a bit of dog food out of the bowl, then turn his nose up. Hubby got a can of tuna and put some of the tuna water in the food, which he licked excitedly, but got to the food and stopped. Hubby fed him the can of tuna, which he inhaled. He’s such a brat.

Temperature again was 101.5, very good.

We’re mildly concerned about the lack of pee, just wishing the brat would pee when we took him out. He was restless down there while hubby was sitting with him, so hubby came upstairs to leave him alone in case his presence was causing him to want to be out of the crate. I do know that when I was visiting with him last night that he would whine and complain until I started scratching him, then he’d lay down. If I stopped, he’d wake up and complain until I started scratching him again. He’s such a high maintenance patient, and spoiled.

11:00am
WE HAVE PEE!!!!!

We heard him woo in the baby monitor, so we went down, he’s all rambunctious, which means I’ll probably have to give him Ace at lunch to keep him from being all rambunctious. We took him into the yard, to his normal pee spot, where he stood, a bit lopsided and sniffed the air. Then he mosied over to a tree, sort of leaned and let fly with a good pee. We did the pee happy dance and brought him back inside. He’s currently whining in his crate, I’m sure he’s now bored and wants attention, because when we’re down there and petting him, he’s fine.

11:44am
Sam is a butthead. He wants attention, he wants out of the crate, he’s whining when we aren’t there, and sitting there when we are, but he wants out of that crate. Um, no. At lunch, if we can figure out what he’ll eat, the spoiled little baby, I’m giving him an Ace pill to calm him down.

12:00pm
He, of course, wouldn’t touch the dog food, but he wolfed down some cut up turkey lunch meat. He got his Ace pill, and we spent some time with him then left him alone.

12:40pm
He started whining pretty loudly, so we took him out again, and as we suspected, he had a MAJOR pee. Good stream and everything. Since we had him out of the crate, I cut away at the hot spot near his butt to give it some air. It probably should be shaved down, but we don’t have clippers, so cutting away as much as I could was the best we could do. I may go out and buy some clippers later if it doesn’t look like its healing. Tonight maybe I’ll do some warm wash cloths on it to get the hair from it and do more clipping, but right now the Ace hasn’t kicked in, so he’s still a bit active. Hubby and he are down there watching that horrible “Battlestar Earth” film. Its like a car wreck, you get trapped watching it.

Meeshka and Loki are still pouting because they can’t go down there. Meeshka is laying in a crate so she can supervise him and watch over him. Loki has decided that he’s king of the deck and lays on it looking very regal. They did manage to knock over the baby gate at the top of the stairs and make a break for the downstairs, but I intercepted them. They were surprised that ANOTHER baby gate blocked the bottom of the stairs, foiling their plans. Loki refused to walk up on his own and had to be carried up.

4:00pm
Gosh, this recovery thing is boring. We’re both tiptoeing around the house trying not to make noise, which is a good excuse for me NOT to do laundry or dishes. Its very stressful still, as we want him to rest as much as possible, concerned about his recovery, and trying to keep Meeshka and Loki from bothering him. The both of them are currently asleep on the deck, which makes me feel bad that they’re outside (seeing how they are spoiled rotten house huskies) but apparently look very comfortable out there napping. To drive me further insane, Meeshka is laying with her back right on the very edge of the deck stairs, and now I’m afraid she’ll wake up and topple down the stairs. Cuz I’m paranoid like that now. Its about time for their usual play time, which consists of me standing in the yard while they chase each other. They haven’t been that active since the incident, since Sam was the usual chaser, and I make a very poor substitute.

6:00pm
After feeding Meeshka and Loki, we went down and made a huge production of opening a pouch of dog food, pouring some into a human desert bowl, pretending to eat some of it, then offering it to Sam and he ate it down nicely. All but three small pieces were left. He drank 2 small bowls of water (about half cup each bowl), took his meds, and his temp is 101.4. We put him back in the crate so he could percolate for a bit and work up a pee and maybe even a poo. We’ll have to get more of that pouch food for tomorrow as I think that was our last one.

8:00pm
Sam is still sacked out. He’s so sacked out that I went down to make sure he’s still breathing. He is, he opened his eyes when I lay in front of the crate, then fell back to sleep as I stroked his head. He has no intention of waking up, so we’ll just let him sleep until he does wake up.


9:30pm
Sam finally woke up so we took him out. The crate is the right size for him, but he’s so leggy that when we take him out of the crate, his back rubs against the top of the crate, thus causing us to freak out. We noticed that the side entrance has a bit more room, but still its a close fit, so we’ll be taking him out of the side from now on.

No pee or poo, he was too interested in trying to speed demon himself around the yard. He showed some interest, but he also showed more interest in trying to motor himself all over the place, so we brought him in, treated him with a kong bone with peanut butter in it, which he loved, and I had to hold because he’s a stand up chewer. Sigh. He drank some more water, and now he’s sitting around after his hours long nap.

I’m assuming the sedation is wearing off, so it’ll be a long night. Lesson learned... use the sedation morning and night, and he needs the sedation in order to mellow out.

Bear Update 30 December 2006

From Shari, his foster "mom":

Hi all,
I have some bad news about our Bear. Just as I was feeling comfortable about posting that he was finally doing well... he had a setback.

Wednesday he seemed to be feeling much better, finally really trying to play with me, eating a little dry food and just seemed happier. He had a few episodes where his muscles in his hind legs seemed really weak and almost like one leg would give with him at times. Wednesday evening he went outside to go potty, as he was coming on the patio his leg gave with him and he fell down on the concrete.

The doctor thinks he may have dislocated his rear leg. Dr. Good was in surgery today and the person I spoke with wasn't sure what the final conclusion was about him, he just knew that Bear would be staying. He will have to be kept crated and only walked on leash to keep him from trying to move too fast. He has still been having some drainage but his actual incision seems to be healing nicely.

Dr. Good also said that the top of his vertebrae in the wound were shattered leaving a problem with spinal cord protection and possibly some nerve damage (but thankfully doesn't seem to have any potty control issues).

This isn't a huge problem, but means that he can not be a "rough and tumble" Sibe and will probably need to be an only furkid in his new home. On the upside...he is a wonderful boy! The sweetest, most loving guy I have ever seen. Although he was in pain when we were at the clinic yesterday he still visited with everyone in the waiting area and asked for loving from all! He was extremely good with the small children there and even likes cats!

He received a new stuffy from a very sweet lady that lives in Hiawassee, GA. that was his favorite on Christmas morning.

This new toy is the only one he has wanted to play with since arriving here, you can tell in the pictures how he loves it.

Please keep sending "our Bear" all your thoughts, prayers and good wishes, he isn't out of the woods yet.
Thank you all for caring!

ADDITIONAL UPDATE:
I just received a call from Dr. Good; Bear will be in the hospital until Tuesday. His hip is not dislocated! The fall was just a symptom not a cause of his trouble. The problem is from infection in his wound, only thing noticeable was the slight drainage but a nasty pocket was building inside.

Dr. Good said that Bear felt much better once he opened the wound back up and let this mess out. He was in so much pain and it happened so quickly I feared the worst. He is being treated with antibiotic injections and is eating better now. The doctor said that it is not unusual for this to happen considering the bone damage he suffered.

The bad thing is that this happened right when he seemed to be finally doing much better. I don't know if him being more active may have brought it on or not. Hopefully the antibiotics will do their job and he will be doing great soon. He makes friends everywhere he goes he is such a wonderful boy! He has no clue that there may be a person that wouldn't want to pet him! I know this is a bit rambling but I did want to let everyone know his status as soon as possible.

Sam Recovery Day 1

We drove the hour to the Neurosurgery hospital to pick up Sam this morning. Paid the bill (ouch) and went into a room where we went over all of the details and instructions with one of the assistants. He is allowed up to 4 “walks” per day, which is to say that we can carry him outside to his “spot” and allow him to go to the bathroom, but these “walks” cannot last more than 10 minutes at a time, and since his legs are still wobbling from the after affects of the surgery, we have to sling him.

He’s on W/D diet from Hills, and we’ve been instructed to let him eat as much as he wants. Apparently his metabolism will be high from the recovery, so there’s no chance of him gaining weight, let him eat what he wants. They did admit that he was finicky of the W/D so they were feeding him chicken and turkey while at the hospital (he’s such a scammer).

She brought him up and the floor was slick, but she did show us how to lift him up with the sling (we need to get one of those, for now we’re using a cut up towel) and help him to his feet with it, and support him as he walks. He’s not very weight bearing on his back legs now, but his tail did wag when he saw us. Poor thing, the surgical incision is pretty long, but looks good except for a bit of swelling. He’s asleep now, but I’ll take pictures later.

We helped him out to the truck and the tech was going to try to get him to pee, but he saw the truck and all he wanted to do was get in the truck. He even looked like he was going to leap into the truck if hubby hadn’t picked him up and put him in. We put a thin dog bed on the side, which allowed me to sit in the seat, but before I could even get belted in, Sam wanted in the truck, so we helped him in and got him settled... on my coat, so I was trapped in that position for the ride home.

He travelled well, having been given a dose of Ace in the morning to help his ride home. He shifted a few times, each time it seemed brought the incision closer and closer to the edge of my seat and I was freaking out about it rubbing or touching when we hit bumps, but he was pretty calm throughout the whole ride (much calmer than we were).

We got him into the yard, and then just carried him into the house and settled him into his new private crate. We let the other two out via the deck door upstairs and then I went and got his food and other goodies. He settled into the crate very well, although we’re both nervous wrecks. He managed to eat a little of the W/D, but only out of my hand (such a scammer), we gave him some ice cubes, and set up a water bottle on the crate for him (which leaks, so we may have to rethink that one).

Hubby has been spending time downstairs with him, and the other dogs (Meeshka and Loki) are very curious as to why they can’t go down there and see the “new dog”, but they’ll get use to the new routine soon. Of course, they are huskies, and Meeshka (the Queen) is very insistent that she be shown this “new dog” and inspect the area she can’t get to.

2:56pm
Sam showed interest in getting out of the crate, so we figured he had to go pee. We carried him out to the yard to his pee spot and discovered that using a cut up towel as a sling on a 53lb dog SUCKS! He sniffed around a little, he’s pretty much useless in the back leg department, I hope that’s just the swelling in the spine from the surgery and the trauma. I eased up a few times to see if he would be able to hold himself up (as the tech instructed) and he stayed standing for a bit, I didn’t push it. He moved forward a bit with our help and sniffed with interest, but no pee.

Brought him back inside and he situated himself in the crate nicely and drank a small bowl of water. He’s watching some movie now.

I ran upstairs while hubby sat down there with him (he’s got a laptop down there) and tried to find an orthopedic sling for him online. I have to say that even on the handicapped pets sites that I recommend on gimpydogs... they all suck for spine issues. Most of them support the chest, which is fine for dogs with more mobility than what Sam has. Others require you to loop their legs through them, which is not an option with Sam’s injury. My friend, Karen, and I searched and searched for the type of sling they used at the surgeon’s office, which actually looked like a fleece-lined climbing belt. Hey, climbing belt!

We happen to have walking belts, that are about an inch wide, cushioned, and clip into a belt with a rather sturdy plastic clip thing. Its the same diameter as the sling used at the surgeon’s office, and would allow us to support him where he needs support, and not cover up his pee pee.

Sam is a bashful pee dog, apparently he wasn’t too bashful at the vet’s, but when he’s at home, he’ll hide behind a tree to poop. He better get over that real quick because he’ll have an audience for 8 weeks. There are signs that he has pooped (they cleaned him up well, but not totally) and we’re suppose to see at least 2 pees a day, and at least 1 poop every other day. We made him a progress chart to make sure he gets his meds, and to track his temp and bodily functions.

Keeping the same routine as usual, he’ll get fed and his morning meds at 6am, and then lunch at noon, and his nightly meds and dinner at 6pm.

4:43pm
We can tell that the meds are wearing off as he’s getting a bit rambunctious. We took him out again to see if he would pee (he didn’t), but he did try to skitter back to the house. The walking belt sling does work so much better than a towel, so I highly recommend buying a walking belt instead of trying to use a towel as a sling. He’s back in his crate taking a rest, and the other dogs are outside, no doubt sniffing where he’s been. So far, the other dogs have been more of a pain to care for than he has.

6:30pm
Sammy didn’t want to come out of his crate, apparently because he knew I intended to take his temperature. Its more likely because his pain meds were wearing off, and he had a pretty busy day, most activity since the surgery, what with the car ride and all.

We first attempted to hide his pills in bread, but he figure that out and spewed them. Then we tried hiding them in the glob of canned dog food, and he flicked them out of the dog food and ate the dog food. So, I had to pill him, and he wasn’t too happy about that.

He also decided that he won’t eat from a bowl, he will only be served by hand. Not only that, but he only wanted the dog food glop if we smeared it on small pieces of bread. Sam loves bread, so we indulged him and made him little finger sandwiches. He ate about one slice of bread and half the dog food glop, then sunk down for a nap. We’ll let him rest from that, then later on before bed we’ll try to take him out for a pee and get his temperature at that time.

We bought a baby monitor. The evenflo Whisper connect 900mhz baby monitor. So far I’m not too pleased with it. I’ve got the sound totally cranked up on the parent’s listening one and can barely hear anything. Of course, that might be a good thing, as he’s asleep, but I would think I could hear the tv down there or something, as its on, not very loud, but still on.

9:02pm
Sam continues to sleep very soundly and we really don’t want to disturb him, and yet we’ll need to get him up to try to go to the bathroom and take his temperature. We are waiting a bit more before we try to wake him and get him up again.

10:00pm
Got his temp: 101.5 (yippee) but also noticed that he’s got a small hot spot on his left leg, so we’ll need to clip that area, and then call the vet tomorrow to let them know. Since he’s on antibiotics already, I hope that will help clear it up once we get some air to it.

Ruptured Disc

For those of you out there, Sam had ruptured a disc in his back and had surgery on 27 December 2006. The good news is that the surgery went very well, and his spinal cord looked fantastic.

Sam spent the day at the hospital today, and the report this morning was a bit iffy. He was apparently weaker, but able to move his legs when supported by a sling. He also developed a urinary tract infection, which apparently is common in dogs that suffer spine injuries. We waited for the mid-day report when the surgeon would examine him to make sure he was ok to come home tomorrow.

The mid-day report was much better, as Sam apparently was much better than in the morning. He was actually brighter, and was wagging his tail. This is a very good sign because if he can wag his tail, chances are that his legs will also work right. We will be picking him up tomorrow morning at 10am.

I've decided to chronical Sam's recovery and our trials and tribulations during Sam's recovery on this blog. I've seen a lot of stories of recovery on other people's blogs and Web pages, but they all seem more after the fact, and not in the heat of the recovery battle. I'm sure there will be lessons learned here, also ups and downs (hopefully not too many downs), and what actually goes into helping a dog recover from a spinal injury as the dog is recovering.

The first lesson learned is READ YOUR BILL! We received an estimate of the costs, and in all of that legal mumbo jumbo, at the end, was a primer on what to expect for recovery. Had I not looked through his paperwork this morning, we would have brought him home and been TOTALLY unprepared for what we needed to have on hand for him.

First of all, we're looking at eight weeks of crate restriction for the poor guy. Yes, 8 weeks. Our instructions are to put a crate in a first floor room away from any pets or distractions. The darker, the better, as we need to make that area a denning area where he feels safe and he can sleep as much as possible.

We can NOT let the other dogs near him, as he's in a very vulnerable position right now and will feel threatened by even the friendliest presence. We can't get him riled up, even barking, as barking puts a strain on the back.

If we had a doorbell, we're asked not to use it. This is typically a signal to dogs that someone cool is at the door and will get them riled up. We don't have a doorbell, but we do have an alarm system that announces when any of our doors are opened. We will need to disable that for now.

We are advised to provide him with "white noise" like a tv or radio so that it muffles other sounds and is soothing to him that someone is "near". They suggest using a baby monitor to listen for him, as checking on him every 5 minutes may disturb him, get him riled up and thinking we're coming to let him out.

We were advised to buy diapers, baby wipes, desitin, corn starch baby powder, as he'll most likely be "going" in his crate a lot, and that will keep him from getting too messy. This will mean constantly changing his diaper and cleaning his crate. He will be allowed out of the crate if he doesn't get too excited or riled up, and he's even allowed to lay by us outside the crate if he will simply lay by us, but no excessive movement. We will use those times to clean him and the crate.

We will be enduring a dog shift, as when he's out of the crate, the other dogs will need to be outside (we have two other siberian huskies who are rather curious and playful). Most likely he'll need to be sedated most of the time, as huskies are rather... active.

We also went out and bought him a new crate. This one has a door at the front like a regular crate, and a door at the side. As we'll need to take his temperature once a day for 2 weeks to make sure he's not getting an infection at the surgical site, we felt it may be easier to reach him back there, not only for the temperature taking, but for the changing of the diaper and cleaning part. For the temperature, I bought a quick recording digital thermometer and vasaline. Normal dog temperature is 101-102. I didn't get the thermometer that showed red as a danger color, as his temperature would always show the "danger" color and freak me out... even though his would be normal.

We're both anxious to have him back home, and yet scared to death because of all the things that could happen over the long holiday weekend. We do have the ER beeper number for the doctor, but having gone through this with his hip replacement surgery, every little minor thing seems to turn into an emergency, every little thing seems as though it could be a horrible thing, and stress and tempers flare. We've both vowed that anything said during his recovery will not be taken personally.

I hope by writing all of these experiences down as close to "in the moment" as possible, it will help others who are either going through this situation, are about to go through this situation, or just want to learn about what its like to deal with a dog that really has some special needs.

I hope that I don't disuade anyone from giving it a go if they are ever faced with this situation. This is life, sometimes things happen, and you have to deal with it. If you truly love your best four footed friend, its worth it when they recover and can thank you with a wag of their tail, or a gentle lick of the hand or face.

A good friend said to me: "You have a lifetime to make more money, but only one chance to save your loved one" and she is so right. Its worth every moment.

For those of you wondering why and who we're doing this for, here's a picture of Sam:

Gimpydogs has a gimpy dog

This is Sam, and one of the reasons why we started gimpydogs. Sam is an orthopedic mess and underwent a total hip replacement on his left hip when he was 9 months old.

Sam's right hip just sorta floats around, and he has one front leg shorter than the other. It was through Sam's issues, and then with Loki (who was born with a deformed front foot) that we realized that there wasn't a one-stop place for people to find information on "special needs" medical information that was reliable or quick to find. Gimpydogs the Web site was born, and we've helped people get reliable, good information and support, and have shared the stories (both success and sorry) of gimpydogs for over a year. We don't ask for donations for the site unless you feel compelled, but do it out of our commitment to helping dogs that need help, and ask our visitors to donate to places that can help others that need it.

On Christmas day, in a strange twist of fate (literally), Sam (who is now almost 6 years old) was out in the yard playing with Loki, reared up, twisted wrong, and suffered an injury to his spine. He is currently at the Veterinary Neurologic Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Westminster, MD, where he'll undergo imaging, and then possibly surgery on his spine tomorrow (27 December 2006).

After his hip replacement, and now spinal surgery, we are confident that Sam will be one of the most expensive dogs in the whole world and worth every penny.

We want this to be a lesson to everyone in planning for your dog. No matter how healthy, no matter how well fed, no matter how well cared for... things happen, and usually when they do, they are VERY expensive, and recovery is very time consuming. Please think to the future, and be prepared for those little things that can add quickly so that your best friend can have the best care there is, and be back home with you to enjoy their lives.

Penny
www.gimpydogs.com

HELP FIND SUGAR!

UPDATE: FOUND!!!!! With the help of a lot of people, Sugar has been found safe and healthy. Her adopted mom managed to lure this shy little sweetie to the group with treats and love and she is back where she belongs.

Thanks to everyone that posted signs, made calls and helped with their thoughts and prayers!!!!

Sugar was recently adopted to a family in Phoenixville, Chester County, Pa. She is a "special needs" dog as she had an abusive past and is extremely frightened of people. This
morning someone went into her fenced backyard and she ran out. The new family is doing everything possible to find her (posters, police and animal shelters/control contacted,
UPS, mailmen, neighbors etc) but she has not been found yet.

I have attached three pictures of her. She is wearing a navy blue collar with red hearts and she does have an ID tag on with her name (new name is Shiloh)and the new family's
phone number.

Please, if anyone hears anything, please call us. Please
cross-post. She has been spotted, but doesn't come near.
We are organizing searches tomorrow (Friday 15 December) and Saturday 16 December 2006