Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

I Jinxed My Dog

By

Tuesday I wrote about the Conservative Management program we had in place to keep Sampson from totally tearing his ACL.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you know that went out the window Tuesday night.  Less than 24 hours after I posted it, Sampson completely tore his ACL.

What happened?

Sampson and Delilah were playing, they were running in the house with a squeaky ball.  I went and started a load of laundry and when I got back, Sampson wouldn’t put any weight on his bad leg.  Less than two minutes.  I was gone less than two minutes and when I walked in and saw him with his leg lifted, I knew he blew it out.

I called the vet and thankfully got the last appointment of the night and brought him in.

The Diagnosis

After checking him out thoroughly the vet looked at me and said, “You’re going to kill me.”

“Why?”

“I think he completely tore his ACL, but I’d like one of my colleagues to check him out as well”

She brought her colleague in and she examined him and agreed he’d fully torn it.

What is it they say about mom’s always knowing?

The Treatment

We added an additional pain pill of Gabapentin to his existing Carprofen and upped his Tramadol (anti-inflammatory) back up to two per day.  I was advised to ice it if possible.  As you can imagine, that didn’t go over really well.

He kept shifting to try and dislodge it.

He kept shifting to try and dislodge it.

After speaking with my vet yesterday afternoon, she is definitely recommending surgery.  I can’t tell you how much this terrifies me, but she really thinks this is his best option to get him mobile once again.  I’ve scheduled a consultation for tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.  Oh and I cancelled his physical therapy appointment.

What we did wrong.

As far as I can tell, nothing.  We knew going in that despite conservative measures there was still a possibility of the ACL tearing.  Dogs will be dogs and there is only so much you can do to keep them quiet.

We kept him from tearing for over two months.  Any dog can tear their ACL, we could have had it heal completely and he could have been running in the field and blew it out.  It happens.

While I was sick to my stomach and a bit shaky and weepy on Tuesday night, I’m better today.  Not much, but talking about it helps me, so thanks to all of you who have engaged me in one way or another.

I really appreciate it.

Regrets, I’ve had a few.

People that say things say that hindsight is better than foresight.  This is probably my one and only regret.  Had I known he would have blown his ACL anyway, I would have gone ahead with the surgery right away.  If we had, we’d be half-way through his recovery period by now.

How we’re managing.

Right now it’s hard.  He’s still trying to figure out how to function with three legs.  Since he refuses to use the stairs to get on and off the bed and I can’t guarantee that Delilah won’t jitterbug all over him, I’m making him sleep on the floor.

That's a sad dog right there. If looks could kill, I'd have been dead last night because of the daggers he was shooting at me.

If looks could kill, I’d have been dead last night because of the daggers he was shooting at me.

And of course he can’t go outside without being on leash.  Which really pisses him off.  I’m worried about his pooping.  He hasn’t pooped since Tuesday morning.  Any ideas on how to help a dog without use of one of his back legs to poop?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on ACL tears or conservative management, I am not even a vet. I am not advising you as to what will or will not work should your dog have an ACL injury. I am simply sharing our story.  If your dog has an ACL injury, it is important you discuss your dog’s recovery with a vet that you trust.

Oh and please forgive me for not reading blogs yesterday, I just couldn’t concentrate.

And yes, today is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop, hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog, feel free to grab the badge and join the fun!

Heart Like a Dog

‘Twas Just Before Spring

By

‘Twas just before spring, when all through the yard

Something was stirring, despite the snow being hard

Yup, there’s something moving about in the yard and it’s mostly hiding in the piles of wood.

Woodpile1

Two weeks ago the pups were interested in the pile by the retaining wall.  They stuck themselves so far under the tarp, they scared me.

Tuesday I took the dogs out after I got home and was doing my poop patrol of the yard, when I noticed Delilah had a Mohawk.  (Sadly, I could not get a photo.)  The fur right before her tail was all puffed up.  I looked around to see if I could see anything that might have gotten her hackles up, but found nothing.

Woodpile

Then yesterday morning her fur was up again and both dogs were interested in some uncut wood Hubby had wrapped up in some tarp.  They both climbed up on the snow bank and stuck their noses down.  I swear I saw something brown move under the tarp, so I hurried up on the deck.  Then I thought, it’s better to get your camera and record it.  How many times have you missed an opportunity because you didn’t have the camera?

It reminded me of the time I went home at lunch to let the dogs out.

Delilah was intent on this tree in our yard.  It had been topped and stood about 4 to 4 1/2 feet tall.  There was a small hole in the dead center of the top of the tree and this is where she focused.  Being inquisitive and curious myself, I decided to play the Bear Went Over the Mountain and walked up to it to see what I could see.  I peeped over the top of the tree and it hissed at me.

You read that right,  The. Tree. HISSED. At. Me.

You can imagine that I jumped back startled and I maybe, might have screamed like a little girl.

Then that curiosity thing (you know, the one that killed the cat) got the better of me, so standing a good distance away, I began to throw rocks at the tree.  And I giggled a little thinking how the dogs would chase after whatever it was that came screaming out of that tree.  Until I realized I was probably in the direct trajectory of one very pissed off animal.

Visions of a rabid raccoon tearing my face to shreds while the dogs barked and jumped danced through my head and I decided it was better to wait until Hubby came home and let him deal with it.

I’m almost certain I sent him a text that said, “Dude, the tree hissed at me.”

He text me back, “It’s probably a bird.”

A bird I scoffed, birds don’t hiss.  WTF are you smoking? I’m a grown ass woman, you can’t pull that over on me.

I was on pins and needles waiting for Hubby to get home. Sometimes and I say SOMETIMES, Hubby approaches things a bit differently than I do.  He grabbed a mirror (why didn’t I think of that?)  Meanwhile, I put on my running shoes, just in case.  Standing a good distance away I watched as he approached the tree.  He stuck the mirror over the tree and said, “It’s a bird.”

WHAT?  I couldn’t believe it.  I had to see it for myself.   So Hubby showed me how to angle the mirror just so, and I peered into the mirror to see a wide-open beak hissing up at me.

Well dip me in fruit juice and call me a Popsicle, I had no idea.

That story quickly raced through my mind as I went inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back outside, whatever had interested them had made it’s escape.

As for that tree?  I took it down to the ground in the fall.  Ain’t nothing hissing at me in my yard!!

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes blog hop hosted by Heart Like a Dog and 2 Brown Dawgs.  Hop along to see what everyone else has to say!

Jumps, Lumps and Spam

By

Jump!

So I get this text from my sister the other night asking if Hubby was home, because she needed his help putting something together.

I told her yes and asked her what and when and then Hubby and I left and took the dogs for a quick walk around the block.

As we approached our house Hubby said, “Is someone at our house?  It looks like your sister’s car.”

And then I remembered that my niece and a friend were coming to spend the night to watch a show she didn’t get at home.

Well my sister bought this pair of bouncing shoes and she needed Hubby’s strength to put them together.

Image courtesy of dailygeezer.com

Image courtesy of dailygeezer.com

I can’t imagine her actually using these shoes, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.

Yes, she had to hold on to something, you don't think we are THAT coordinated, do you?

Do these bounce shoes make my ass look big?

Sonofabitch!

She did it, she put those suckers on and started bouncing around my house.

SPAM!

Last week I told you about my problem with spam.  I’m not kidding you when I say I get a TON of spam.  For the record, at 2:15 yesterday afternoon I emptied my spam folder and cleared out 386 comments (and approved one comment from Jackie Bouchard.  FYI Jackie, that’s where your comment went when it disappeared.)

As I schedule this post for tomorrow, it is currently 9:30 and I have 34 spam comments.  That’s 7 hours folks.

I know some of you have those “confirm you are human” captchas and I was wondering how you all felt about throwing one of those little check boxes down at the comment section.  I wouldn’t make it anything fancy, like “type this…231934335938374342143294-94394”  it would just be a little box that you would have to check.

I don’t want to lose comments though, so if it would deter you, please say so and I’ll keep clearing out the spam folder.  And there may be times when I deactivate that little feature too, I mean some of those spams are damn funny if you ask me.

I found a little lump on Delilah.

Actually I found it a month or so ago, but with everything that was going on with Sampson, it kept slipping my mind. Besides which, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where it was to have it checked.  Then last week I found it again (under her chin) and I scheduled an appointment to have it checked.  That appointment was yesterday morning and I’m very relieved that it is just a cyst.  No need to worry.

The funny part of this is Sampson.  Since the beginning of January, he has been to the vet at least seven times, each time I give Delilah a lovely frozen Kong and Sampson and I ride off to the vet.  Delilah is delighted to have the treat and happily parks herself on the rug to enjoy this unexpected pleasure in peace.

Sampson wasn’t quite as thrilled.

First it was like Laurel and Hardy trying to coordinate.  I put Delilah’s collar on and she knew she was going somewhere so she was hot on my heels.  And so was Sampson.  I tried to give him the Kong, but he wouldn’t take it, so I placed it on the rug.  Delilah ran over and tried to grab it.  I got her by the collar and coaxed her away and headed toward the door, clipping her leash on once we got there.  I opened the door and while I was trying to get Delilah out, Sampson was trying to get out too.  I finally got her out and tried to close the door, but Sampson’s head was in the way.  When I finally closed the door, he barked.  Then instead of going to the rug to enjoy his Kong, he ran to the window and barked at me some more.

Eventually he found his way downstairs to Grandma’s, where he stayed for a good part of the 45 minutes we were gone.

Can you say SPOILED?

Barks and Bytes

First you may have noticed that the pictures in last week’s hop aren’t showing up.  Sadly it’s a problem with the Linky tool and they are working on it, but there is nothing we can do about it.  Just so you know, it wasn’t anything that you did!!

When Linda and I first started talking about a new blog hop we didn’t know what to call it.  Linda wanted something that would be appealing to pet bloggers as well as non-pet bloggers.  Eventually we settled on Barks and Bytes.  The Barks part caters to the dog bloggers with the Bytes part being spelled the way it is, in the hopes it would appeal to non-dog bloggers as well.

Barks and Bytes is very similar to This ‘N That Thursday as it is so versatile.  You can be “barking” about something, have a small (or large) “byte” about something else or totally combine the two.  Which is just what I did.

So have you joined us in Barks and Bytes yet?  If you have, thank you for supporting this blog hop and if you haven’t what are you waiting for?

Heart Like a Dog

Today is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...