Osteo Thread Part 9

[2greyhoundMINI]

23 minutes ago, greysmom said:

Phantom pains are definitely a thing for some dogs.  Gabapentin seems to help with that.  Usually kick in 3-4 weeks in, I think.

Glad she continues to do well!!

Thank you.
I just read an article saying it may surface 3-6 months post surgery. 
I hope she doesn't experience this, but if so, we will help her deal with it. 

[2greyhoundMINI]

Update:

Next Tuesday is Amelia's 2 week follow-up visit!
She will also be done all meds at that point.

Today we got a decent amount of snow... probably a good 6 inches. 
Amelia is not a fan of snow in general. She does not like going out in it, period.
We have managed to survive going out. in fact she almost ran up the hill in the backyard to get to her poop area. I had to run top keep up!

So glad today is going well!

Also, her incision area looks perfect. Everything looks great. All swelling and even redness is completely gone. 

She also seems to be sleeping better... longer periods of sleep, less restlessness. 

Go Amelia! 

[ramonaghan]

Just now, 2greyhoundMINI said:

We have managed to survive going out. in fact she almost ran up the hill in the backyard to get to her poop area. I had to run to keep up!

Get used to it!  My husband makes me walk Willa because she's so fast it wears him out. It's easier for tripods to go at a good clip, so you'll definitely get a workout in walking her.

Go, Amelia, go! Once you get those stitches out, you're home freeeee.

[FiveRoooooers]

Love seeing this update! Go Amelia Go! 

[EllenEveBaz]

Just seeing this now -- sending all good thoughts to Amelia.  Go Team, go!  Extra snoot bumps for Carmen, who was our Secret Santa dog some years ago.  Hope  know she's getting in on the extra goodies, too.    

[2greyhoundMINI]

7 minutes ago, EllenEveBaz said:

Just seeing this now -- sending all good thoughts to Amelia.  Go Team, go!  Extra snoot bumps for Carmen, who was our Secret Santa dog some years ago.  Hope  know she's getting in on the extra goodies, too.    

Welcome and thx for the extra cheering! We can always use it.

Carmen is definitely reaping the treat benefits!

[2greyhoundMINI]

Update:

Nights are going well. She still has to get up earlier than normal to pee, but I think that's from the meds making her drink more.
Good news is her last antibiotic is tonight, and her last pain med is tomorrow morning!

Then it's through the weekend and to her appt Tuesday!

[ramonaghan]

Woohoo! Do you know when she's starting chemo, or waiting to see at her recheck?

[2greyhoundMINI]

32 minutes ago, ramonaghan said:

Woohoo! Do you know when she's starting chemo, or waiting to see at her recheck?

We meet with the oncologist Tuesday as well... after her 2 week checkup. 
So I guess we will find out then.

Edited February 15 by 2greyhoundMINI

[2greyhoundMINI]

Another update:

Husband was on pup duty today while I went in the office. 

Unfortunately it was a little bit of a rough day he reports.
Amelia laid down on one of her beds on the amp side, which is doesn’t normally do.
When she trie to get up she  had a hard time and he said she started crying for a bit. He had to go over to her and pet her until she calmed down.
Not sure if she strained a little too much, or was scared, etc. 

I hate when those things happen. 

On the good side, she finished another med today. She has just 2 pain pills left and is finished!

Edited February 15 by 2greyhoundMINI

[ramonaghan]

Aww, I know that's hard to watch. She's still figuring so much out about this new body. Before long, she'll be doing a cute little rollover maneuver to get herself up from the "wrong" side.

Willa faceplanted this morning on our walk. It's bound to happen sometimes, but my heart still leaps into my throat when it does. I think she overdid the zoomies in the yard before we went, and she was just tired and stumbled, but of course there's no spare leg to catch herself. She recovered quicker than I did, as per usual with these dogs... 

[2greyhoundMINI]

38 minutes ago, ramonaghan said:

Aww, I know that's hard to watch. She's still figuring so much out about this new body. Before long, she'll be doing a cute little rollover maneuver to get herself up from the "wrong" side.

Willa faceplanted this morning on our walk. It's bound to happen sometimes, but my heart still leaps into my throat when it does. I think she overdid the zoomies in the yard before we went, and she was just tired and stumbled, but of course there's no spare leg to catch herself. She recovered quicker than I did, as per usual with these dogs... 

I appreciated that… and hopefully she will figure out what is going on with her new body predicament.

Oh poor Willa! 
I’m glad she recovered quick… I would be upset for hours I suspect while they shake it off in minutes. 

[greysmom]

It's pretty normal for them to lay on the amp site - always gives me the heeby jeebies, but I think it's a protective behavior.  As long as the incision is holding and healing I think it's more and parent issue than a kid issue! 

You'll see another big positive change in her behavior and personality coming up.  Once the pain meds are gone and she's feeling clearer.

Edited February 16 by greysmom

[2greyhoundMINI]

17 minutes ago, greysmom said:

It's pretty normal for them to lay on the amp site - always gives me the heeby jeebies, but I think it's a protective behavior.  As long as the incision is holding and healing I think it's more and parent issue than a kid issue! 

You'll see another big positive change in her behavior and personality coming up.  Once the pain meds are gone and she's feeling clearer.

I will be happy at least once the staples are out. They can’t feel good. Maybe the weirdness of them is what freaks her out?

Thank you again kind words… always good to get talked off the freak out ledge 

[2greyhoundMINI]

Ok, so LAST PILL was given this morning!
I will be interested to see her behavior after everything is out of her system.

Though she had a bit of a rough day yesterday, she seemed more like herself in the evening.
We had pizza delivered and she hopped right up to go to the door with Carmen when they ran the doorbell... that was nice to see.

Countdown is on till Tuesday's appt!

[2greyhoundMINI]

Evening potty break… we go out the door and Carmen stops in front of us and sees deer just on the other side of our fence.
She takes off running.

Amelia about took my arm off lurching forwards to run!
Thank good ness for the leash!

It made me happy she still wants to be her old dog self!

[ramonaghan]

 Four more sleeps, Amelia, and then you can chase whatever you want!

[FiveRoooooers]

Oh Amelia 

[2greyhoundMINI]

33 minutes ago, ramonaghan said:

 Four more sleeps, Amelia, and then you can chase whatever you want!

Yes… HOWEVER she’s gonna have to learn to not come flying down the hill.
Now that she doesn’t have the same breaking power. 

[MP_the4pack]

I had Diamond off leash in an unfenced area thinking "no way can a 12 year old new tripod chase anything". WRONG! She went right after deer. Thankfully they hopped a backyard fence and she stopped. 

[greysmom]

Dude was in the hospital a couple extra days post amp.  I think we brought him home on day 4.  He was ready to come home - we heard him bouncing down the hall to the room to meet us at the hospital, bounced out to the car to come home, laid right down all the way.  They'd told us at discharge he hadn't gone potty that morning, so we took him to the backyard when we got home.  I DO NOT know what we were thinking, but we took him off the leash so he could wander around and go.

He proceeded to zoom around the yard a whole circuit, before stopping on a dime, dropping a huge poop, and then running up on to the deck to go inside.  My heart was in my throat the entire time and I had started to wonder how long it would take us to get back to the hospital when he crashed and burned.  But he was fine and so happy to be home it was hard to stay mad at him!!

I had that scared-but-proud feeling a lot in the next few months as he learned to renavigate on three legs.  Doing our stairs up to the bedroom was a big one!!!  The up part was fairly easy for him, despite being a rear leg amp, but I held my breath on the downs every time.  Dude did not have the words "be careful" in his dictionary!!   

[2greyhoundMINI]

1 minute ago, greysmom said:

Dude was in the hospital a couple extra days post amp.  I think we brought him home on day 4.  He was ready to come home - we heard him bouncing down the hall to the room to meet us at the hospital, bounced out to the car to come home, laid right down all the way.  They'd told us at discharge he hadn't gone potty that morning, so we took him to the backyard when we got home.  I DO NOT know what we were thinking, but we took him off the leash so he could wander around and go.

He proceeded to zoom around the yard a whole circuit, before stopping on a dime, dropping a huge poop, and then running up on to the deck to go inside.  My heart was in my throat the entire time and I had started to wonder how long it would take us to get back to the hospital when he crashed and burned.  But he was fine and so happy to be home it was hard to stay mad at him!!

I had that scared-but-proud feeling a lot in the next few months as he learned to renavigate on three legs.  Doing our stairs up to the bedroom was a big one!!!  The up part was fairly easy for him, despite being a rear leg amp, but I held my breath on the downs every time.  Dude did not have the words "be careful" in his dictionary!!   

HAHA I think Amelia would have taken off MANY times these last almost 2 weeks had she not been on a leash.

We are still figuring out the big upstairs staircase. 9 stairs is a lot, and I worry the will get too much momentum going down them. 

[greysmom]

53 minutes ago, 2greyhoundMINI said:

We are still figuring out the big upstairs staircase. 9 stairs is a lot, and I worry the will get too much momentum going down them. 

We have a 13 step, steep run of wooden stairs up to the second floor where the bedroom is.  Dude was *absolutely* going to sleep upstairs in the bedroom, even though his Dad was with him downstairs all night.  He was so determined that - after a couple months - we finally just bit the bullet and let him figure it out - with supervision, of course.  He was way happier and less frustrated (and frustrating!) once he could do what he wanted.  We still blocked the stairs - up and down - so he couldn't do them unsupervised.  The webmaster harness with the handle on top was really helpful with the stairs.

But again, he was missing a back leg, not a front leg.  Going down is much trickier for front amps!!

[2greyhoundMINI]

4 hours ago, greysmom said:

We have a 13 step, steep run of wooden stairs up to the second floor where the bedroom is.  Dude was *absolutely* going to sleep upstairs in the bedroom, even though his Dad was with him downstairs all night.  He was so determined that - after a couple months - we finally just bit the bullet and let him figure it out - with supervision, of course.  He was way happier and less frustrated (and frustrating!) once he could do what he wanted.  We still blocked the stairs - up and down - so he couldn't do them unsupervised.  The webmaster harness with the handle on top was really helpful with the stairs.

But again, he was missing a back leg, not a front leg.  Going down is much trickier for front amps!!

We were thinking of ways to gate off the upstairs when not supervised, aka - we aren’t home in the future.
I think she’d make it upstairs, but coming down I cringe. 
Found some nice retractable gates we could use. 
I think the harness we were sent will work nice helping her come downstairs. We just need to have her in case she gets too much momentum. 

In other news…

So we think the staples might be causing her sudden yelps. 
They are becoming loose and may be poking her. 
Poor girl has no meat on her side so I can imagine it’s not comfortable. 

Only 2 more days!

Edited February 17 by 2greyhoundMINI

[ramonaghan]

The staple theory makes sense. Neither of my girls had staples so I can't weigh in on that specifically, but they were definitely more comfortable when the sutures came out.