Heart Like a Dog

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

I Jinxed My Dog

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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

Conservative Management

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We’ve been managing Sampson’s partial ACL tear conservatively.  The common term I keep hearing is Conservative Management.

Simply put this means we are giving Sampson the time and support he needs to try and allow his body to heal the tear without surgery.   Translation = lots of rest, limited physical exercise, traditional and non-traditional treatments and medicines.

Traditional – Sampson is currently taking Tramadol and Carprofen.  The Tramadol is for pain while the Carprofen is an anti-inflammatory, he’s also taking Ligaplex II (supports tissues and joints and encourages connective tissue healing.)

Non-traditional – Sampson is also taking Kola Gotu (an ancient herb, used for healing minor injuries) and a Chinese herb called Xiao Huo Luo Dan (stimulates circulation.)

He’s had some Accupressure as well as Cold Laser Therapy.

What's not to love, I get this nice cushy place to rest and mom and Emily give me love and treats. I don't feel cold at all.

What’s not to love, I get this nice cushy place to rest and mom and Emily give me love and treats. I don’t feel cold at all.

His exercise has been extremely limited.  We’ve barely walked all winter and when we have it’s been very short and very slow.

I’m happy to report that so far it appears to be working.  Sampson had an appointment with our vet last Thursday and after examining him, she feels his injured knee is as stable as his uninjured knee.  She’s allowing us to increase his walks just a bit, to allow him some play time with Delilah (3 to 5 minutes) and we have begun the process of weaning him off the anti-inflammatories.  If he does well on the reduced dosage, we will continue to wean him off the Tramadol and Carprofen.  He will remain on the LigaPlex II and the Kola Gotu for a while longer.

She’d also like him to begin some physical therapy to help build up his muscles.  (Someone please text me or hit me up on Facebook and remind me to make this appointment, I totally spaced it yesterday.)  He is also scheduled to see the Holistic Vet on April 1st.

He will remain on leash walks for the foreseeable future.  I want to make good and sure that he’s healed thoroughly before we give him complete and total freedom.

On our first extended walk this past weekend we took them around the block and I noticed about three houses from home, he had really slowed down and was panting a bit.  We will have to work on building his stamina up again and helping him get back in shape.

Someday I'll get back to you, I promise.

Someday I’ll get back to you, I promise.

When we weighed him at the vets last Thursday he was at about 89.5 pounds.  I’ve cut back on their food a little and I’m hoping once we can start walking regularly again, we can help him drop a couple more pounds.

Even though it’s been a tough couple of months, and I know we still have a ways to go, I’m really glad we decided to treat his partial ACL tear this way.

How about you?  When your pet is injured or ill what type of treatments do you prefer?

 

In Case of Emergency

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Early in the morning about two weeks ago, a house across the street and about five houses down, had a small fire.  We didn’t hear about it until we watched the news that morning because apparently the humans and canines at Stone Manor can sleep through sirens.

Thankfully the two ladies and their dog were waiting outside when the fire department arrived.

It got me thinking.  What would we do if there was a fire during the night?

I’ve thought about it before, and our bedroom is ground level.  There is a door to the back yard right outside our bedroom door and if by chance we couldn’t get to the door, we have a chair in our room as well as the bed and we could easily push one of them over to the window and use it to climb out.  We have our important papers in a fire box that is safely tucked away and easily accessible in case of emergency.  The dog’s vet records are in 3-ring binders and I’ll put those in the same spot as the fire box.

Why would we climb out a window, aren't we comfy right here?

Why would we climb out a window, aren’t we comfy right here?

Sampson and Delilah sleep in our room so I’m not worried about them running and hiding, and our bedroom is at the back of the house and the yard is fenced in, but the dogs don’t wear collars in the house.  Since I heard about dogs being stolen from their yards, we put locks on our gates.

Since the fire down the street I’ve been thinking about this a LOT.  So here’s what I came up with.

Hubby and I have added a key to each of our cars as well as a key to the locks on the gates to our fire box.  And yesterday I did this.

ICE

I took two quart-size storage bags and labeled them with each of the dog’s names.  I added a spare collar with a name tag and spare leash for each dog.  When we license the dogs in June I will add their old town tags to the collars.   Then I placed both quart-size bags in a larger bag and labeled it ICE.  This bag now rests on a shelf in the shed in the back yard.

ICE1

I recently became a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts (if anyone wants to host a virtual party, just let me know) and plan on getting an emergency bag together that will stay in my car.  In this bag, I’ll have blankets, some food and water (for the dogs and us) a couple of spare bowls, a small emergency kit and maybe a change of clothes.

So what about you? Have you given any thought to what you would do in case of an emergency?  What steps have you put in place should something cause you to leave your house quickly?  Have I forgotten anything?

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