Day Three,

How appropriate that day three should start just before 3 am. I thought that Tipper might be more comfortable in the giant crate but just before three she woke me crying.

I took her out and she did a few big pee's. She does not like the sling helping her up the stairs but I don't want the good knee to be fatigued. So I'm making her suffer through the humiliation of not making it up the stairs under her own power.

I returned her to the crate and she was quiet for a few minutes and began to whimper. While technically this was day three. She is  really only 36 hours post op, since surgery was late afternoon on Monday.

Having suffered through ankle surgery and multiple broken bones, I know the pain first hand and so I got her up and lifted her onto my bed. She settled very quickly and slept until 6am. The bandage will come off today and we will start some massage and very gentle flexing. not looking forward to that.

Day Two

The vet called at 7:15 this morning to tell me all is well and Tipper can come home after nine. No fever, she went for a short walk and had a big pee.

Once she was under the anesthesia the vet found that the knee was completely stable. He questioned whether to open up the knee because their was no sign of a cruciate injury. She didn't appear terribly lame and he was quite perplexed. We had to get some answers and so he cut open the knee. Upon examination there  was NO cruciate ligament.. It had been re absorbed after the initial injury. What he did find was a totally torn Meniscus. In a way this is good news because the rehab time is 3 months vs six to nine months.

I paid my bill and because of a very generous co owner nothing went onto the credit card!

Tipper hopped 3 legged out of the vets office, stopping on the way to the car for a big pee. The bandage keeps the leg slightly bent at the knee and is designed to keep the swelling down but it makes it impossible for a female to squat, so stand up and pee she did.

The ride home was un eventful and she was settled in a big crate with water and blankets. I gave her about a cup of broth, pasta and chicken which she voraciously wolfed down. She is settled in for a nap, hopefully the fentanyl patch will keep her comfortable. 

As you can see from the picture the vet has a sense of humor wrapping her leg in zebra stripes!

Pre Op Knee Surgery for Tipper

Everyone I meet asks me how she tore up her knee and the answer is we don't really know. Tipper first came up lame 3 years ago. We noticed a slight hitch in her step when she went around the ring. I made arrangements for some rehab and she was diagnosed with a illiosoas injury. We had a course of rehab and Tipper seemed much better. she finished her championship, had a litter of puppies and enjoyed retirement. All seemed well until June of 2013 when X-rays showed a change in her knees and a diagnosis of partial cruciate tear.

After hours of research and conversations with my vet and an orthopedic surgeon I opted for rest and therapy. Exercise was confined to a small 40x50 stone pen. Six months later she seemed good and then early 2014 the limp re appeared.she was not COMPLETLY lame but just showed random lameness. So we scheduled Tipper for cruciate surgery for September 15. 

I dropped her off at 9am with a planned surgery at 1 or 2 pm. Before we even got into the car Tipper knew something was up sand she refused to get in the car. There was no desire on her part to walk into that building! We checked in and the tech came to slip a lead on my baby girl. There is something traumatic about unbuckling a collar from your dogs neck at the vets. It took all my strength not to let the tears flow as my dog walked into the back of the hospital. I watched as she reluctantly followed the tech. 

Now I wait for the phone call...

Do you understand your dogs bark?

Ever notice that your dogs bark is not always the same? And do you ever wonder what your dog might be saying? 

Well here are a few explanations of what your dogs bark is saying.

Continuous rapid barking in the mid range means; Call the Pack, there could be trouble.

Continuous barking but slower and lower in tone means; The intruder is close.

Barking in rapid strings of 3 or 4 barks with pauses in between with a mid range pitch means; I suspect there may be trouble. the pack should check this out.

Prolonged and incessant  barking with prolonged intervals in between means ; Is there anyone there? I'm lonely.

One or two short barks means; Hello there.

A single short sharp bark in the mid range means; Stop that usually heard from a mother correcting a puppy but could be used by a dog that is annoyed.

So the next time your dog is barking see if you can figure out what they are trying to tell you!

Day Five

We had a bit of a setback on Wednesday. It seems the leg doesn't bother Tipper when she wants to run from window to window barking at whatever might pass by, So she wil, have to be crated when I am not physically with her.

I moved her into the giant crate and being in a false pregnancy she loved it. She has her blanket and a nice sheepskin bed.

I am freezing peanut butter inside a marrow bone to entertain her and she does a great job cleaning it out.

One of her favorite places to lie is on my bed which is a good two feet off the ground, so yesterday I took the bed apart and put the mattress and box spring on the floor. now the bed is about 18 inches off the ground.

Sometimes she comes out of the crate holding the leg up and sometimes she will put a little weight on it. I can't say I've noticed much of an improvement which makes me a little worried.

Tipper is getting the Deramax every other day for pain and inflammation. I wonder if she should get it more often.?

Tipper's torn cruciate ligament

Yesterday was a nightmare of a day,  Tipper my 6 year old dalmatian was diagnosed with a partial tear of her cruciate ligament.

After a few weeks of off and on lameness, mostly when she got up from resting where she would hold up her leg for a few steps I decided it was time to visit the vet.

After only a few minutes my vet was pretty sure it was a partial tear but x rays would be needed to confirm the diagnosis. The X-ray doesn't actually show the ligament but rather the change in the bones around the knee. So until surgery is done there's no way to know how torn it it.

There is a lot of information about these tears. There is no doubt that ruptures require surgery but there is a lot of controversy about partial tears.

My vet clearly explained what happened to the knee, what could happen in the future and my options. 

I went home and spent hours on research and found a lot of information suggesting that restrictive activity for at least 8 weeks could mend the tear. My vet and I had a very frank conversation about waiting before doing surgery and he agreed that it wouldn't hurt. He prescribed, glucosamine and some omega fatty vitamins during the eight week period.

So we  are going to try a less invasive approach for a while.

We will start with some anti inflamitary drugs for a few  days to reduce the swelling? This  will be very

challenging since Tipper will only be allowed in the small fenced area, without other dogs. No running, jumping or any other activity. Basically out to pee and thats it. After 8 weeks if the leg appears less inflamed and swollen and there is no sign of lameness she can have 5 four minute walks  on a leash:-(. This will not be an easy recovery for a very active dog. Whether we do the surgery or not this 8 weeks of restrictive activity is required to  heal the leg.

I thought it might be good information to record since most of the medical research says dogs under 20 pounds can heal a tear but it usually isn't possible for larger dogs. What Tipper might have going for her is a very lean body at just 43 pounds.

I will post as we forge our way through the healing process.

Waiting for Spring

It's amazing how time gets away from you and before you know it, it's been forever since I have posted to the blog.

It's not that I haven't been doing anything but the blog seems to fall to the bottom of the list.

So what's new... The book was finally released with the 15 day old pictures of the Alex x Tipper litter from last spring. The photographs are gorgeous. It is titled "Newborn Puppies" by Traer Scott. It helps to tell about how horrible puppy mills are.

We have also been working on our own book about Apple & Whitney 2 beautiful deaf gives who were given special homes and are showing the world how special deaf dogs can be, rather that being euthanized because they couldn't hear.

We have also been showing Sizzle who is close to her championship,

They daycare dogs have been literally climbing the walls for spring and today is the first day in a long time that there hasn't been any snow in the yard.

We have some new clients including Nacho, Rio, Scout and Willow.