Been a little quiet the past week because holy crap did the universe seem to believe it was lovingly tap Drew in the backside week.
Tuesday, Amy noticed that our sweetheart rescue pup was grunting in pain so when it continued Weds morning I took her to the vet. Weds afternoon the vet noted that she was becoming paralyzed and recommended surgery. Turns out she suffers from a degenerative spine disease IVDD. So off to surgery she went.
While she was in recovery, LA was hit by massive windstorms. No serious damage to my place, but it sure turned everything loose! The mess still isn’t completed. The city is striving to dig out before the rose bowl.
Now, the pup is back home, complicated pill schedule, exercises to do, strict crate rest and still no use of her back legs, s boo to that. Next week sutures come out and then she starts hydro therapy.
The lesson here is if you have a long and low dog, be careful with their backs!
Also, thank the maker that as bad as last week was, it wasn’t worse!
Rough week man! I’m glad to hear the pup is gonna be ok though. Hats off to you for going the extra mile for her. A lot of people wouldn’t do that. A few years ago, Kayla broke her jaw. Cost us 3500$. Made me sick everytime someone questioned our decision to have her cared for. Good man, you are!!
The lovley and talented Ms. Tubercle - who is a vet tech - said this is common in some breeds and can have a high success rate but depends on how quickly it was caught, ie. before any real bad spinal damage was done. There is about 8 weeks of PT to recover but things should go well. Then she started talking in some kind of veternary hieroglyphics and I didn’t understand anything after that but I’m pretty sure she was describing the surgery proccedure.
Sorry to hear of the pup’s woes. Hopefully she can make a full recovery. You didn’t mention a tree crashing into the roof so guess you lucked out there. When I bought my house I cut down a diseased Arizona Ash that I could envision falling directly onto my dining room.
I only blinked for a second when they mentioned the cost and then said “I’ll have to transfer funds first”. We brought Cookie home last January and since then she’s basically become my favorite thing in this world, so yeah.
I had one person made a taxidermy joke when I mentioned the cost. I considered it a high mark of restraint that I only made a brief sharp remark and left it at that instead of acting on my native instinct.
Yeah they cut off a piece of the spine to relieve the pressure and gain access to where the disc material had accumulated (hemilaminectomy) As Tubercle just mentioned, she’s on crate rest for 8 weeks. Minimal movement, no walking, no lap sitting, no playing, nada. We got her into surgery just after she lost the reflex to rotate her foot, so we’re hopefully. We’re almost a week after surgery and she has bladder and bowel control and can purposefully wag her tail. Amy and I are doing her flexion exercises 5 times a day and we’ve both felt twitches like something’s trying to fire.
When we take her out to pee (we don’t have to express her) she seems annoyed with her back feet, but otherwise perfectly goofy. The other day she even tried to roll on her back for a belly rub (her favorite thing in the universe) much to our horror and sudden inexplicable freakout (to her at least)
Nothing too serious, just that one piece you can see above the air conditioner. The real mess, besides the leaves and dead wood came from the tons of roofing tiles that we swept off my neighboring condo’s roof. All over the yard and they scraped up my car too, but all told, everything done is more annoying than not and I’d gladly go through that again rather than what’s happening with the pup.
Funny how them little critters can find their way under your skin and into your heart like that. Good for you Drew! I hope she recovers quickly. She’s gonna be able to tell some whoppers about that scar. OUCH!
The photos of your back yard brings back some bad memories of the summer of '04 in Central Florida. God’s way of trimming the trees…
Best of luck with your loyal friend! It’s great that you’re able to do it for her. If she could, she would do it for you. Positive thoughts inbound.
Last week was your week, this week is mine… Bleccchhh.
glad it worked out Drew. That poor puppy looks like she is strung up like a football. I understand why you made the choices you did, the no questions asked, you did the right thing. Really the only thing. I lost my Georgia almost 1 year ago today, I am happy for you that you get to spend more time with your pup. I still miss that girl.
Jeez Drew, good on ya for hanging in there. That’s the thing about those loving Universal backside taps, she’s tends to have a hell of a follow through. The “pup in question” is really fortunate to be part of a caring home and looks like a sweet little brewers assistant. Wishing you a speedy recovery on all fronts and GO DUCKS in the Rose Bowl, wish I was able to make the trip down again this year. Pasadena is a nice place to be for New Years. Cheers to you.
