A detailed account of my dog Maeby's TPLO experience. Musings range from useful homeopathic remedies for post-op dogs, to bull penises. Hopefully you'll find our videos and photos helpful. I appreciate feedback so feel free to drop me a comment!
I had an incredible stroke of luck in my professional life: I resigned at my last job and gave 2 weeks notice, only to have my (now former) employer tell me to take a 2 week paid vacation.
I don't know when the last time I had a paid vacation was! (Maybe never??) And this coincided PERFECTLY with Maeby's recovery process. I've been taking her hiking every other day, on slow jogs through the neighborhood, to dog beaches in LA. Maeby's leg is getting so much stronger, and I've been getting a nice tan!
You can see how well Maeby's walking now in our latest video -- she's just zipping down the sidewalk. And if you could see my face, you'd see a very happy and well-rested me.
Finally took Maeby to Runyon Canyon for her first hike ever!!
She stayed on leash the entire time, per vet's instructions. And we really didn't hike that much, maybe just 20 minutes. But she had such a good time!! I think the last time I saw her so happy was when we went to the beach and she dug to China.
I was worried that she'd be limping later in the day, but she never did. I think her 2 hours of walking everyday has helped tremendously. Again, I can't stress how important it is to increase walks GRADUALLY, and CONTINUOUSLY!
Hello hello, we've reached Week 12! 2 more weeks and I can take Maeby in for her FINAL CHECK UP!!!!
I think Maeby's limp is nearly gone. I decreased her walks and have been helping her get on the couch/bed, so I think she's doing better. We did a lot of walking on Sunday -- I took her to the Dog beach at Long beach so maybe that's why this happened? She didn't do any running around but maybe it was just too much walkign for her. I was planning on taking Maeby for a slow walk at Runyon Canyon this weekend, but maybe not...
I have a Week 11 video I still need to post. Man keeping up with this blog is getting HARD!
*WARNING: Don't read this post if you love corn dogs. You may never look at them the same way again.*
I always use a bag of frozen corn to ice Maeby's knees after our walks. One night this week, I forgot to take it away from her and put it back in the freezer. Major woops. I stepped out for a minute to pick up a friend from the airport, and when I came home I was welcomed by the faint scent of sweet corn.
Inside her ex-pen, I found the bag. Torn open. With only half the corn remaining.
And then Maeby pooped corn for the next 3 days straight.
So now, not only is she a circus dog. She's a corn dog. My sweet, yellow corn-pooping corn dog.
On another non-poop related note, we had a BBQ this past weekend to celebrate Memorial Day. Maeby loves company and had a blast being an attention whore. The cool thing was, nobody could tell which leg she had surgery on!
Took Maeby to visit the boyfriend in San Diego this past weekend. SHE HAD A BLAST! Since she's up to 40 minute walks now, we took her everywhere -- Lounged in the sun at Balboa Park, ate at a bakery in Hillcrest, and even took her to the dog beach.
This was maybe her second or third time going, and she had such a great time. She wanted to run and jump around in the sand with the other dogs, but as we all know that's a major no-no. So I found a patch of sand away from most other doggies and Maeby had fun people (doggie?) watching. She also had a lot of fun doing this:
I think she may have been trying to dig back to Mexico. I took some great photos of her over the weekend too, so stay tuned!
Oh, and here's her Week 9 video. Lookin good Maeby, lookin good!
This video is actually from this past saturday but I got lazy about posting. Per vet's instructions of increasing by 5 minutes each week, we're at 25 minute walks now. And now I'm keeping an eye on how much her knee turns out when she walks. Hoping that will go away soon.
I study these videos like a nut! I watch each week's and compare it to the last one to see if there's any improvement. It definitely gets harder to see improvement from week to week now. I feel like I'm a sports coach, studying plays and old games or something.
Our weekly video update. Her walking is looking pretty good. Nice weight bearing when she walks, pees, and poos.
She semi-weight bears when she stands. But the weirdest thing though, is the way Maeby moves her knee. Her left leg doesn't just go straight front and back. She rotates the knee around when she walks. This is really hard to explain, but trust me, it's sort of weird. I'm hoping this will subside as her leg gets stronger?
Brought Maeby to the vet today and got really good news:
It wasn't an infection!! It was just a reaction to the staples. And we're post-op 12 days, so they removed the staples and that was it! Now that they're out, I can see how they were really irritating her leg. It looks almost like she got hives at that bubbly red area to the left.
I've been putting lots of antibiotic cream on it all day today, and keeping the lampshade on her. I guess we'll be using it for a few more days until her incision is completely head.
The other great bit of news we got today is that we got the okay for her to start 5 minute controlled leash walks, twice a day! I was really surprised that we're starting so soon. It's only been 12 days! It's also amazing considering how concerned I was about her not putting weight on her leg 4 days ago. Since Friday, she's been using her leg more and more once I started walking slooooow and making her use it. I also started her on Symphytum 30C, 2 times a day. Today is day 3 of that, and I'm seeing a DRASTIC improvement. You can totally tell the difference when you compare the video below, to the video I posted on Saturday. See, homeopathic remedies are amazing!
Maeby DID have an "oops moment" tonight -- she got up on the couch! She looked so pleased with herself and just didn't want to move. I don't blame her -- before this surgery, she was permanently glued to the thing. Now she stares at me so forlornly from her ex-pen while I sit on it and type away on her blog. Alas, she was exiled back to her pen very quickly, and I don't think any damage was done.
As soon as I take it off, she rubs her ears with her paws. That's not a good sign! I think her ears touching the plastic, and the moisture of her breath getting trapped in the cone might be giving her an ear infection. This seems to be a problem with other dogs on the orthodogs list too.
I mixed a couple drops of tea tree oil with water and cleaned her ears out with a cotton pad. Hope that keeps her from getting a full blown ear infection.
Her TPLO leg seems to be doing really well. She loves stretching it out, and she's even scratched her head with the leg. She also lay down with the leg behind her, "frog style" today.
As far as her walking, she's putting more weight on it. The sloooooooow, slooooow walking is really making her use the leg. I wouldn't do this if it seemed like her leg hurt her, but based on her comfort with stretching it out and laying on it, I think she's not putting weight on the leg because she just doesn't really try to.
It's not 100% down, but it's not just her toes tapping the ground either. About half of her paw is touching the ground and bearing weight. This is a HUUUUUUUGE IMPROVEMENT from even just a few days ago!! (See video below!)
it doesn't bother her to extend her leg backwards.
By the way, her toes on her TPLO leg were starting to curl in. Someone on the orthodogs list mentioned massaging the foot and extending the toes, as it would help the dog walk better. I've been doing that for the last 2 days, and it's really made a difference.
