3 Weeks After Surgery

Dexi continues to do really well!!!  We have been taking her on 10 minute walks in the neighborhood a few times/week.  She is now squatting/using the bathroom without shaking!  The video below shows that...

VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJLLdq1NbQ


Dexi is still spending a lot of time relaxing.  Thankfully, it's not very hard to keep her calm.

Dexi's incisions are healing very well, and her hair is slowly growing back!

                                             Leg that she didn't pull the staples out of...

                                               Leg that Dexi pulled the staples out of...

                                                             Hair growing back in...

Staples are OUT!

Dexi's staples were removed on May 13th (12 days after surgery). 

                                                         Patiently waiting at the vet....

                                              Here is the leg that Dexi never touched...

And here's the leg that she pulled the staples out of...

Our local vet removed the staples.  He was very impressed with how well Dexi is moving around, especially considering that she had both knees done!  The vet said that Dexi's incisions are healing very well, even though she pulled out some staples.

Dexi continues to move around very well.  She doesn't seem to have any major issues that we have noticed.  As you can see above, there is no swelling and no bruising!  Her appetite is still not back to normal, but she has increased her water intake!

Dexi continues to act more and more like herself :)  She is back to guarding the house and playing with her toys!

Missing Staples!

Each knee has 10 staples.  About 8 days after surgery, Dexi pulled 5 staples out of her right knee in the middle of the night.  Thankfully, her incision is fine and still closed (there are also stitches under the staples that will eventually dissolve).  We called the vet, but they didn't really seem concerned since it didn't look infected. She has an appointment Monday morning to have her staples removed at our local vet.

                                     Staples missing from bottom

She is now wearing her e-collar EVERY night...and sometimes during the day when we can't keep an eye on her.

 

Dexi is still doing VERY well with walking and squatting.  She is just a little slow at standing up from a sitting position, but that's expected.

The swelling and bruising is basically gone!  The ice has been stopped, and we now use a warm compress (warm, wet towel in a ziplock bag) a few times/day on each knee. 

 

Dexi's food and water consumption isn't back to normal yet....but, it's getting better.  She is now eating her regular dog food with just water mixed in it.  She has about 2 days left on her meds, and we are hoping that her food and water consumption goes back to normal after the meds are gone.

6 Days Post Surgery

Dexi remains calm and relaxed.  She seems happy and alert.  She continues to walk well on her own.

VIDEO LINK: 6 days after surgery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYIEhCz1Ogs

Dexi's appetite is not back to normal yet and she's not drinking as much water.  Her urine is pretty dark, so we started adding a supplement to her food to help protect against UTIs.  Our boxer used to get chronic UTIs...we now use this everyday in her breakfast, and she hasn't had a UTI in months!

Her incisions seems to be healing really well.  We made an appointment at out local vet on Monday to have the staples taken out.

 

Physical Therapy

Dexi started physical therapy (PT) today! We decided to do it on our own, at home instead of taking her to a pet PT clinic. 

Technically, a dog really needs PT if they are not using their limbs.  Even though Dexi is using both of her legs and has no lameness, we are still going to continue PT exercises. The exercises consist of flexing and extending the leg.

It seems as though Dexi's brusing is moving up the leg, but her swelling is getting a lot better.  We are still icing 3 times/day.  We will switch to heat on May 8, 2013.

We think she may have lost a staple...It's hard to see in the picture below, but we think one staple should be at the end of the incision (where the dried blood is).  Other than that, the incisions look really good!

She is still doing really well without the pain patch.  We actually now have to keep her on a short leash in the yard because she tries to move a little too fast!  We only assist her going up/down steps.  We either pick her hips up or use the towel sling.

VIDEO LINK:4 days Post http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GughsKTD71E

Calm, Quiet Dexi is Back :)

Dexi kept us up most of the night crying, panting, and acting really anxious.  Around 6:00am, she finally fell asleep and has been acting fine since.  She is back to her calm, quiet, relaxed self.  Looks like the vet was right about the pain patch, and the meds from it are finally out of her system.  She's doing really well on her other two meds (Tramadol and Rimadyl).

We took her bandages off this morning.  She seemed really itchy...the shaved part of her legs have been bothering her, so I rubbed some oatmeal dog conditioner mixed with a little bit of water on them.  It seems to be helping a lot!  She doesn't appear bothered by it anymore.

We are still icing her knees 3 times/day for about 10 minutes each time.  Now that her bandages are off, we are using a towel in between the ice bag and her skin.  I keep re-freezing the blue Dawn bag after each icing, and it's still working really well!

  
Dexi is moving so well today!  Her walking actually looks way better than before the surgery.  The only time we use the towel sling is to help her up or down steps. 

She is much happier today!  Wagging her tail like crazy and smiling a lot :) What a relief! :)

VIDEO LINK: 3 days after TPLO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CORCemb0ZmY

Pain Patch Side Effects=Panting, Whining, & Anxiety for NO Reason...

Dexi is still refusing to eat her regular food, so I made a concoction this morning: lean beef, brown rice, and scrambled eggs.  She squatted to pee with no help.  She defecated once, but we had to support her hips as she squatted. We are continuing to give Dexi her pain pills and kept the pain patch on until this afternoon (see why we took it off below). We haven't had the cone on her because we are watching her like hawks and because she's been really good about not licking.  

We are also icing her knees for about 10 minutes, 3 times/day.  There is a lot of swelling and bruising, especially on the right side (which was the knee that had the most damage before surgery).

I filled a zip lock about 1/2 way with blue Dawn dish soap and froze it.  We have been using this to ice her knees.  It works great because it is so flexible and shapes well around the knee.

She is wanting to move around a lot more.  She's walking around and getting up and down on her own pretty easily. She likes spending time outside in the sun.  Her sister, Gia, (5 year old boxer) keeps her company.  

VIDEO LINK: Day 2 after Surgery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAF9qPVbRGE

Gia has been really good with Dexi since she's been home.  A few times a day, she will walk up to Dexi, give her a kiss on the nose, and walk away.  Gia has been keeping her distance for the most part though.

           BUT SHE IS WHINING
                 LIKE CRAZY!!!  
She has been laying in her bed panting and whining all day..even after she goes outside, uses the bathroom, drinks water, and eats...she still whines.  She's panting like she just ran 10 miles in the heat...we have the AC on for her.  She is also very anxious! Concerned about pain, I called the vet.  The vet said to remove her patch and just continue the pain pills.  Apparently this type of behavior is a very common side effect of the pain patch.  The vet is not concerned that she is in any pain, as she's taking the pain pills every 8 hours and moving around well on her own.  The side effects should go away in 8-12 hours, thankfully!

Here are videos to show examples of the side effects...this is when the side effects were at their best...it got much worse!

VIDEO LINK: Side Effects Ex One http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgis9GAOSU8&list=UUyOzdyKH8ZsDGmMe8M_gL_A&index=1

VIDEO LINK: Side Effects Ex Two http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU6l3r0n_Tg

The vet said we also have the option to give her benadryl...just for the sedation...help calm her while the side effects of the pain patch wear off.  We eventually chose to give her 2 benadryl because the anxiety and whining got pretty bad!  It seemed like she wasn't even resting for breath as she whined.

Day After Surgery

Dr. Laurent Guiot (https://cvm.msu.edu/directory/guiot) and Dr. Michael Kraun (http://dfwvetsurgeons.com/about/staff/associates/doctors-2011/) at MSU did Dexi's surgery on the afternoon (about 3:30pm) of May 1, 2013.  Anita Luu (3rd year med student) observed.  We received a call from Anita at about 8:00pm that night.  She said that Dexi was just starting to wake up and that everything went well.  Someone would be there to observe Dexi until about 11pm.

TPLO Info: http://cvm.msu.edu/hospital/services/orthopedic-surgery/client-education-materials/orthopedic_client_education_materials.pdf/at_download/file 

                               Before/After of TPLO Surgery
                                      (these are not Dexi's xrays)

On May 2, 2013, we received a call from Anita at about 8am with an update.  Dexi was taken outside that morning...she needed help initially to get up, but she was walking on her own.  Dexi tried squatting to pee and was shaking a lot, so she ended up sitting down to pee instead.

Anita also informed us that Dexi's right leg was very swollen and already bruising.  She didn't want us to be in shock when we saw her.  Dexi refused to eat her regular food on her own (which she needed to have food in order to take her meds), so Anita hand fed her wet food :)

We picked Dexi up at about 2:30pm that day.  Anita showed us x-rays and went over all of the discharge instructions in detail.  Anita had us go into the waiting room while she got Dexi.  Dexi walked out limping just a little, with a giant cone on her head.  As soon as she saw us, her tail started wagging.  She seemed a little out of it because of all the meds.

                                           The Ride Home

VIDEO LINK: Day after surgery @home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw5Q4AicmmU

After we got back home was the hardest!  Dexi had a pain patch.  Anita said that some dogs don't need pain pills until the patch comes off.  Dexi started crying alot..so we decided to give her the pain pills in addition to keeping the patch on.  She seemed more relaxed after this and finally started falling asleep.  She refused to eat her normal dog food, so we made her scrambled eggs.  She ate about 1/2 of her scrambled eggs.  We just wanted her to have something in her stomach after she took the pain pills.

Limping for Months

Dexi is an American Bandogge Mastiff.  She will be 2 years old in June.  About 8 months ago, Dexi fell down a hill.  After that, she began limping... sometimes not putting weight at all on her left leg.  After a month of intermittent limping, we took her to the vet for x-rays.  Our vet said that she may have partially torn her ACL.  At that point, we had 2 options: have surgery done right away or let her rest with hopes of recovery without surgery.  We chose no surgery.  

Before, we would go on 1-2 walks/day, usually about 1 hour long each time.  We totally stopped all of that for about 4 months.  When the 4 months were up, we slowly began walking her again, building up the distance.  She then began limping on the other side...sometimes not putting any weight on her right leg now.  We took her back to our vet, who examined her and said she probably injured the other leg from over compensating.  

On May 1, 2013, we took her to MSU Small Animal Clinic (http://cvm.msu.edu/hospital).  They examined her and knew right away that she had torn both ACLs and that the meniscus in each knee may also be damaged.  We left her at the office for blood work, etc... 

We chose to do TIBIAL PLATEAU LEVELING OSTEOTOMY (TPLO) surgery, as it is best for larger dogs.  Info: http://cvm.msu.edu/hospital/services/orthopedic-surgery/client-education-materials/orthopedic_client_education_materials.pdf/at_download/file

We had the best customer service at MSU that day.  The consult took about 2 hours..they are very thorough!!!  The vet (orthopedic surgeon) was very good with Dexi.  He was patient and really took his time.  We were really happy with the visit.  I would highly recommend this clinic!



                             Dexi at the MSU Small Animal Clinic

VIDEO Link: Day of Surgery...hard to tell she needs it!