Abby's Surgery (Again)
No jumping - the couch has been Abby-proofed
The problem started one day in late March when Sandy took Abby to the park near our house. She took a ball along and was playing fetch with her. Abby loves to play fetch. She's a Labrador Retriever, heavy on the retriever. Anytime someone throws a ball Abby takes off after it as fast as she can. This time after one of the throws, Abby was limping badly when she came back. Two days later she was still having problems so we took her to see her vet. Dr. Kellar gave her some anti-inflammatories and recommended that she take it easy for a while. Unfortunately Abby must not have understood the intstructions. The next day she was out in the backyard doing the "zoomies". That's were she runs around in tight circles as fast as she can. All of a sudden she let out a loud yelp and collapsed in a heap. She didn't even want to get up. It was clear that she had really hurt herself this time.
Back from the hospital and resting
Abby was basically a three-legged dog at this point. We called her vet and explained what had happened. She said Abby had probably seriously torn some ligaments in her knee and that it would be best to take her to see the surgeon at West Vet. Unfortunately the soonest that we could get an appointment for her was ten days out. We were stuck with an injured dog until then.
At least we knew what to do since Abby had injured her other knee two and a half years before badly enough to require surgery. We blocked off the stairway so she couldn't go upstairs. Climbing stairs would not be good for her. She also is used to jumping up on our bed and the bed in the guest room and we couldn't let her do that. In the family room I blocked off the entire couch so she wouldn't try to jump up on that either.
Since Abby was confined to the first floor I had to stay downstairs with her at night. She is used to being with us and sleeping on our bed at night. She would make a big fuss if she had to stay downstairs by herself. I brought out the two air mattresses from last time and set them on the floor in the family room. I also brought in her dog bed. I even ordered a bean bag chair from Amazon. Basically the entire floor in the family room was covered with something that you could sit or lie down on. For the next ten days until her appointment, Abby and I camped out there. It was a fairly confined space but it didn't matter as all Abby could do was hobble around anyway.
Not feeling so good but glad to be home
Because of covid, it was kind of weird when she finally went to West Vet. Last time we went in with her while the surgeon examined her and talked about what needed to be done. This time we had to stay outside while someone took Abby in to get examined. The surgeon called us on the phone while we waited outside in our car. He confirmed that her knee joint was very unstable and that the ligament was probably badly torn. She needed to have TPLO surgery, same as she had on her other knee. Fortunately after waiting so long to get her in for her exam, we were able to schedule her for surgery the very next day.
It was tough dropping Abby off. She is always anxious when she goes to the vet, probably because she remembers other times that she has been there when the experience hasn't been pleasant. She also has the disadvantage that she doesn't know what's going on, what will happen, or how long it will take. She gave us a forlorn look as she was taken inside. Obviously we had to do it but I did feel terrible. I knew that she would be afraid during the time they were getting her ready for the surgery. We did get a call from the surgeon later in the day saying that the operation was done and had gone well. She still had to stay overnight though so they could keep an eye on her to make sure that no complications developed.
We were there early the next morning to pick her up. They brought her out and she still seemed a little woozy. I lifted her into the car and sat with her in the backseat. She was quite subdued but seemed to be glad to be out of the hospital and back with us. When we got home I lifted her out of the car and used an under body sling to help her get into the house. I took her straight to her dog bed and she immediatly plopped down on it. She obviously was not feeling great. For the rest of the day, when she wasn't sleeping she just laid there looking sad.
Wearing this cone sucks!!!
The first day after the surgery is a tough one. Whenever Abby had to get up to eat or get a drink or go outside to go potty, I had to put a sling under her belly. I would support part of her weight so she didn't have to use her injured leg. Fortunately if she didn't need to get up she pretty much stayed put. She wasn't feeling very frisky.
Abby looked pretty sad. Her right hind leg was completely shaved, as well as a strip on her front leg where they probably put an IV. She had a nasty looking incision where they did the surgery, although it wasn't that big considering what they had to do. She looked funny with her leg shaved. Abby is a pretty dog but that is because of her beautiful fur coat. She definitely wouldn't look the same if she was bald, but then I don't look the same since I lost most of my hair.
Abby had to wear a cone so she couldn't get at her incision before it had a chance to heal. It was a real nuisance. She really didn't like it, and sometimes would try to get it off. Even when she was ok with it there were still problems. She never got used to how much it stuck out, so as she hopped around the cone kept bumping into the furniture. She would turn her head and swing the cone into things. She was a regular menace while she was wearing it. After the first two days we switched to an alternateve that was just a large inflated collar. Abby was happier with that and it wasn't quite as clumsy. With the new collar she could reach her incision if she really wanted to so we had to watch her carefully. She was pretty good about leaving the wound alone though so after a couple more days we took the collar off.
The alternate cone was a little better
The sling was an even bigger hassle but after the first day we dispensed with it and trusted her to hop on three legs. A dog can actually get around pretty well that way. We still put her on a leash whenever she went out in the back yard for a potty break. As she started to feel better, we wanted to make sure that she didn't try anything too strenuous that might hurt her leg before it healed. During the day it was no problem but it wasn't fun at night. She would usually wake me up sometime in the middle of the night and I would have to get out from under the warm covers, get dressed, and put on my jacket. Then I would go out with her in the cold and had to wait till she found exactly the right spot. Sometimes she would be quick about it but other times she would have to sniff all around the yard and seemed to be in no hurry to do her business. She always seemed to do that on the coldest nights too. After that I would have to come in, get undressed again and crawl under the covers and try to go back to sleep. Sometimes that was tough after an invigorating walk around the back yard in the cold night air.
After a while we established a routine. Every night I would go to sleep on one of the mattresses and she would go to sleep on the other. Whoever went to bed first got their pick, but it didn't matter because they were both set up the same. At some point during the night she would wake me up to go out as described above. When we came in afterwards Abby would always wait until I got back in bed. Then she would climb in with me. Since the air mattresses weren't very big there wasn't much space. Usually we would stay that way till Sandy woke up and came downstairs (she's an early riser, unlike me). Abby would get up and Sandy would feed her breakfast. Then I could roll over and spread out since I had the whole bed to myself again.
Abby was petty happy when the cone came off
I really didn't mind sleeping on the floor. I thought it was comfortable and it didn't take long to get used to the routine. STaying downstairs was actually tougher when I wasn't sleeping. It was uncomfortable when Sandy and I watched tv in the evening. The couch was covered up so Abby couldn't jump up so we had to sit on the floor. The mattresses didn't provide any back support so after a while I bought a bean bag chair from Amazon. That was a little better but it wasn't ideal.
Even worse is that I couldn't spend much time upstairs. My gaming PC with its two large, hi-resolution monitors is upstairs. So is my game room with all my wargames and large gaming table. If I spent any substantial time in either my office or game room, Abby would be at the gate at the bottom of the stairs, wanting to know why she couldn't come up and join me. I did the best that I could to get by downstairs. I took over the kitchen table and had my laptop set up at one end. Not as good as my gaming PC but it was better than nothing. The rest of the table was always covered by wargames. There would usually be one that was set up and that I was playing solitaire, and another that I was cutting and trimming counters to get ready to play. Whatever book I was reading would be there as well. It was ok but I missed the nice setups that I had for those activities in my dedicated rooms upstairs. I would frequently remind Abby of the sacrifices that I was making to stay downstairs with her while she was convalesing, but she didn't seem to be too impressed..
Having to share the same mattress
Abby actually healed quickly. Two weeks after her surgery we took her back to WestVet to have her stiches removed. The surgeon said that she was doing well. By then she was walking normally on all four legs again, although somewhat gingerly. We started to take very short walks with her. At first it was only one or two houses down the block. Over time we gradually extended them. After a few weeks we were doing our normal walks in the park, which is about a mile and a half. We still didn't let her upstairs or let her jump on things. Finally one week after her two month mark she had her last checkup. Her knee had healed well and she could start doing normal things again. As soon as we got home we put the house back together and things were back to normal.
Almost. Next she had a PT program at West Vet to help her regain the strength in her leg. It was pretty fancy. They had a tank of water with a treadmill in it. She could walk on the treadmill while the water supported some of her weight so the stress on her leg was reduced. I took her twice a week for the next six weekes. While Abby went inside for her session, I would sit in the parking lot reading a book.
Eventually the PT ended. By then, even her fur had grown back and there was no sign of her operation unless you looked really, really closely. Her leg also seemed to be as good as new. We could let her off leash in the park and even play fetch and frisbee with her. She was still as fast as ever. Finally in late June I figured that she was ready to go back to the mountains again. Abby and I drove up to Bogus Basin and did a hike. She did just fine. She raced up and down the trail and chased squirrels into the brush. The Blond Wolf was back!
