Eo came home last night. Her incision looked pretty evil — after the ride home, the skin around it was raised and kind of red, and I could easily see why they kept her for a couple of days. 
She’s quite whiny as you’d expect, and I’m still surprised at how much energy she’s got under the load of drugs the vet gave me for her… plus the Acepromazine that I asked for to help keep her still! She’s already putting a little weight on the leg every few steps, which the doc said was a good sign.
The hardest thing for me to do right now is to keep her from moving around too much and tearing open the incision. I’ve already caught her trying to lick it a few times — a cone collar may be in her future if she keeps that up. She desperately wants to be outside resting in the sun — and we might just take one of her beds out there tomorrow and spend some time in the fresh air. Didn’t want to do that today with as raw as her wound looked.
After three days at the animal hospital — she’s home. Drugged up on lots of good stuff, sore, with half her butt shaved, not otherwise especially happy, she was beyond excited to leave the vet hospital. She pretty much dragged me straight to the car!
Prognosis is good, with kennel rest for the next six to eight weeks. More details and maybe some pictures later.
Quick update… Haven’t heard if Eo’s coming home tonight or not yet — hopefully I will within the next hour or two. I visited her again today at lunch and she was drinking plenty of water and was even more mobile than she was yesterday — although she didn’t resist laying back down with her good side to the floor as hard as she did the first day.
I visited Eo today at noon. The good news is that she’ll get to come home tomorrow in all likelihood. I took some pictures of her in the kennel, and then got Dr. Glade to put an X-ray up and let me take a picture of it.
First off on our little tour — here’s the Boonville Animal Hospital in College Station, Texas:
Inside the recovery area, — Hey, it’s an Eowyn! In a kennel! She was sitting up when I came in and pressed her nose right up against the kennel.
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Eo’s going to be staying at least until Friday evening at the Boonville Animal Hospital. I visited her today and she was just coming out from the anesthesia, and the little bit of pain before the sedatives and pain meds kicked in was just starting to hit, so she cried a lot.
After visiting her briefly and hearing her cry, I dashed home and brought her a blanket (Eo won’t sleep anywhere that doesn’t smell like her — if we go somewhere and she doesn’t have one of ‘her’ blankets to lay down in, she’ll wander all night trying to find just the right place to sleep — usually either ON me, or in my suitcase.) and some of her Innova for tomorrow when she can have solid food. I’ll go see her at lunch tomorrow and may take some pictures.
Eo’s surgery is, according to Dr. Glade, a success — he said it got a little complex and they had to do more work than they thought due to the amount of deformation in her hips, but he’s very happy with the way things looked in the post-operative x-rays.
He said that they’re going to keep her until at least Friday, maybe Saturday, and possibly even over the weekend depending on how she does. He’s going to be giving her medicine to keep her knocked out and immobile until things start to heal up.
Thanks for all the good wishes so far! I’ll post some pictures if they let me take them this afternoon.
Eowyn’s surgery is scheduled for today. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, etc. I posted a few more pictures to her flickr page… I’ll update again after the surgery.
Let’s say that your dog has hip dysplasia and you can’t afford surgery, or it’s not the right time in the dog’s life to treat things surgically. Your responsibility as a dog owner is to keep the dog comfortable and provide as full a life as possible. After all, the dog doesn’t know why it’s in pain, it’s not the dog’s fault it’s in pain, and it’s really not fair to your companion to let them live in constant pain without knowing why. Since dogs can’t be responsible for taking medicine and limiting their movement themselves, it’s up to you as a dog owner. These are all things that I’ve done with Eowyn to help keep her very advanced case of dysplasia from getting worse. (more…)
Hip Dysplasia is a degenerative joint disorder that is common in older dogs, but sometimes becomes obvious while the dog is still a puppy. Classifying hip dysplasia as “degenerative” means that it will only get worse as time goes on, and will never heal on it’s own. Most veterinarians consider hip dysplasia to be a genetic condition, but there’s some evidence that dogs without the genes for hip dysplasia can acquire it via inadequate care or nutrition in the first few weeks of life.
To officially diagnose hip dysplasia, a veterinarian will sedate the dog and take X-rays of the dogs hips. X-Rays / Radiographs are the only way to definitively diagnose hip dysplasia. There are some things you can look at in the dog’s movements, the way they sit, or the way they act to determine if your dog needs to be examined for hip dysplasia.
Motion Studies: A dog with hip dysplasia has a very particular ’sway’ to their movement. This tutorial video uses motion capture to demonstrate the difference between a dog with good hips, a dog with hip dysplasia, and a dog with a Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture. Eowyn in particular has a ‘hunched’ back and a strange, waddling and bouncing gait to her walk and run.
Sit Test: When your dog sits do they sit straight, with weight on the rear limbs? When they lay down, do they lay in sphinx position? If your dog sits with it’s hips tossed to one side, only putting weight on one rear limb, or if they sit with all of their weight on their front paws using the rear only for balance, then you may need to get your dog checked for hip dysplsia. In addition, dogs with hip dysplasia rarely lay in sphinx position, and typically take some time laying down by first tilting their hips sideways and then slowly using their front paws to let themselves down to the ground.
I’ll make a post about pre-operative treatment tomorrow. Hopefully this helps others decide whether or not to see a vet about their dogs hips.
By no means am I an expert in dog training. But Eo’s a stubborn mutt, and I’ve had a lot of success with her training. This might work for you, but I make no promises!
Last night I was walking Eowyn around our neighborhood as part of our pre-surgery exercise routine, and I came across a guy walking a very, VERY young puppy. There have been incidences of Parvo in our neighborhood due to wild/stray dogs and wildlife (we live on the edge of the city/country divide) and it’s really not good to be walking a puppy that hasn’t had all of it’s vaccinations outdoors in my area. I told the guy walking the puppy about the parvo and recommended he didn’t leave the puppy outside ‘cept for potty breaks. And then he revealed he was a new dog owner, and the puppy was driving him nuts — chewing on everything, tearing around the house, pooping in his crate, and generally being, well, a puppy.
I shrugged and walked on, but I spent the rest of the walk thinking about what we did with Eo when she was a puppy. First off, she didn’t spend her first few weeks with us in the crate — she spent it completely out of the crate except at night. This is vital.
“Perfect” potty training means that you teach the dog that the proper place to go to the bathroom is in the grass, and that you will take them when they indicate they need to go out. The eventual goal is to get the dog to go to the bathroom on command. This works much better than ‘puppy pads’ — and it lasts as long as you reinforce it. (more…)
