A Star in the House

Ok readers, I am going to brag just a bit.  Diesel is a star!!  This picture of him was chosen by MaPaw Siberian Husky Rescue www.sibes.com as the cover photo for the 2013 fundraising calendar.  We got Diesel from this husky rescue in August of 2011.  We were looking for looking for a playmate for Rogue, and he immediately fit in the family.  The picture was taken in August of this year, when Meagan Ebersole who is a wonderful photographer (check out her site www.mephotodesign.com) did a charity photo shoot for the Delaware County SPCA and I decided it would be a good idea to try to get a photo of all the dogs.  Why not?  it was for a good cause and Kurt could go with me.  Well let me tell you, even after several Benedryls to all of them, no amount of hot dog treats in the world was going to hold them still.  Meagan having the patience of Job, ended up getting some really great shots, the one above being one of them- and she was gracious enough to let me submit it for the calendar.  Ironically, this is the day we think that Diesel injured his leg for good and we ended up needing to do the surgery.  Either by trying to jump into the car, out of the car, or just trying to pull on the leash to hard while we walked them around waiting our turn for the photo.  You can say I am a proud mommy!!  I will be buying several of these calendars and if you feel like it, you can also buy them, it is a charitable donation for a great cause after all.  They should be available for purchase on the www.sibes.com website soon.  Or let me know....

Diesel is recovering well, everyday he gets stronger.  Somedays it is hard for me to even remember he had surgery.  One day last week, when Kurt and I were busy making dinner, he snuck out of his "apartment" in the closed off living room area, and went right outside to the back yard like there was nothing wrong with him at all.  How he got by both Kurt and I without us noticing... well that is another story.  Luckily the holidays are approaching and I will be home most of this week with him.  However I am in fear of what next week brings.  Tuesday I must leave for Toronto, yes that apartment about the USA, for a week for work.  This is the first time I will be gone since he has had his surgery.  I am hoping that all goes well for Kurt while I am away.  A few prayers to the man upstairs for Kurt would be appreciated. 

I will leave you with a few pictures of Diesel, you can see him walking and standing outside on this beautiful weekend.  I am really anxious to see post operative xrays to see how his leg is healing.  Have a very Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Another Week @ Home

Tomorrow will mark 3 weeks since Diesel had his ACL repair, or TTA Surgery.  As you can tell from this picture he has moved in quite comfortably to his "living room apartment" as we call it.  Him and I, we are enjoying free control of the remote control, one-on-one snuggle time, an easy access to the beer fridge.  We have allowed Polar or Rogue to sleep with us, sometimes one of them, sometimes both of them.  They miss their "big" brother, and it seems good for all of them to have some interaction.

We go for walks 2-3 times per week, just to the end of the block.  The vet says he is allowed 5-10 minutes walks, and week by week we will slowly increase that.  He is getting stronger, that is for sure.  Just trying to hold him back when the neighbors little yappy dogs bark at him, or the squirrel crosses the street takes all my strength.  To watch him walk, you really wouldn't notice anything is wrong (except for the shaved leg), and everyday-he seems to stand a little stronger and put more weight on that leg.  The hard part still, is keeping him quiet.  I have stopped the "doggie valium", the vet suggested that it could be having a reverse effect on him and that is why he was "whigging" out when we left him alone.  So we moved his crate back to his old spot beside Rogue, and he seems quite content.  I guess he missed Rogue, or maybe he feels Rogue is his safety blanket, whatever the reason, I am happy that I don't have to worry about him when I go into the office.  We give him one of the Rimadyl at night, enough to make him comfortable and sleep well, and then I sleep well.  Plus it keeps him from wanting to try to play with the other dogs from inside his compound.

In a few more weeks we will be taking him to the vet for his next follow up, hopefully they will take more xrays so we can see that the bone is healing well.  Until then, we just keep exercising, icing and doing some passive range of motion PT at home.  

And for those of you that are wondering about the other pups, they are not being neglected.  Kurt sleeps with the others, Polar and Rogue have both been to local 5K's recently, and Rogue got to go to a photo shoot :o).  It is hard to keep them all happy, but they are.

Stay Tuned- holiday adventures are sure to be something to write about.  And if I don't get to see some of you, or you aren't on Facebook- Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Love from the Huskies and the Huskylovr!

10 weeks to go....

November 7, 2012

Diesel is now 2 weeks post-op, good news is he is healing well.  Bad news is, he is healing well.  Monday I went back into the office, leaving him home, like I have done always in the past since we got him.  Well, he didn't like it, I came home to find several of the wire bars of the crate chewed apart, with a big hole in the front of it.  He even was drugged... hmmm I say to myself- what are we going to do with him for the next two weeks.  Kurt tried his best to fix it, using zip ties and old license plates to cove the hole he created... and this is what I came home to yesterday:

Sorry for the glare, but yep, that is the part that Kurt fixed up, torn apart.  completely destroyed license plates... Pretty impressive , ay?  (That is Canadian by the way)

I wasn't so much concerned about the crate, they can be replaced.  we just need to find one he can chew- which Kurt did. Some industrial strength ones, probably like the ones the vet office has.  But we needed a plan B until the ordered stronger one comes in.  Which we don't have yet....  More concerning was any damage he did to his leg stressing it out all day.  On top of a really crappy election result, I found myself in tears all night worried I have done something wrong to make his leg worse.  So off to the vet I am going today, just to get reassurance that everything is still healing well.  He seems to be walking fine, my head tells me - all is ok- but I can't help but be concerned.  Why can't he just be like this all day?

I knew it was going to be hard, but i had know idea how hard it would be, especially on my heart.  More updates after the vet visit this afternoon. So I am happy to report, the vet says everything seems to be healing just great.  All my worry was for nothing, the swelling is to be expected as he starts to use it more and it starts to heal.  WHEW, but i am glad I took him even just to ease my mind.  

No More Stitches

November 3, 2012:
Diesel's surgery was exactly 11 days ago, today we took him to get his stitches out.  We have had him home with us for almost a week now.  The instructions from the vet, to keep him quiet for the next 8-12 weeks... REALLY?  The first few days home, the pain medications he was on seemed to do the trick.  he was pretty groggy, pretty tired, wasn't interested in being too active.  Somewhere around Wednesday, almost exactly one week after the surgery, he decided he was super dog.  Trying to jump on the couch and the air mattress, and if you have met Diesel (or seen pictures) he is a big boy!!

Giving me the "quit fussing over me" look!

I wasn't quick enough or strong enough to hold him down. So I called the vet, HELP!!  She prescribed me Acepromazine 25mg, basically a "doggie valium".  The directions were 1 pill for sedation at needed, so I gave him one pill.  (they did tell me I may need to adjust how much or little I give him)  Well let me tell you one of these little yellow pills knocked the big guy out, to the point I spent much of Wednesday night waking up off & on to make sure he was still breathing. The other problem with using this was he was so drugged he was loosing control of his back legs, not good for the bad leg for sure.  The past few days I have continued to use the sedative, although I have figured out for the 100# dog, 1/4 of the pill is enough to just keep him calm.  For anyone out there that is reading this for information following your dogs surgery, I suggest start with a low dose and move up if you need to.

I  have quite comfortably moved into the living room, he & I have a nice set up.  I let him sleep on the air mattress with me now, he waits for me to help him get up on it and get down.  We had to go and buy a bunch of cheap area rugs since there are hard wood floors in the living room, baby gates to corral him in the area, and keep his siblings out.

Today was his first post op check with the vet, she was incredibly pleased with how he was doing.  She brought out the plates to show us that were implanted, of course we were interested because it is our jobs!!  This is what they look like.  They are made by a company called Kyon, they make many different surgical implants for veterinary surgery.  I highly suggest that if you are reading this, explore the differences in a TTA Surgery for your dog vs. a TPLO surgery.  I mentioned this before in my last blog, but the big difference in dummed down terms is they do not cut the weight bearing part of the tibia doing the TTA surgery, therefore the dog is able to put weight on his leg almost immediately after the surgery.  There is a lot of information out there, inform yourself and don't let the vet just talk you into a surgery.  Some veterinarians choose or prefer one surgery over the other, don't be afraid to seek out another option.  Sometimes it is just because they were trained to only do the surgery with one of the implants, but trust me- there is a vet out there that can do which ever surgery you choose.

This website is for the manufacturer, but it has some good articles about the implants and surgery outcomes. http://www.kyon.ch/current-products/tibial-tuberosity-advancement-tta/tta-reports

NO MORE STITCHES!!

Today, is a good day-he got his stitches out, we are now allowed to take him for short walks 2-3 times per day, and that will gradually increase.  I have to say, I am amazed at this animal- truly amazed.  Having worked in medicine my whole life, I have never seen such an amazing recovery.  Love you big guy!!

And most of all- No More Cone of Shame