Luxating patella | love lives on.

Me. I’m public enemy #1.

We are starting day 5 post surgey for a grade 4 Luxated Pattella correction (that was difficult) and a surprise TPLO surgery to repair a torn ACL that we didn’t know about.

Doug is doing great. Despite only being able to tippy-toe on his new leg (which is right on track with healing – he had bones broken to do the fix), he is still ready to run. And jump. And run-jump. And run while jumping and jump while running.

He does not understand why he is in jail. Enter me, the enemy.

Here is what Doug knows:

I forgot to feed him breakfast on the same day I dropped him off to a strange place.
He ‘fell asleep’ and when he woke up he couldn’t feel his legs and there were only strangers around.
He cried throughout the night and I never came (I wanted to come, bud!)
The next day some stranger forced him onto his broken leg using a body sling.
Then his mother finally showed up (where the hell had she been?).
He got home and was put into a crate. Wait, when did the crate come back? We got rid of that months ago.
He went for his first bathroom break and his mother had no clue what she was doing and he had no clue what she was doing but there was a band around his belly and his rear legs were not touching the ground and WHY WAS HE ON LEASH IN HIS OWN YARD?
He now lives in jail. Why?
His mother does not want him to get excited or jump so she doesn’t come into his to his jail cell until he is very calm and sitting (when did the love leave?).
He can’t sleep upstairs.
His food bowl is not as full as it usually is.
WTF.

He looks at me with complete contempt.

This is one of those times, when it wold be nice if we were issued the ability to clearly communicate with our animals. Like if when you get them, you are granted 30 minutes of communication to use (wisely) throughout their lives. I’d spend 1 minutes on hello, save 4 minutes for emergencies (like major surgery) and I’d save the rest for our final goodbye.

But, we don’t get that so we are the enemy until we aren’t the enemy which for Doug and me is about 85 days from now.

He is still on pain medication and a tranquilizer but there will come a time when he is not on those things and I honestly do not know how I will keep him calm. Oh for cripes sake, I won’t keep him calm because Doug does not do calm, I am more concerned with just keeping all four paws on the ground because he loves jumping up on his hind legs and why, why, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Vodka.

I am happy that he seems to be comfortable. Then again, he was running full speed on a dislocated kneecap and a fully torn ACL so who knows. He could be in agony and no one would be the wiser.

We have a pretty good system. I am much better at getting him out with the sling. He is still on the ‘go out, go potty, back to jail’ schedule but when he gets his staples out (5/9) I’m hoping that we are granted some walk time. We don’t even start therapy until 5/16.

I have set up areas on the first floor for him to be where I am. I have an x-pen in the main room where the TV is and when in that he only wears the donut cone since I can monitor him, and so he can death stare at me while we hang out. I had thought he could be in the office with me but he tried to jump up to look out the window so now I work in the main room so the death staring does not have to travel far. I also have an x-pen set up for him outside, for outdoors death stares. And he sleeps in a crate at night with a giant cone on because if left in the x-pen unsupervised, he and the pen would probably make it upstairs (to kill me in my sleep). When in the crate and wearing the giant cone, he death stares directly into the camera.

I guess this post is my way of saying, so far, so good! It’s odd how the universe works. I do not want the one year anniversary of losing Jake to come because I cannot bring myself to admit he is really gone so I don’t need that day to become another sad reality on the stupid calendar. At the same time, that timeframe is when Doug’s 3-month lockdown will be over. So I really want that time to fly by but I don’t want it to but I do but I don’t.

Yep, keeping the crazy alive over here!

Let me give a quick recap of the health issues I have faced with the dogs. An asterisk indicates multiple dogs and/or flare ups:

Giardia ******
Mange
Severe allergies **************
Moderate allergies *****
Maybe allergies ***
Infected anal glands ***
Skin infections **********************
MRSP
Diaper rash **********
Severe diaper rash **********
Split nail
Cracked tooth
Missing teeth
Colitis ****
Happy tail
Infected happy tail ****
Tail amputation
Hypothyroidism
Eye growth that needed removal
Eye ulcers ***
Hole in eye from eye ulcer
Emergency surgery to fix hole in eye
Blood clot that formed after eye fix (in eyeball)
Severe spinal malformations ********
Spinal fluid blockage ***
Unidentified tick disease ***
Ehrlichiosis
Wonky gait *****
Hind limb paralysis *********
Sores from dragging paralyzed legs *********
Bleeding of any kind ********************
Ear infections *******************
Liver disease
Nares surgery
ER visits to remove feathers from throat **
ER visits (non feather related) *********************
X-rays *********
CT scans **********
MRI and Spinal taps (3 and counting)
Bladder and bowels that needed manual emptying (my life is so damn glamorous)
Severe constipation
Extreme diarrhea
Prolonged diarrhea
De-worming
Dog attack injuries (Jake from attacking every dog I brought home and other dogs attacking Doug)
Aspiration to lung and almost lung lobectomy
Liver cysts
Liver tumors
Lung tumors
Hemangiosarcoma
Grief honk crying requiring behaviorist and prozac
Nerve sheath tumor
Spinal Cancer
Radiation

I’m sure I’m leaving out issues that have long ago left my memory. But you get the point.

The surgeon took one look at Doug’s X-rays and said, I know the issue. He then did an extensive inspection of Doug’s leg (Doug did not love this part and I could tell by the movements the doctor was doing that he had for sure narrowed in on the area of pain for Doug). We did a CT to confirm.

I would like to add my recap to the (male) doctor was as follows: every day, it seems more and more that Doug’s leg was put on wrong. I’m going to guess you didn’t play with Barbie as a child (I wish you could have seen his face at this point), but if you had, you would know that there is a right and wrong way to put Barbie’s leg back on when it falls off. Doug’s Barbie leg is on wrong.

He nodded (and somehow managed not to laugh since I was coming across as very serious) and told me that in his entire career as a veterinary surgeon, no one had ever used a Barbie analogy.

But then he said, (in a way) I was right.

Doug has a grade 4 luxated patella. While 90% of turned kneecaps go to the inside, Doug’s is of the rarer variety and goes to the outside. Grade 4 is the worst, it means that the kneecap can no longer move back into place without surgical intervention. It seems as Doug’s leg grew, his bones pushed his kneecap out of the way and continued to grow without it. So the doctors have to go in and shave his bones to make room for the stray kneecap. (I almost passed out when he said that). They are building a 3D of Doug’s leg to figure out the best way to repair it.

Doug’s onset of symptoms were right on track. For a few months he would hop at the end of long walks or bursts of intense zoomies. He was limping more over the past few months. Then last week, he went lame on that hind leg.

Doug was supposed to be the dog that showed me what this illusive ‘annual vet visit’ is all about. Doug had other plans and clearly wants to be more like his brothers. So we will rebuild that wonky leg (hence the extra asterisks above) and we will figure out how to keep him still now and after the surgery (I bought more vodka to help strategize on that one). The one thing that Doug has going for him (in addition to me), is extreme body strength. Doug currently runs on three legs, just as fast as he does on all four.

I saved Jake’s giant stroller and everyone kept asking why are you saving that? Their thinking was that I would likely never have the need for it again.

HAVE THEY NEVER MET MY DOGS????

Here is Doug. High and drunk from the anesthesia and sedatives and pain meds. We will keep you posted as the surgery gets scheduled.

So high he does not notice treats.