Feel Better Bella... for the other leg

I thought I'd never have to write on this blog again, but it's time for surgery again. We noticed Bella was limping a bit earlier this week and holding up her "good" leg that hadn't had surgery. The next day she went flying off the ottoman to go bark at the UPS guy, and couldn't put her right leg down at all, so we suspected that she had torn her other ACL. We just went and saw Dr. Munger who did the surgery on her left leg last year, and he confirmed that she probably tore it as well as her meniscus like last time. We didn't have to do x-rays and have her under anesthesia today, so at least that's a blessing. It was very difficult last year to watch her coming out of anesthesia.

Her surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday, July 28th. She'll stay there over night and we'll get her the following day. I guess at least this time we know more of what to expect. But since we have our house on the market, it may be difficult to have showings since she'll have to be confined to a small area for a few months.

She's now on Rimadyl and Benadryl, so maybe she'll zonk out a little bit and rest. She's been hopping all over the house on her three legs. We've been carrying her up and down the stairs, but other than that, she's pretty much acting like nothing is wrong. Dr. Munger thinks she's in a lot of pain though, but the Tramadol we tried giving her the other night made her vomit all day, so we're going to try to stay away from that. Hopefully he'll have something else he can give her for the pain after surgery.

Your thoughts and prayers are welcome to help Bella get through surgery next week and for a speedy recovery. It's not a fun process for her or us, but we just want her to feel better. At least this will be the last time we have to do this, hopefully! No more knees to replace!

Setback

Well, I was hoping I'd wouldn't have to write a post like this, but Bella had a setback yesterday. She started holding up her leg that had ACL replacement, and wouldn't put it down. We think this happened because this past week she's been on the bed with me a lot, and has been jumping off and on many times a day. Since we have a tall bed, it was probably too much for her leg to take.

We had to call the vet and make a trip there yesterday evening. The good news is that she's lost 1.5 pounds since we were there last, down to 47.8 pounds. She's lost 7 pounds since February. Pretty good! When we got to the vet, she was running around on her leg like there was nothing wrong with it, but then gradually starting holding it up again. Dr. Munger examined her, and he's hoping that she may have just put too much stress on it and that it will get better with rest and confinement. So it's back to the way it was after surgery: confined with a baby gate, only gets to go outside on a leash, up and down the stairs carried by Todd. He also gave us a prescription for Tramadol. I realized this is the same pain killer that my spine doctor gave me! I figured my dosage would be higher than hers, but I looked, at they're both 50mg. CRAZY! Shouldn't a dog that's much smaller than me be on a much smaller dosage? We gave her one last night and one this morning, and she's out of it. I guess it's good that they make her want to sleep so she can rest her leg, but I feel bad that she's so zoned out.

So for right now, we're just watching it and hoping that it gets better with rest. If she isn't better in two weeks, Dr. Munger wants to do x-rays again. I was really hoping we were past this point!

We could really use your positive thoughts and prayers. Not only would another surgery be extremely expensive, but it's very hard to go through for her and us.

Thanks :)

8 Weeks Post Surgery

We're done with vet visits! Hooray!

Bella had her 8 week check-up yesterday, and the doctor thinks she's doing great! No more visits every two weeks. He said she doesn't have to come back until her yearly check-up next year. She's still limping a bit around the house though, but the doctor thinks she's either doing it for sympathy, or she's not confident that she can use it yet and it's psychological. So unless it seems like she's had a big set back, she's close to recovery. He said it's usually closer to 6 months when they full recover though. She was a HAPPY dog yesterday when we got home from the vet. Her doggy door got opened for the first time in 2 months, not more leash to go outside in our backyard, and her toys magically reappeared. She has a new sense of freedom, and she's back to barking at every dog that walks by the fence... I didn't miss that!

Her hair hasn't grown back completely yet on her leg, but it's starting to look more normal. We're so happy to have our happy dog back :) Thanks for all your well wishes!

Here's a couple videos of how happy she was yesterday.

Six Weeks Post Surgery

Bella visited Dr. Munger again for her week 6 check-up, and she's doing much better than her appointment from two weeks ago. She not holding up her bad leg as much, and walking more than hopping. He said we can even let her go up the stairs herself now, so that will be a relief to Todd. He's been having to haul her around, and especially now since I had radiofrequency therapy done on my back yesterday to burn my nerves. So I'm not able to lift Bella at all. She'll like being able to have more freedom around the house. For now, we still have to keep her on her leash to go up the stairs and to go outside, but he said if she's improved even more when we go back in two weeks, we can let her roam free around the house. That will be a great day! She's ready to have her toys brought out of hiding.



Earlier this week Bella escaped our grasp and jumped on the bed, which is a BIG jump. We were a little freaked out after that because she could have torn her new ligament, but she seemed fine afterwards. Phew! We don't want to have to go through another surgery.

Dr. Munger said that if she continues to improve and doesn't hold her foot up anymore in month, she won't have to have x-rays again, which was a fear we had. Not only does it cost $500, but she has to be put out, and that's tramatic in itself to deal with a dog coming out of anesthesia. Not fun! So we're going to continue doing her exercises, massages and walks so we don't have to deal with x-rays.

Here's a video of Bella getting a masssage after taking a long walk... must be rough!

3 Weeks Post Surgery

Bella is doing great.... maybe too great. She is very tired of being confined to the living room. Twice on Sunday she came up the stairs when Todd and I were both upstairs. Turns out that she is jumping up on the arm of the couch, then over a small table to get around the barrier we have up. Not good! Especially since she's not supposed to be jumping AT ALL, let alone over a couch! She's also been jumping up to sit on the couch by herself, and that's a big no no. But it's really hard. She's so fast, and gets up there before we can help her.

Yesterday while Todd was working upstairs, she broke through her barrier again and joined him. So today, he's been hauling her up and down the stairs when he moves around.

We have another appointment on Saturday with the doctor that did the surgery. Hopefully he sees that she's doing well, but I'm nervous to let him know about the jumping around that she's been doing. We also have exercises we're supposed to be doing, and we've only been getting in around 30 reps a day, instead of the 100 a day the doctor recommends. She's not a big fan of them though, so I try to do them in batches. Hopefully we can get closer to 100 by Saturday.

I'm having spinal shots on Friday, so we'll see how she deals with my having to lie around all day!

The Staples are gone!

We went to the vet today and Bella got her staples out. As soon as she realized where we were going, she was not a happy girl! We weighed her as soon as we got there, and she has lost 3 pounds since her annual exam from a month ago. That's great! Especially since she has lost a pound since her surgery, and that's with no exercise at all. We have stopped giving her scraps of any kind, and she just gets her food and chicken breast now. But since we're out of frozen chicken breast nuggets (just chicken, no breading) she's going to be stuck with just eating kibble. Someone I work with went through this with his lab, and they said they got their dog's weight down with a green been diet, so I stocked up today. She had a few, but I'm not sure if she's a big fan. There were a lot left in her bowl.

Getting the staples out was much less traumatic than I thought it would be... they came out so easily! After she got them out, the doctor showed us an exercise to do with Bella where we basically make her lie on her side, then we stretch her leg out, then bend it in as far as we can. We're supposed to do 10 repetitions of 10 every day, so 100 total. I tried it when we got home, and Bella let me do 7 repetitions, and she decided that was enough. I guess we have a long way to go to work our way up to 100...

The doctor thought she was doing great though. By this time, they want their patients to be at least toe touching, and Bella was using her leg when we were at the vet. So that's good that she's using it. She seems to still hop around home though. I think she just wanted to get out of the vet's office the fastest way possible, and hopping on three legs is not fast!


She's getting pretty tired of being trapped in the living room, as you can see :)

Here's a video I just shot, where Bella shows the camera where her bum leg is ... sorry part of it is sideways!

8 Days After Surgery

Bella's incision is looking great, and you can tell she's ready to be done with this! She seems pretty bored, and I'm bummed that we can't take her out on a beautiful day like today. When she gets her staples out on Sunday, they're going to go over physical therapy with us, so I think we can start short walks next week. Good! I can't stand being inside, especially since it's not snowing anymore.

She's been having a hard time with not being able to get on the bed with us at night... she's not even supposed to be getting on the couch, but she does. No jumping, running, etc.

Every time I see someone with an overweight dog now, I want to run up and let them know what a struggle this is and that they can try to prevent it. I know it happens to large breeds too and not just overweight dogs, but I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Hindsight is 20/20, but I really wish we would have helped her lose weight last year when we were told she drop a few then.

Here's a video of Bella chewing on a rawhide... her only source of entertainment at the moment. As you can tell, she was way too busy to look up for the camera.