Phew! What a busy week it's been. We had an awesome visit with our regular vet. She worked on Holly's back and sacrum, and she was in great shape...her Sacrum showed practically no pain! She loved her acupuncture, falling asleep again.
And then there was more driving...fortunately the views are always amazing.
And then there was more waiting for appointments...
We had a great appointment with the surgeon and he gave me the news I was hoping for...her x-rays showed that the knee is finally healed. Whoop! We also took more x-rays of her spine to look for more spondylosis, and of course we found it in 2 more places. So we go into management mode for that and continue to work on increasing her core strength...that is what will keep her comfortable for the longest amount of time. Fortunately for Holly, she's quite the athlete, so exercise is what she relishes.
Had yet another great visit with the PT next. She went over Holly's entire body and the only places she found Holly was sore was in her shoulders and in her left gluteal muscles. But it appears she's just tight and overworked in those places from all the weeks she's spent compensating and shifting her weight there. I'll continue with massage and work harder in those areas for the next month.
In all, Holly's healed. At this point forward I continue to work at increasing her strength, balance and fitness...but still slowly, since she can always hurt herself in another way since she's so out of shape.
I also enjoyed an awesome visit from my best friend, whom I haven't seen in over 2 years! She pulled off an amazing feat of travel and was able to visit for 4 days. We had a great time hanging out and catching up. She had never met Holly or Kettle before, and we cried together that she did not get to visit with Casey one more time. She knew Casey from day one...she was my roommate in college when Casey showed up on my doorstep one day. We also celebrated her upcoming birthday...and oh my, these cupcakes were good!
And I have one more piece of news...my house is about to get fuller by one more. But we'll save that post for later ;)
At least once a month Casey and I would visit the drive thru at McDonalds, a ritual that became tradition for just the two of us. I'd purchase her a plain hamburger, myself a plain cheeseburger and small fries for both of us. Then we'd head to Casey's favorite town park and enjoy our snack. Truth be told, I think she ate as much of my burger as she did her own, and probably most of the fries too.
Late last August when Casey was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, I knew her time with me was suddenly going to be short. She quickly lost her luster for eating, so I abandoned all pretenses of 'regular' food with her, and bought or created anything that she might enjoy...meatloaf, steak, fish...she got anything and everything...including many, many, many more trips to McDonalds.
And every night we'd make a trip into town to McDonalds for dinner. Most nights she'd eat at least one burger, sometimes two. Sadly her cancer progressed very quickly. Just 2 weeks after diagnosis, she refused any and all food, including her beloved burgers and fries on our last trips to McDonalds together.
So, in memory of Casey...my 4-legged heart and soul...Holly and I continue the McDonalds tradition. Once a month, usually on the anniversary of Casey's passing, we visit the McDonalds drive thru, then head to Casey's favorite park.
Okay, so maybe you didn't ask. But since we're on the subject...photographs and documenting the lives of my 4-legged friends...that's why I decided to do this blog.
I'm such a techno dinosaur...I don't have a TV, I listen to talk radio, I don't have a smart phone, I don't text, I don't do Facebook...and I like it that way. I only have one regret about being techno oldie...I didn't have a camera. And my biggest regret about that is not having more visual memories of Casey's last year with me.
But this year, I have a camera (hooray!). So I don't want to miss this opportunity to create visual memories of Holly, Kya and Kettle because I forgot to actually take pictures.
This blog site was originally created for the agility club I belong to...the Huckleberry Hounds Agility Club, hence the name. But, then we got this nice new website, and after that the blog remained blank.
Since the club no longer needed the blog, I decided to start using it for myself. I wanted a way that would make myself be accountable for remembering to take pictures of my furry friends. So far I feel pretty successful...and I'm having fun with the new camera.
I am definitely not a great writer, and I've never really had a knack for taking good pictures either. But, the more I do this, the more I'll learn, and the better I'll get. Besides, actually taking the pictures is what I'm trying to do...and if I get some good ones along the way, then that's just bonus. And of course once Holly's limbs are all healthy again, I'll start
posting some of our treibball, agility and trick training fun. I know
SHE can't wait for all that to begin again.
When you choose to sleep like this...it's no wonder your back hurts so often. What a weird dog. She's using my desk as a pillow, and she's sound asleep!
Holly and I have been on a winter walking adventure. I live outside of town, or rather, above it. Usually I prefer to hike around our mountains foothills close to the house...I am fortunate to have very few neighbors and to live next to National Forest land. But since Holly's surgery, I've had to find new, flat and snow/ice-free places to walk Holly. So into town we went. I've found several really beautiful walking trails, that are paved and ice-free, around our main river. This mornings walk was particularly nice...completely void of other people, clear blue skies and a warm morning sun.
Our small town is situated in a narrow mountain valley. In the winter we experience many, many, many days of fog and inversions, which hide the sun for all but maybe 1 hour per day. It feels somewhat dismal at times. So getting a beautiful blue sky day like today makes you want to spend all day outside...til the freezing temperatures reminds you that it's still winter. It's a day like today that Holly and I would normally be out snow shoeing in the mountains all day...but we'll have to reserve that for next winter. For now, we're enjoying some new adventures in pavement walking.
If you guessed the 16 yr old Chevy Blazer that I've been trying to sell for the last 3 months in order to pay for Holly's knee surgery, then you'd be right.
SOLD!
I was both very happy and a wee bit sad today. Our family purchased that Blazer 16 yrs ago for our horses...for our 2 beautiful TB's, Nick and Billy, who died in 2003 and 2004.
My sisters boy, Nick at 20+ something years old
My beautiful Billy, also at 20+ something years old
I also thought of the Blazer as Casey's car...she rode around in it in her crate when she was a pup during a time when I tried to make her be my mom's dog (Casey was certain that wasn't true...I was hers!). Casey died last year.
A happy Casey
It was also Foley's car...my very different cat Foley. He went nearly everywhere with Casey, and he did it in style...riding on top of Casey's crate in the Blazer. Foley died before I moved to where we live now.
My little buddy Foley...he had a face only a mother could love.
Selling the Blazer today was the end of an Era. It was one last "thing" that connected all of my former 4-legged friends together in one place. I kinda feel like I'm embarking on a new journey again...one with new (or newer) 4-legged friends, and with certainly a newer vehicle.
Nostalgia aside, to help celebrate my new ability to pay off Holly's veterinary bill, I went for a walk with my friend and her 2 awesome dogs, Raj and Jubilee.
Raj...aka Casanova
Sweet, sweet Jubilee
My friend has been working very hard training both dogs...Raj gets over-stimulated when he sees other dogs, or when doesn't get to visit people (especially when he thinks he absolutely should). And Jubilee has some fear issues with strange people. So we went out on the parks walking trails hoping to get some good training moments for them. We did. And all 3 of them are doing awesome :)
Then it was Holly's turn for a walk. Because she is only going on short walks and I'm trying to keep her arousal level down, she couldn't walk with Raj and Jubilee earlier...which is sad, because she lovesRaj. Actually, all the ladies love Raj, but Holly's pretty certain that he hung the moon just for her.
For now, she walks alone. But hopefully she'll be able to join her friends soon.
Life has been more comfortable for Holly since yesterday. We were so very lucky to get an appointment with our other vet for chiropractic and acupuncture care on very short notice. We were there for over an hour and Holly got the works. She's never had acupuncture before, but she clearly enjoyed it and fell asleep a few minutes into her first experience with needles. I brought my camera to take pictures...but I forgot and left it in the
car. Next time.
I did some shopping and took Holly for a short walk before making the drive home (the vet is 1.5 hrs away...our nearest next town). It was amazing...she was already walking without a limp and striding out with her right hind leg much more comfortably. So awesome.
It's wonderful that she's so at ease at the vet office...which is important since their lobby area is super tiny and really hard for a "dog-in-need-of-space" from other dogs. Generally, she's fine with other dogs, but she has a very clear bubble that I protect so she doesn't have to. All the hours we spend on training really show when we are there...playing the "there's a dog in your face" game, the "look at that" game, being able to lie down on her side happily when asked, rolling over when asked, moving her body while lying down without her feeling tense, or heading off into another room with any of the veterinary staff without me...all while remaining trusting and relaxed. More awesomeness.
Yesterday and today she looked great. She has a nice quiet week ahead of her, but she clearly feels much, much better. A healthier, happier Holly...that makes me smile :)
I had fun today with my camera at the office...it has some fun features but I liked the Vibrant Colors and Miniature modes the best...
My office might be small (think closet space), but it's cozy and Holly just fits inside. We'll be enjoying the whole week together in our tiny space, entering last years data. It's a tedious and boring task, but Office Holly makes office life enjoyable.
On Friday I
took Holly back to the surgeon for her 8-week post-surgery x-rays. If you
remember, she had TTA knee surgery on
December 4th to repair a partially torn ACL and to, hopefully, put an
end her chronic iliospoas injuries. Recovery has gone really well and she remained
sound after surgery until January 24th when she came up severely
lame for several days. Fortunately it happened a week before our 8-week recheck,
so I put her on anti-inflammatories and 100% rest until we could see the vet.
The Good...
Holly's
knee looks great. Both the vet and the PT worked on her surgical knee and
neither found anything to be amiss. Her passive range of motion is almost exactly
the same as her non-surgical knee, and she did not show any pain or discomfort
during palpation and manipulation of both the joint and of the implants.
Excellent. However, x-rays showed that at 8.5 weeks the bone is still not completely
healed yet…which not terribly unusual, but we had expected it would be totally
filled in by now. We’ll do another set of x-rays in 3 weeks.
So, what
the hell hurt her enough to be THAT lame a week ago?
The Bad…
The PT
found that she had a lot of pain in her right
middle gluteal muscle and on the right
side of her sacroiliac joint (SI or Sacrum). It was also extremely painful when the
vet “tipped” her pelvis…essentially moving the SI joint. We did x-rays of her
pelvis and spine and it showed bridging
spondylosis between her L6 and L7, and that the sacrum was “tipped” in an
upward position and slightly askew.
Because the x-rays show that the bridging of the L6 and L7 was nearly complete,
this is something that’s been going on for awhile, and was already present
before we did the knee surgery. Like other arthritis, not all dogs show pain or
discomfort with Spondylosis, and its progression is different in every dog.
She’s been
walking and moving differently since she tore the ACL, and especially so since
her surgery. Last Thursday we think she hit critical mass…she twisted just
right, pushed just right, or did ‘something’ just right to break the bridge of
calcium that’s been forming between L6 and L7. Spondylosis is permanent and
progressive, and we actually WANT the L6 and L7 to bridge, or fuse, together so
they can no longer ‘shift’ out of place and cause pain.
So what
now?
Well…for
the short term, we have both the knee and the sacrum to worry about. I have a
whole list of things she can do and things she should not do. We’ll continue to
work on building up the strength of her knee, and at the same time start to work
on getting her core muscles back in shape.
We’ll also
slowly work on getting the sacrum back in place and keeping it in place. The PT
suggested NOT putting the SI joint it back in alignment through chiro…the
tissue around it is already inflamed and sore and she felt it was unlikely to
stay in place afterwards anyways. So, I have specific massage points to work on
for 3 weeks to slowly ‘bump’ it back into place while decreasing the inflammation
and getting the muscles to relax at the same time. She’ll stay on Rimadyl for
now and we added a muscle relaxant too. She’s already on good Omega-3’s and we
will talk about adding something like Adequan or Pentaussie for long term maintenance.
She had
laser therapy on the gluteal muscle and the right side of the SI, and I’ll have
her regular vet do acupuncture in those areas. Had I known about the spondylosis before the surgery, I would have never chosen
to repair the ACL surgically. But you know…hindsight and all that crap. The
spondylosis is a long-term problem, and one that may prevent her from ever
going back to agility or mountain hiking. I don’t want to think about all that just
now. Instead, I’m just going to focus on how much she can progress in next 3
weeks. Heal Holly…heal.
Whatever
Holly did to herself last Thursday remains injured. I gave her 2 days rest, but
continued her stretching exercises. She was definitely not putting her usual weight
on the leg Friday, but Saturday she looked markedly improved and was more
evenly balanced when standing still.
On Sunday she went back to 1/2 the amount of
exercise she was doing before she came up lame. Nope, that didn't work at all...on
Sunday evening she was dead lame again. So, back to 100% lock down mode and is
now on a full course of anti-inflammatories. Monday she still looked pretty
sore and has not improved one bit since.
For the
last 8 weeks her activity has slowly increased from complete lock down to 30
min walks 3-4x per day, plus strengthening exercises 2x per day. It doesn't
seem like much (and it isn't), but now that we are right back to square one
after 8 weeks of REALLY hard work and patience, seeing her lame again is
incredibly heartbreaking and severely disappointing.
And since
we don't go for x-rays and visit with her vet and PT until Friday, I've been
fretting my ass off. I've talked to both her vets and they have tried to assure
me to NOT fret since there is no heat, no swelling, no 'sore-to-the-touch' pain
in the knee itself.
NOT
fret...yeah right. Let's go
back a few years.
In May 2011, at a agility trial, she fell off the dog-walk.
It was a heart-stopping "holy shit!" kind of fall. Her mind just
wasn't on the task she was doing, and she came right off it. Shocked her as
much as it did me. We oggled and poked at her the rest of the day, and while I
pulled her from the rest of her classes, she seemed fine. She also seemed fine
the next 2 days where she took time off from anything but loafing in the yard.
And then she was lame. She'd rest, and then be lame again. Rinse and repeat several
times over. My vet at the time couldn't find anything wrong and labeled it a
soft tissue injury, which is a crap diagnosis. I talked to many friends and
found out about a canine PT in a different part of the state. Long story short,
Holly was diagnosed with a torn shoulder that was the equivalent to a rotator
cuff injury in a human. 4 months later, with 2 of those being in canine hobbles, she slowly went back to hiking, playing
and agility with me.
We did
some winter agility trials starting in October 2011, but by Feb 2012 she was
having weave pole problems. I wanted to rule out something physical before
labeling it a training problem, so we visited a vet that does chiro and acu.
The vet
found she was having back spasms and muscle tightness, but didn't know if her
back was the source of the problem, or a symptom of another problem. So we did
chiro, added some stretching and massage and did a followup. The back pain was
still there and had muscle knots in the exact same places they were before.
Huh. I started doing some online research and found that dogs with a iliospoas
(groin) injury can present with back pain. The iliospoas is a tough muscle to
palpate and my vet didn't think there was anything wrong with it. I disagreed.
So back to the PT we went and she confirmed my suspicions that she had a
iliospoas strain/pull/tear. She also warned me that if this presents as a
chronic issue (which is ended up being) that it can indicate knee instability.
So we did rehab for 4 months. Everything looked great. Back to work and play.
We only got 6 weeks of soundness, that's it. Somewhere around Halloween 2012
she tore her ACL.
This
means that since June of last year, Holly's been allowed to be a regular dog
for just 6 weeks. Sigh. And since June of last year I went through several
months of losing my girl Casey at the same time. Double Sigh.
If you
add up the months she's been sound, versus the months she's been injured...the
injured months win. It seems like we've been in either recovery mode or injury
mode for the better part of the last 2.5 years...and we have. I just can't take
any more of this. I look at EVERY STEP she takes. I know EVERY INCH of her
body. I can tell the second something isn't quite right. Honestly...it's
driving me INSANE! It's her body, her injuries and her lack of being able to do
anything, but mentally I'm handling this worse than she is. I just want my
healthy, happy dog back and we can't seem to get there.
Seeing
her limp last week after making a very difficult choice to do surgery, and
seeing that rest isn't healing whatever it is like we thought it should, is
just breaking my heart. Please
keep your fingers crossed for some good news on Friday. We need it.
In the meantime, this is one of the ways Holly has been retaining her sanity. She no longer eats dinner from a bowl. Instead she gets frozen Kongs, bully sticks, and/or kibble from one of her many interactive dog toys. But, the Amazing Treat Machine is her favorite. Please forgive the darkness of the video...one of these days I'm going to actually remember to turn on more than one lamp in the living room when I use the camera.
It's been a busy week for Holly. She did really well this week with her knee surgery recovery...remaining sound and balancing very evenly on all 4 legs while standing at rest, even after I upped her exercise routine. That was, until yesterday.
For those of you who don't know, Holly had TTA knee surgery on her right
knee on December 4, 2012 after a partial tear of her ACL and meniscus
damage in early November. So, she's just past the 7.5 week post-surgery
mark...and still has a long way to go.
I was gone for a good 8 hrs yesterday so she spent most of the day in her crate/x-pen bedroom.
I did her PT exercises and her walk before I left for the day, then again when I got home last night. But, she was nuts. And because she was feeling really crazy, she ended up doing something to her leg...or maybe she just had too much exercise combined with too much rest...or maybe it was because she LAUNCHED herself at the neighbor to say hi while we were out walking. Have I mentioned how much I love the handle on her harness? Her greeting skills have deteriorated into an abysmal mess...so she launched herself at the poor man, while on an icy, snowy road. Thank goodness I had my hand on that handle...talk about catching her in mid-spring!
Well, whatever it was, it made her lame last night. Fortunately, she rested and stretched out of it which is very good news...it means it's soft tissue related and not the bone. Phew! She seems to do better when she can get a little exercise every few hours, instead of have 8 hours of rest while I'm at work. So today I brought her to work. And lucky her, she'll go in to work with me all next week too.
I work at the best office ever, with the best people ever. I put up a baby gate in the doorway of my really small office (it's more like a closet with a window), and every time someone would walk by they'd stop to peek in on Holly. We got a lot of traffic today. She's a super easy dog...sleeps on her bed quietly, or chews on a bully stick, but never makes a peep. She adores people...seriously, she has no idea what a "stranger" is...so I don't have to worry about people stopping to pet her. It's also a small office...there are maybe 15 of us spread out over 3 buildings with only 6 of us in my building. The offices are old houses, so the design is a relaxed comfortable atmosphere. And also fortunately, Holly loves coming to work with me...despite not getting to run around the place and bark at the fish and ducks whenever she wants. Yes, that's right, my dogs barks at fish. I'll save that explanation for another post.
So, this week I documented more of her recovery from surgery by taking lots of pictures of her hanging out with me in my small office.
If I can ever figure out how to post video, I'll post some of her PT exercises and the fun tricks she's learning during her recovery.
It's hard to take even remotely decent pictures of a dog that can't go anywhere (fun), can't do anything (fun), and can't be off a 6-ft leash (no fun). Not to mention every time you point the camera at said dog, she looks away, leaves the room or paces in agitation because you won't let her walk away. Sigh. I'm working on it. However, even juicy steak hasn't yet convinced her that the little black, blinky box isn't going to steal her soul.
As for the header photo...her smile was captured between barks...many, many, many barks. It's about the only way I can get her to smile for a photo. That said, she didn't give me the "I hate you" look when I took her outside today to soak up some sun. That's right...SUN. We had some. It's rare. We loved it.
So, not exactly the "I hate you" look for our 3/52 photo...but certainly no smile either.
THE one most
useful thing, ever, for a dog recovering from knee surgery...a dog harness with a
handle!
Holly's
at 6.5 weeks post surgery and so I'm careful to not pull on her body while we
are walking, especially with all the snow and ice we have, lest she slip and fall. And, Holly cannot
pull on her leash for the same reason (not to mention it's also bad manners). So,
what do I do when we are out walking and she gets all goofy?
Oh and trust me...with 2 months of NO real exercise, there is plenty of goofy to go around.
I simply grab her
handle and lift her off her feet. Sucks for her, but goofiness over. And if it's not, I just lift her a little higher and tuck her
under my arm, and then walk away from what ever is making her goofy.
While she
may be nearly 24" tall at the shoulder, she's a freak of nature and only
weighs 40lbs. So, it helps that she's super light for lifting, and just tall enough
that you don't have to bend over to grab the handle. Honestly, this harness was
just meant for a dog like her. I lift her straight into the car...no ramp
necessary...help her up the stairs, and stop her from being all goofy and
stupid...it has so many uses!
As
photography goes, this picture is horrible. But I'm choosing it for my 52 weeks
photo project since it shows a HUGE breakthrough in Holly's ability to travel on
long trips in the car anxiety-free.
Well okay, she’s not exactly ‘anxiety-free’
since she can’t relax enough to sleep (and probably never will) but she will
lie down, and stay lying down, for much of the ride. And this is important right
now while she’s healing from her knee surgery. I am so happy that I was able to
buy a car that has enough room for her crate…I’m a firm believer in securing my
dog while driving, both for her safety and for mine.
Last
week, I took a 5.5 hr trip to visit with Holly's canine physical therapist for
her 4-week checkup.
She passed with flying colors and the PT felt that Holly
was ahead of the game in recovery. She has nearly 100% range of motion back and
we'll continue to work on those exercises once per day. I also have new
exercises that will help increase her balance and strength...walking over an
inflatable mattress, 3-legged stands, sit-to-stands on flat ground, and walking
over a make-shift ladder laid on the ground. Once we hit week 6 I can increase
all these things from once to 2x per day. She can also now do stairs...just a
few, very slowly and controlled. I can increase her walks 5 minutes per week,
so by the time we go back for her 8-week x-rays we should be up to 40 minute
walks 3x per day. Of course, that’s IF the weather cooperates...the other day
it rained on top of 2+ feet of snow. Fun. And now it’s snowing and 16 degrees. More fun. And since
a blog post just isn’t complete without a picture, and since Holly WILL NOT let
me take a picture of her doing the rehab exercises yet, here’s one of me
snowshoeing...without Holly.
I hit the creek trail by my house, and it was quiet and beautiful. Playing in the snow just doesn’t seem right without
a dog by your side, but I tried to enjoy the hike anyways. I can’t wait til the
girl can join me on the trail again.
My dog hates cameras. They are little black boxes of beeping, light flashing, pointed-in-her face rudeness. But now that I actually own my own digital camera again, she'll just have to get over that. The second she hears the camera come out and turn on, she leaves the room.
Only with much coaxing and promises of food, will she return. But she's skeptical.
Therefore, attempting to do a 52 weeks in pictures project with her as my subject may be my greatest training challenge yet. Outside shots are easier right now and she looks a little less worried....so here's my 1/52 weeks. I wanted to document the actual sun I saw New Years Day. See the shadow? Despite all the clouds, sun peeked out from behind them several times yesterday...sun is a rarity in winter around here. I also wanted to document her knee surgery before all her hair grows back.
When you live in a small, rural town in a very large state, it means that you do a lot of driving. A lot. In 6 months, I've put over 10,000 miles on my new-to-me car. And I don't even drive my car to work. My primary vet is a 1.5 hr drive...one way. The vet who did Holly's knee surgery is 5.5 hrs away...so is her canine physical therapist. My sister lives 3.5 hrs away. My agility club practices in an arena 1.5 hrs away and my addiction to agility takes me to competitions anywhere from 2 hrs to 8 hrs away...usually in winter. My job requires me to drive up to 3 hrs, one way, to visit people...daily, or more. Driving, it's my other job.
Today was no exception. Yesterday marked 4 weeks since Holly had TTA surgery on her right knee. Since she doesn't need to visit the surgeon for x-rays until week 8, I took Holly for a follow up visit with our regular vet. And she had a chiro adjustment at the same time. It was no suprise that she's sore in her back, left hip and the base of her tail. She's doing great with her recovery...walks without a limp and is feeling really good...but she will continue to off-load most of her weight onto her left leg while she's standing still for at least another 2-3 weeks, which makes other parts of her body hurt.
The other thing I wanted to have looked at was her tail. She's never liked her tail touched, and even though I've worked hard at her accepting having her tail handled, I only really mess with it for grooming. But, last weekend I started full doing body massages on her, and one part is for her tail. But this time her tail seemed actually painful to be handled. She reacted as if her tail was broken...and yes, it appears it may very well be. Unless we do an x-ray, it's hard to say if it's an old break that's now sore because of stress in new areas (she's really using her tail for balance and compensation in a way that she normally doesn't), or if it's a recent break. Since it isn't serious and it only bothers her when you touch it, the prescription is to leave it alone and see how she feels on our next visit. Poor girl...a broken leg AND a broken tail.
Next up for the day, was a visit to the car dealership for an oil change, tire rotation and car wash. For free, Yay! Unfortunately, it also meant that Holly had to sit with me in the waiting area for over an hour. I was worried that it would be over stimulating for her...she hasn't had ANY physical activity in 4 weeks...and I thought she might go bonkers with trying to greet everyone excitedly. But no, she rocked it. She laid at my feet quietly the whole time, and while she wagged hard at everyone who even glanced her direction, she never broke her stay. Good girlie :)
I really wanted to get a photo of her being so good at the dealership, but I felt like I'd come off as 'that crazy dog-lady' taking a picture of my dog like that. I mean, I AM 'that crazy dog-lady', but I don't always need to announce it so obviously.
