Tuesday, May 15, 2018

WEEK NINE: AND THE PROGNOSIS IS IN

It's been a while that I've posted an update. Up to this point there wasn't a lot to report, Terra was doing well, we were doing all her exercise and adhering to all the restrictions

But today was a big day. At Week Nine we returned to her surgeon so they could do the first re-check since the operation. They X Rayed the leg and checked her physical status

Cutting to the chase: Terra has healed perfectly. The bone restructuring and the metal plate have integrated perfectly, range of motion is excellent and everything has settled in nicely. We're all happy about that


All in all the doctor felt that Terra should have a full and total recovery. Even Panda, who has missed playing with her sister, is happy about that. I think


We have yet to reach that total recovery. Although her leg can take impact, the muscle is still weak. It still needs to be rebuilt. I can see that, sometimes, when Terra walks on uneven ground. She is going up and down the stairs and Up is still a bit slow but Down is nice and smooth. In general, her movement is getting better every day. The foot still turns out a bit but mostly, she is walking square


Terra will  now be allowed to get on and off the furniture, go into the yard by herself, jump in and out of the car. She can do some light jogging and play a bit more aggresively with her stuffies. Trust me, these are very big deals. It means we are returning to normal. Still, there is work to be done. No jumping for frisbees, no jumping off the rock wall at the cottage, no flat out running ... yet. That will all come. We just need to keep rehabing that muscle and get it back to full strength. The vet thinks that with consistent work, we can get there in just a few weeks

We will be opening the cottage soon and that means swimming which is the best exercise we can give her. I think walking in the sand on the beach will also be good. We will have to be careful with the running and the flying buy chasing the frisbee in the water will A: Make Terra happy B: Really work out that leg and C: Make me happy with all of the above

It's been a long road, it's meant a big restructuring of our lives (and our house) and at times it's been scary, but it's great to see that it has all been worthwhile. 

Both girls agree


They may not look like it but trust me, they do





Tuesday, April 17, 2018

MOTHER NATURE ONE, DOGS ZERO

It's been a tough few days recovery wise

Not because of anything wrong with Terra but due to the weather. Our mid-December ice storm (it is December right?) created some precarious situations for Terra, well for both dogs.

We're at the stage of Terra's rehab where the amount of exercise required has ramped up quite a bit; three 30 minute walks with figure 8s, curb work and the puppy squats. Those became almost impossible to do. First we had a sheet of ice over the snow so even taking her out to poo was a challenge, a couple of times she slipped Luckily no damage taken

Walking was a challenge. In our neighbourhood with no sidewalks, we are forced to walk in the road. Well the roads around here did not get blowed. So when the weather was mild there was a tremendous amount of slush and I was concerned with Terra missing her footing When the air cooled, all those slushy ruts became hard and slippery. Difficult for both dogs

Panda is a 13 yr old dog with some arthritis in her back legs. Generally she does just fine walking and jumping but I kept her off the ice sheet for fear of slipping. Even when the snow in the backyard (where we do our morning play) was not icy, the snow was very hard and her paws could punch through it with potential of twisting something

So for most of the weekend both dogs were on restrictive duties, as we say. I didn't like that Terra wasn't doing her rehab but that was preferable to her damaging herself

Because of the conditions and the fact that Terra had a couple small slips we've put her back on Metacam for a while. This is an anti inflammatory with a mild sedative. That should take care of any discomfort

All of this left be entirely pissed off with the weather. Me and Mom Nature, we gots a discussion coming up. But as of this posting conditions have improved. The roads are clear now for walking and both the backyard and the parks are in decent condition so I can take the girls out.

Considering when Terra had her surgery I certainly anticipated many challenges but snow and ice storms were not among them

Yeh. Mama Nature. You got some splainin to do


Friday, April 13, 2018

WEEK FIVE: THE TERRA OLYMPICS

Up until this point, the recovery manual progressed me week by week, each week adding new activities for Terra. Now, I am getting Week 5 to 8. New activities added but that will be the plan until Week 8 which is when she has her re-check and evaluation at the vet's

Mostly I am very pleased with Terra's progress. Her walking is very good. We are now doing walks up to 30 minutes, on the flexie but extended out to about 10 feet. She can do some jogging. I know that if I let her off the leash at this point, jogging would become a full out run.

Here is a recent video clip of her walking


Here's an angle of her walking from the side of the injured leg


Pretty happy with the progress, she walks very easily. There is a slight hitch in her step. That could be from some latent weakness which according to the book, is normal. May be hard to see in the video but the paw on her surgery leg is slightly turned out when she walks which is something we need to work on

In the pic below, you can see that Terra is extending her repaired leg. Again, very normal but the idea is to have that leg "squared" up to her body as is the other one


The exercises called puppy squats, where I have her sit then quickly sit, are designed to help her with this issue. The version that seems to work best is when I have her go tight up against a wall on that side of her body and do the squats. That forces her to tuck in that leg

This week we've added a couple of new exercises. While walking I have go up and down a curb, in an S formation, as we walk along. That's easy to do in our neighbourhood where we have no sidewalks. I'm also doing hill work which is exactly as it sounds: On a tight lead, I walk her up and down a steep hill and also walk her laterally across the hill. Another easy thing to do in our area. Just a couple blocks from the house we have streets that dip down into the Humber Ravine

So at this stage we are doing several exercises: Leash walks, figure eights, puppy squats, curb work, hill work. It's like one of those multi sport events in the Olympics. I have an athlete who can manage the task. It's the coach I'm worried about.

The coach needs beer

Monday, April 9, 2018

WEEK FOUR: HOLD BACK, GO FORWARD

Here we are into Week Four

The rehab protocols are beginning to ramp up the activities: Walks up to 20 minutes, walks on the flexie leash up to 10 feet, some light trotting. We are doing Figure 8s (which are exactly as they sound) and increasing the puppy squats.

During these puppy squats (she sits down then comes up fast and repeat) I notice that her surgery leg is sticking out, she is not "sitting square". It's not as bad as some dogs where they tuck the leg right under her body but the idea is to get that leg properly under her. One way to correct this is to do the exercise with Terra up against a wall, the "bad" leg against the wall, forcing her to move that leg in. These seems to be working

The first few times I put all these new protocols together, I could see that it was really tiring Terra out. So amazing, this is a dog that throughout her life, would do about 2 hrs of really active exercise per day. But considering that for about 2 months before the surgery I was  not allowing her to go "all out" it's not surprising that she has to relearn her stamina

So although I am following the rehab advice I'm also adjusting it as needed. So for a couple of days I eased off on the new activities to allow Terra to ease into it. That worked. Now she is able to better tolerate the new schedule and I can see her getting a little stronger every day

We've been warned that the next 4 weeks are very crucial; it's when the highest rate of re-injuries occur. The dog is feeling better, feeling stronger. I'm walking Terra in a park, letting her have more lead, and she thinks "Hey, we're back to normal" The other day I was bringing her home; she's still not allow to go up the steps so I've been carrying her. There was a neighbourhood cat sunning himself up on the porch, as I was shooing it away Terra put her front feet up on the stair and started to go up ...

This is the kind of thing we have to watch. No stairs, no jumping up (and jumping down), no balls, no full out wrestling with her stuffies Trust me, that's  not easy to do


Saturday, March 31, 2018

PUPPY SQUATS AND CLOSED DOORS

Week Three and Terra continues to be improving day by day

I've been able to up her walks to 15-20 minutes, three times a day. She is walking well. She is putting weight on the leg but I noticed it's turned out a bit. In another week I'll be able to do some exercises that should correct that

We started some new exercises this weeks. Sit n Stays or "Puppy Squats" You have the dog sit then quickly stand then quickly sit then quickly stand .. rinse and repeat. The idea is to retrain her muscles to allow her to sit "squarely" Right now when Terra sits, she favours her leg by sticking it out. These exercises are designed to correct that.

Being Terra, she loves doing these exercises. For us, training has always been play and she loves to learn new techniques. The first time I showed them to her, Terra went into training mode and began doing all of her tricks in order to gain her reward. .Hey, maybe I didn't really know what I wanted

I'm able not to walk her to a little park a couple blocks from the house. No off leash, no long leash,  no running but she's able to sniff trees and put the eye on the Canada geese. These are city geese. They ain't impressed

Through all this, of course, I have another dog.


Through all of this Panda has been very good. I'm taking her out for her regular play sessions and maintaining her routines for eating, peeing etc. But it's interesting, as much as she enjoys going out with me for her walks, she still freaks out a bit when I take Terra out for her walk. We go together, thinks Panda, so clearly we've forgotten her. When I come back in with Terra, there is Panda waiting by the door.

Panda is also confused by our new door protocol. Normally we leave the doors in the house open and Panda can freely go into the bedroom, my office etc. Right now, except at bed time, we have to keep the bedroom door closed. Terra is not allowed to jump up on to our big bed and the easiest way to ensure this is to deny the access.

Panda will go down to the end of the hall and kind of spin around,  not sure how to deal with that closed door. She is one routine-loving border collie.

OK, I get it, the other word for it is spoiled


Look at her, can you blame me?


Monday, March 26, 2018

SCARS ARE SEXY, NO?

Another big milestone: Terra had her staples removed


The tech was very happy, the scar is clean and totally healed. This is great, I'm going back to work today and I won't have to worry about Terra licking it while I'm gone That means no more inflatable collar and to that, Terra says yay

We weighed her and she's gained a few pounds. This does not surprise me. Even before the surgery I had severely reduced her level activity. So we've adjusted her level of food and in the next couple of weeks, the recovery protocol allows us to increase the amount of activity I can safely give her. Generally that makes a big difference in her weight management

So, on to the next milestone

Friday, March 23, 2018

THESE PAWS ARE MADE FOR WALKING

A quick post here. Into her second week of recovery Miss Terra is allowed slightly longer walks (on leash of course) I've been taking her around the block a few times a day. She loves it. She is so desperate for exercise. She'd rather be running but that is down the line

All in all I'm very happy with her walking. Her repaired leg is fully engaged and that's what we want for sure. I'm gently guiding her up over curbs in our sidewalk-less neighbourhood but stairs are still out of the question

Very easy for both of us to get excited but I'm sticking to the plan.


PS: The shaved patch you see on her back is from the eipdural they gave her at the hospital The leg is completely shaved as well but difficult to see in the video

Thursday, March 22, 2018

CLIMBING HER WAY BACK

So we have just ended the first full week of Terra's recovery

I'm happy to say things are going very well. I've been able to expand her walks to 10 minutes, still on a very short leash and still only on flat surfaces. Her walking looks good; she's putting a lot of weight on the bad foot and it seems aligned pretty well

I'm noticing that when she sits, that foot is going out on an angle but in the next week I will be able to give her exercises to improve that.

She can move safely around the house with all the rugs and all but we still have to watch her when she wants to jump on the furniture. Her vet advised that jumping up like that must be strictly curtailed until her medical re-check at eight weeks

Eight. Weeks. We just started week two

We've been having her sleep in her kennel at night and I've been sleeping out there with her but her nights are awesome, no pain and no restlessness

Next week I'm going back to work and I'll be sleeping back in my bed (sometimes I stand in the doorway and stare wistfully at it) She can certainly sleep in the bedroom, she has a bed in there but the problem is her jumping up on to our bed. Verbotten.

So we're going to have to manage this carefully. She has certain triggers for the bed jumping. One of them is, after Collette has let her out for her morning pee, Terra wants to jump on to the bed with me. So Collette will close the door and leave her in the bed room

Changes like that

Speaking of the morning pee brings us to another situation. Terra is still not allowed to go up or down the stairs which, of course, is how she gets to her pee spot. I've been carrying her up and down the stairs but that is something that Collette, with her bad knee and arm, cannot do

The vet sent us home with a belly sling, called a GingerLead, that we are supposed to use to help Terra get up and down the stairs


The idea is that the sling allows you to take some pressure off that rear leg. You pull up on it and the leg comes up as well, so the dog is not putting full pressure on the leg. Let's say it's a learning process. Going down the stairs is pretty good but as I lead Terra up, she wants to put both back legs together an hop.

I'm finding it difficult to judge how much pressure I'm actually taking off the leg. If anyone has any experience with these slings, or similar, I would love to hear from you

Now just looking forward to the next milestone



Monday, March 19, 2018

CAN SOMEONE TELL MY DOG SHE'S JUST HAD SURGERY?

Writing this on Monday March 19, four days after Terra had her TPLO surgery. Our surgeon sent us home with a very detailed book of what we can expect from recovery and breaking down, week by week, what is expected of us.

Certain declarations in the book were important enough that they were bolded and capitalized

NO RUNNING




NO PLAYING

AND ABSOLUTELY NO JUMPING

Um well Terra is smart but she can't really read.

Ok none of the above pics are from the recovery. But those are the pics in Terra's mind. She feels she is still capable of doing all that. Four days in she can put weight on the leg, she is not in pain and she does not understand one little bit why she can't run down the hall and jump up on the bed.

Which is why our hardwood hallway now looks like this


And why my office, which normally has a bare hardwood floor looks like this

And why, when she can't remember that she's recovering from major surgery, Terra looks like this


But due to the rugs which stops her from slipping, Terra is now able to move around the house, except for our bedroom There is a bed in that room (as if it had been named for that, funny eh) and that bed is like a magnet to Terra. To paraphrase a song No More Terra's Jumping on the Bed

But, Terra's go to, default, hidden "spot" to be has always been under my desk. When she's stressed or uncertain or just wants a nice quiet place to nap, she goes under my desk. I took an old patio chair cushion, wrapped it in a blanket and voila, she can now go to her safe place


So all in all I am thrilled at the progress she's making. But it is difficult for her, because her energy keeps building. This is a dog accustomed to 90 minutes to 2 hrs of active outdoor play every day and at this stage, she is limited to going outside to evacuate with me holding a very short leash. I walk her around a bit but she really really wants to run

I'm still carrying her up and down the stairs and I'm performing physio therapy that includes massage, Passive Range of Motion exercise and cold/hot therapy. I usually do this to her after I perform my own therapy on my busted up little pinkie

Huh, who knows, if this dog thing doesn't work out ...

Next week I will be able to expand the outdoor walks and add more exercise to the physio. It still won't be enough for Terra. Would it be wrong if I asked the vet for some sedatives? Like, would it?




Sunday, March 18, 2018

SURGERY AND HOME

As of Friday March 16 it has been a crazy two days

Terra had her surgery yesterday. I dropped her off Caledon Mountain Vet at 8 am. We have never before been to this place and Terra tends to be a nervous patient. Located in a converted farm house in the little town of Caledon, the atmosphere seemed to keep Terra calm. A tech went over things with me one more time and I went home; the surgery would not happen until at least 4 pm

Collette and I took the time to make all the final prep at the house. Rugs over all the hardwood floors to prevent slippage, a dog bed replacing the love seat where Terra normal jumps out to look out the window (no jumping for about two months) And her kennel which would act as her new safe place



Got the call from the vet around 4:30 and back up to Caledon I went. I was happy to hear that Terra went through the surgery with no complications. She was awake but a little groggy from the meds. Everything had gone extremely well.

Got her home and put her in her kennel, she has a long incision along the top of her knee but to this day it looks very clean, practically no swelling and no redness

 
That first night she was groggy of course but didn't really show any signs of pain. When walking she was not putting much weight on the leg but that has already changed. I have to carry her up and down the stairs to go outside to pee and we monitored her to make sure she wasn't going to jump up on the furniture.

Things are already changing. More in the next post




Sunday, March 4, 2018

GETTING SET

We finally have a date for Terra's surgery

The surgeon that we prefer is in Caledon. Initially we thought he could come down here to our vet but that would not be possible until the end of April. Way way too long to wait. So I agreed to take Terra to Caledon which is not so far away

So March 15, she has her surgery


I will be able to take her home back that day, I had actually expected her to stay overnight so this is good news.

In the mean time we're starting to prepare the house for Terra's recovery. This could be a very long process and the idea is to do everything we can to help the leg heal and to prevent re-injuring it. A big part of that is getting a crate.

We've never crate trained our dogs. It's not a good or a bad thing it's just a preference. But it's important to restrict her movements after her surgery. She needs to heel but restricting a border collie's movements, especially Terra, ain't easy. So putting her in a crate on a nice cushioned pad gives her a great chance for a great recovery.


Our house has hardwood floors, slippery hardwood floors. So upon advice from my brother Ed and Collette, we're taking our old rugs (since we just bought new ones for the living room) and putting them in my office (where Terra likes to nap) as well as down our halls.

I'm going to put one of our big round dog beds in my office. When Terra does not have to be in the crate my office will be a good place to keep her since jumping up on furniture is a definite no no. At least for a while



Terra does jump up on to the bed as well as the love seat in the living room. So when we are not at home she will have to be in the kennel or my office and when we are home we will have to just remind her. We are thinking of moving the love seat out of the living room or at least out of the way; she jumps out there to look out the windows so we are considering putting some kind of pillow fort there where she can walk on to it, lay down and still see out the window

Yeh, she's going to be spoiled. Deal with it.



Beyond giving her comfortable safe places to lay, we'll need a collar on her to prevent her licking the incision. Infection is, of course, a very real concern. Terra absolutely hates the e-collar (no dog loves it of course) so we're going to get her an inflatable donut collar. Some dogs are still able to lick their legs with that so we will have the e-collar as well

It's not unusual for dogs, following this surgery, to have to use some kind of sling to help them move around and go up and down stairs the first couple of days. We'll see what the vet reccomends. For at least a couple days she'll only go out to do her business, we have five steps in front of the house and I'll have to see which is easier, me carrying her or putting her in the sling Later, she'll be able to do 5 minute walks to do her thing but that's stage two

I'm going to learn some basic massage techniques to help her leg, we will have to keep the incision clean but that's another thing to add to the list

Lots of work ahead but at least it's going to happen. So forward from here


Friday, March 2, 2018

WAITING THROUGH THE CHOICES

We've found the surgeon who we want to do Terra's TPLO. He's based in Caledon but he will come down to Westside, our vet office. The vet there would not be able to see Terra until well into April so this seems to be a better option. Still, we have to wait





In the meantime I've been trying to find out as much as I can about the surgery and any other options. Another dog handler with whom I work has had two dogs with the same injury as Terra. They did the surgery for one, for the other they practiced what is called the "conservative approach" No surgery, they put his leg in a brace for a year and did physio. She told me that the latter case seemed to work better in that, that dog had a fuller recovery


Two caveats though: That dog's ligament tear did not show up on an xray whereas Terra's did, meaning it was not as severe. Secondly, both her dogs were huge, around the 100 pound range

Size is a significant factor in surgery recovery, as is activity level. Smaller dogs seem to do better in general but more active dogs need more monitoring during recovery. Terra is what I would call a medium sized dog, around 50 pounds and very very active


I've been reading many testimonials on the web but sometimes it's good to have a more personal approach, with the opportunity for feedback. One of Collette's co workers has a brother who is a highly regarded vet in Florida. His name in Michael. Collette e mailed him the details of what Terra is going through and he was gracious enough to call her back

He thought that our vet's plan seemed logical, the surgery seemed the way to go. He also thought that Terra's weight and her physical condition made her a very good candidate to have an excellent recovery. This surgery is harder on larger dogs and although Terra's activity level makes me worried about her possibly hurting herself during recovery, Michael felt that it was also the thing that would would help her get back on her feet (literally) quickly.



 He also understands border collies. He knows that Terra's work drive will motivate her to have a good recovery but he also knows that working dogs are sly; they will hide their pain, they want to "work" and as always want to be in control "Yes, I'm fine, let's go play right now" That's the good/bad thing: The power struggle will continue










Friday, February 23, 2018

TERRA'S JOURNEY BEGINS

Terra. My Big Girl. The original hooligan


Frisbee girl, beach dog, hunter of sticks extraordinaire


And singer. Let's not forget singer


In our nine years together we've shared many adventures and gone on many journeys together. Now, we are about to embark on a new journey, in all probability, the biggest journey of Terra's life


Her journey actually started several months ago. Collette and I noticed that she was showing some lameness in her back legs, a certain weakness that would occasionally devolve into a limp. Terra is a very active dog and it's not unusual for her come with mild injuries, usually they heal within a day or two. This time, the limp lingered






It had gotten to the point that we decided to take her to the vet. After an exam and some x rays it was discovered that somewhere down the line Terra had partially torn her cranial cruciate ligament or CCL, essentially the canine equivalent of our ACL.

At first it was thought that, due to her conditioning and her level of muscularity, that she may be able to recover by letting the injury "rest". That meant no jumping, no running, no chasing. She could not come to work with me in the dog park. Leash walking was the suggested exercise

Yeh, that thrilled Terra





Things seemed to be going well. After a couple of weeks the limp had disappeared and she was moving well. I notice that while standing she was still favouring the bad leg but it was better. I was considering, after another week, of perhaps letting her chase a ball on the ground.

That all changed when we slipped on a patch of ice. I broke my pinkie finger, and Terra's injury came back. I tried letting her rest with even more restricted exercise but this time, after about 3 weeks, she was not recovering

Terra has always bounced back from her injuries in the past. But she is a working dog and she will disguise when she is hurt; she wants to "work" (and her work is play, yeh, I need to get into that union). But I knew this was not good.

Back to the vet we went. The CCL was was not going to repair itself. Probably this was actually caused by a degenerating bone issue that she may have born with. Certainly it's been going on for a long time but it was something that would not show on an X-ray. Unfortunately they don't usually catch this situation until it cause a ligament to tear

So that brings us to today, and what our vets think is Terra's best road to recovery: Surgery. A surgery called Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy or TPLO. It's a pretty invasive procedure. They will basically shave off the surfaces of the bone to level it then insert a metal plate to stabilize it

Like father like daughter I guess


There are other less invasive surgeries but for a dog like Terra, her size and her age and her activity level, this is thought the best bet. It will take her out of pain but how close to her normal active self she will get, well that depends on her and me and Collette.

So this is Terra's new journey. It's going to be a tough one, it's going to be long, but we love to travel together. And wherever we go, we go together.












WEEK NINE: AND THE PROGNOSIS IS IN

It's been a while that I've posted an update. Up to this point there wasn't a lot to report, Terra was doing well, we were doing...