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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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