Help Needed: Post-surgery care
Re: Follow-up Thanks Dianne, Carol & Crittters
"I do not have any boarding facility that would take a pet in Simon's condition" This might seem obvious, but have you called and asked? When I worked in a kennel there were lots of special needs critters there, and you never know. Also a vet might board him.
Two Year Anniversary *LINK*
Hi Marni,
If you hadn't asked I would have missed the fact that it is 2 years ago today that I found a little dog I'd never seen before injured behind my workplace. She was found paralyzed with a spinal fracture on September 23, 2003. Today she can walk and right now she is in her crate up on the table by the computer where we have been sharing an apple.
I never know whether to tell about my dog's recovery or not. I would like to think that our slow recovery would be encouraging to others who do not see immediate recovery in their dogs, but I am also afraid that some will read our story and think, "If it's going to take that long, forget it!"
One thing you need to know is that my dog had a very severe injury, and it wouldn't be fair to compare a disk injury to it. Somehow, she got a spinal fracture, a complete break, in which the two parts of the spine separated and one was knocked up higher than the other, like it was trying to leapfrog over, and it pinched the spinal cord in between. When I first saw her at about 2:30, she had already been injured a while because she also had a big gash across her hips and there were ants in it. I don't know know long she was like that, or even how she got there. I ran her over the my vet and went back to work, and they called me at 4 and said she needed surgery right away. I transferred her to the specialty hospital for spinal surgery at 4:30 and she had it between about 5:30 and 7:00. What I'm saying is, her spine was pinched all that time, the blood supply was cut off all that time, there is a metabolic cascade that occurs causing further injury in that situation. She probably lost about as much function as she could without actually having the spinal cord cut in two. After surgery, they sent her home with pain medication but no steriods, I think because they thought there was no function left to preserve. We had a terrible time with her recovery because she wasn't my dog and had been fed table food at home apparently and for the first 3 weeks I couldn't find anything she would eat, until I ended up in tears at PetsMart because there was nothing left to try. To make matters worse, they wouldn't accept her for PT, I assume because she didn't have any deep pain. So I was left on my own. We invented our own exercises, and I searched the Internet, and found this website about 3 months later.
At 149 days they found deep pain response. That is almost 5 months. Then she was accepted for PT. She went twice a week for over a month before she started moving her feet on the treadmill. A month later she stood up for a few seconds, but then never did it again for ages. All during her recovery, she would do something new, then not repeat it again until much later. Even though she stood up on that one occasion, it didn't mean she could stand up, she still couldn't. I started noticing that she would take one to two steps after I expressed her. Then one day she amazingly ran halfway across the livingroom, but didn't do it again. She later got to where she would walk a little after getting off the treadmill. During our walks I discovered she could take steps if she was going downhill. At about the 9-month point, she first walked 4 feet outdoors on a sloping sidewalk. After that I took her to every sloping sidewalk I could find to see if she'd go down. About that time, summer of 2004, my father passed away and I had to travel back to my hometown. My dog was very motivated by the smells on the hotel carpet and did more walking on a level surface. We just gradually built up from there. At about 14 months she finally became able to walk on grass. Now she can go the length of the football field in grass if she wants. I'm not sure when it happened at the moment, but it took her longer to be able to do linoleum, and longest to walk on gravel. She still does best on low pile carpet or cement. At 15 months she drank from a water bowl standing up. On July 15 the therapist said she shook the water out of her coat standing up, that was a first. On July 17 this year she ran down 4 steps over at the school chasing another dog and nearly scared the wits out of me. That was at 21 1/2 months. The most she had ever done was 1 step, except for once she did 2.
And finally, during the two years I've had this dog, while she was making all this progress, she had a number of surgeries. I'm losing track. She cracked a tooth and had to have it extracted. Then she had to be spayed while I was still expressing her bladder, and had more dental extractions at that time. She also got a mammary tumor and had to have a bre*st removed. So she's made all this progress in spite of surgeries. Back surgery, a hysterectomy, a mastectomy, and 4 or 5 teeth extracted in 2 years...makes me wonder what *I* could possibly feel sorry for myself about! Bless her little life.
There have been so many other little things, I would have to do a major search of past messages on this message board to find them all. I guess I would add that I work full time, varying shifts during the week, and have nearly constant back trouble, heart problems, and a bad hip. I try to remember that there are plenty of people doing what I am doing with much bigger dogs. I also have 2 other senior dogs and 4 cats. So yes, it's been quite a bit of work, it has rearranged my life, she still needs to be expressed 4 times a day, but it is more than worth it.
I think you will start seeing more results if you give it time. Seeing him lift his tail is a great sign! It's these little improvements that keep up going. Congratulations! However, if you really don't think you're going to be able to do this, there is a dachshund rescue that will take down dachsies. I will put their link below.
Best wishes to you and Simon!
CLICK HERE for dachshund rescue groups
If you hadn't asked I would have missed the fact that it is 2 years ago today that I found a little dog I'd never seen before injured behind my workplace. She was found paralyzed with a spinal fracture on September 23, 2003. Today she can walk and right now she is in her crate up on the table by the computer where we have been sharing an apple.
I never know whether to tell about my dog's recovery or not. I would like to think that our slow recovery would be encouraging to others who do not see immediate recovery in their dogs, but I am also afraid that some will read our story and think, "If it's going to take that long, forget it!"
One thing you need to know is that my dog had a very severe injury, and it wouldn't be fair to compare a disk injury to it. Somehow, she got a spinal fracture, a complete break, in which the two parts of the spine separated and one was knocked up higher than the other, like it was trying to leapfrog over, and it pinched the spinal cord in between. When I first saw her at about 2:30, she had already been injured a while because she also had a big gash across her hips and there were ants in it. I don't know know long she was like that, or even how she got there. I ran her over the my vet and went back to work, and they called me at 4 and said she needed surgery right away. I transferred her to the specialty hospital for spinal surgery at 4:30 and she had it between about 5:30 and 7:00. What I'm saying is, her spine was pinched all that time, the blood supply was cut off all that time, there is a metabolic cascade that occurs causing further injury in that situation. She probably lost about as much function as she could without actually having the spinal cord cut in two. After surgery, they sent her home with pain medication but no steriods, I think because they thought there was no function left to preserve. We had a terrible time with her recovery because she wasn't my dog and had been fed table food at home apparently and for the first 3 weeks I couldn't find anything she would eat, until I ended up in tears at PetsMart because there was nothing left to try. To make matters worse, they wouldn't accept her for PT, I assume because she didn't have any deep pain. So I was left on my own. We invented our own exercises, and I searched the Internet, and found this website about 3 months later.
At 149 days they found deep pain response. That is almost 5 months. Then she was accepted for PT. She went twice a week for over a month before she started moving her feet on the treadmill. A month later she stood up for a few seconds, but then never did it again for ages. All during her recovery, she would do something new, then not repeat it again until much later. Even though she stood up on that one occasion, it didn't mean she could stand up, she still couldn't. I started noticing that she would take one to two steps after I expressed her. Then one day she amazingly ran halfway across the livingroom, but didn't do it again. She later got to where she would walk a little after getting off the treadmill. During our walks I discovered she could take steps if she was going downhill. At about the 9-month point, she first walked 4 feet outdoors on a sloping sidewalk. After that I took her to every sloping sidewalk I could find to see if she'd go down. About that time, summer of 2004, my father passed away and I had to travel back to my hometown. My dog was very motivated by the smells on the hotel carpet and did more walking on a level surface. We just gradually built up from there. At about 14 months she finally became able to walk on grass. Now she can go the length of the football field in grass if she wants. I'm not sure when it happened at the moment, but it took her longer to be able to do linoleum, and longest to walk on gravel. She still does best on low pile carpet or cement. At 15 months she drank from a water bowl standing up. On July 15 the therapist said she shook the water out of her coat standing up, that was a first. On July 17 this year she ran down 4 steps over at the school chasing another dog and nearly scared the wits out of me. That was at 21 1/2 months. The most she had ever done was 1 step, except for once she did 2.
And finally, during the two years I've had this dog, while she was making all this progress, she had a number of surgeries. I'm losing track. She cracked a tooth and had to have it extracted. Then she had to be spayed while I was still expressing her bladder, and had more dental extractions at that time. She also got a mammary tumor and had to have a bre*st removed. So she's made all this progress in spite of surgeries. Back surgery, a hysterectomy, a mastectomy, and 4 or 5 teeth extracted in 2 years...makes me wonder what *I* could possibly feel sorry for myself about! Bless her little life.
There have been so many other little things, I would have to do a major search of past messages on this message board to find them all. I guess I would add that I work full time, varying shifts during the week, and have nearly constant back trouble, heart problems, and a bad hip. I try to remember that there are plenty of people doing what I am doing with much bigger dogs. I also have 2 other senior dogs and 4 cats. So yes, it's been quite a bit of work, it has rearranged my life, she still needs to be expressed 4 times a day, but it is more than worth it.
I think you will start seeing more results if you give it time. Seeing him lift his tail is a great sign! It's these little improvements that keep up going. Congratulations!
However, if you really don't think you're going to be able to do this, there is a dachshund rescue that will take down dachsies. I will put their link below.Best wishes to you and Simon!
CLICK HERE for dachshund rescue groups
Re: Two Year Anniversary
Congratulations!
I hope I have some good things to report in a year or two.
Thanks for your info. I vaccilate between encouraged and discouraged. It is very hard to get into a better frame of mind. I am not getting much sleep because Simon really raises a ruckus in his pen at night. He is so sad to be by himself. If I sleep on a livingroom couch to be nearby, he's better.
I hope to be able to get into a routine of some sort. He has a touch of diarhea right now and we saw his local vet this morning for that and for his distended penis. The vet said to simply pull the prepuce over the penis and to add a touch of neosporene. So, that's what I'm trying now. He is really empty so I cannot express. Getting him to drink more is a problem and the a/d in his water may be contributing to hte diarhea, so I'll try to cut back. Ditto on the chicken broth. But, he needs more liquids and high fiber diet. Any ideas?
I feel so incompetent at caring for him. I am always afraid that my squeezing for his bladder may be adding to his problem.
He feels no deep pain. He is moving his tail a bit. There are no PT facilities within a few hours of our home, so he'll have to make do with the training I was given when he was discharged. When I am feeling poorly or my spouse needs more care, Simon gets less care.
He is a very sweet little guy. He weighed 19lbs. when he had his surgery on 8/15 and today he weighed in at 15.4. My local vet is not concerned about his weight and says he looks good. His urine was cathed and looked like a little blood was in it and some sediment. So we are on amoxicillin now.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Marni
I hope I have some good things to report in a year or two.
Thanks for your info. I vaccilate between encouraged and discouraged. It is very hard to get into a better frame of mind. I am not getting much sleep because Simon really raises a ruckus in his pen at night. He is so sad to be by himself. If I sleep on a livingroom couch to be nearby, he's better.
I hope to be able to get into a routine of some sort. He has a touch of diarhea right now and we saw his local vet this morning for that and for his distended penis. The vet said to simply pull the prepuce over the penis and to add a touch of neosporene. So, that's what I'm trying now. He is really empty so I cannot express. Getting him to drink more is a problem and the a/d in his water may be contributing to hte diarhea, so I'll try to cut back. Ditto on the chicken broth. But, he needs more liquids and high fiber diet. Any ideas?
I feel so incompetent at caring for him. I am always afraid that my squeezing for his bladder may be adding to his problem.
He feels no deep pain. He is moving his tail a bit. There are no PT facilities within a few hours of our home, so he'll have to make do with the training I was given when he was discharged. When I am feeling poorly or my spouse needs more care, Simon gets less care.
He is a very sweet little guy. He weighed 19lbs. when he had his surgery on 8/15 and today he weighed in at 15.4. My local vet is not concerned about his weight and says he looks good. His urine was cathed and looked like a little blood was in it and some sediment. So we are on amoxicillin now.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Marni
Yes, that sounds familiar
> I am not getting much sleep because Simon really raises a ruckus in his pen at night. He is so sad to be by himself. If I sleep on a livingroom couch to be nearby, he's better.
I had the same situation here. My dog's crate was in the kitchen, and she would start crying in the wee hours and wake me up, when I was tired and stressed out already. That is how we ended up with a playpen next to the bed. I went to Target and bought their bargain playpen for $40, which turned out to be very sturdy and well made, and I've never regretted it. I put a folded up comforter in the bottom and a tip proof water bowl. Now at bedtime I express her and put her in the playpen and she burrows under the comforter and not a peep out of her all night. I'd never have made it otherwise. She just didn't like being alone in her crate in the kitchen when I was sleeping in the bedroom.
> His urine was cathed and looked like a little blood was in it and some sediment. So we are on amoxicillin now.
Ditto here. A week or two after I brought my dog home from the hospital, she got a bladder infection. The antibiotics cleared it right up, and gave me an extra couple of weeks to improve my expressing technique, which wasn't too good apparently. I thought I was getting it all, but when I took her to the vet, this young guy set her on the table with a towel under her and expressed a flood! I had just expressed her less that half an hour earlier.
I'm not saying that's what you are doing, you may be expressing much better than that, it's just what happened to me.
I had the same situation here. My dog's crate was in the kitchen, and she would start crying in the wee hours and wake me up, when I was tired and stressed out already. That is how we ended up with a playpen next to the bed. I went to Target and bought their bargain playpen for $40, which turned out to be very sturdy and well made, and I've never regretted it. I put a folded up comforter in the bottom and a tip proof water bowl. Now at bedtime I express her and put her in the playpen and she burrows under the comforter and not a peep out of her all night. I'd never have made it otherwise. She just didn't like being alone in her crate in the kitchen when I was sleeping in the bedroom.
> His urine was cathed and looked like a little blood was in it and some sediment. So we are on amoxicillin now.
Ditto here. A week or two after I brought my dog home from the hospital, she got a bladder infection. The antibiotics cleared it right up, and gave me an extra couple of weeks to improve my expressing technique, which wasn't too good apparently. I thought I was getting it all, but when I took her to the vet, this young guy set her on the table with a towel under her and expressed a flood! I had just expressed her less that half an hour earlier.
I'm not saying that's what you are doing, you may be expressing much better than that, it's just what happened to me.