How do I care for a large down dog??

[HaleyBear1015]

Haley had a ventral slot procedure 3 weeks ago. So far she has made little to no progress. We had kept her in a rehab center for a week and a half and she had gotten especially depressed so we brought her home. She's now become a full time job for my boyfriend and me. We work opposite schedules but neither of us are sleeping and we are both taking time off of work to be with her. She refuses to go to the bathroom in the house. I'm pretty sure she has or will give herself a UTI soon. When we bring her outside she still will not go. Expressing doesnt do much. She is a 7 year old Rottie and went into the surgery at 97lbs and is now 80. She needs 2 people to lift her. She is finally starting to eat a bit more but she is always in pain and when we move her position to prevent stiffness and bed sores her head must be supported or she cries out. The strange thing is post op she was fully able to lift her head. Now she seems to struggle with that. She is gaining some strength in her back legs, the ones that went before the surgery. But her fronts are completely lame. She has tried to give paw with the front but as time progresses she seems to do this on command less. I am very discouraged at how little progress she has made. I know it is early but I am tapped out financially and emotionally and my boyfriend and I cannot continue to babysit her all day. I have read others on here say to keep them drugged in the beginning after this procedure. She is on tramadol, gabapentin, and a urinary muscle relaxer (the name is escaping me right now) although I dont know how much that will do.
Does anyone have experience with a large dog that had this surgery and how you handled the waiting period? I know I need to be patient to see some signs of improvement but I dont know what to do in the meantime. My boyfriend wants to bring her back to the inpatient rehab center but she was very depressed there and wasnt eating, they didnt give me daily updates which was annoying (I had to call and get the run around every day from multiple people) plus we dont have any more money for that. She has a water therapy appointment tomorrow night but even then I am going to need help from someone getting her in and out of the house. What did you guys do with a large down dog??

[critters]

I wonder if this is a case where a cart might make a huge difference. She could then maybe pee by herself, and move herself around easier. Expressing is more of an art--being able to sort out the water balloon from all the other guts takes practice.

[HaleyBear1015]

Yeah, I was told by her surgeon that expressing a bladder on a dog her size is next to impossible. Especially since she still has bladder muscle control and no matter how much I squeeze and push she can still technically hold it in. It actually helps when we leave the house because she doesnt have to do it in front of us but then she's like sitting in it for longer than a second where I can immediately clean it.

I have thought of a wheelchair but she would need a 4 wheel chair and at $700 for a dog of her size I just don't have the money for that right now. I don't know about other places but in Northern NJ that surgery cost me $6,000. Plus the initial $1,000 at my personal vet when they were taking x-rays and giving her steroids and laser treatments before deciding she needed more. Then we spent about another $2,500 at an inpatient rehab hospital before realizing that wasn't working. I bought a Help Em Up Harness for $110, slings for $45 each, and medication that's about $25 a bottle once a week. Now she's doing outpatient therapy at $150 a session a couple times a week. I am tapped out. I don't have $700 for the wheelchair right now

[critters]

Having enough control to fight you is a rough part of recovery. Have you talked to the people at HP? They have the Handicapped Pets Foundation and probably other things that could help get a cart.

[CarolC]

Here is a link to information about expressing. At the end you will see a lot of videos about expressing. (They are listed male or female but I would not limit myself because they are all helpful).

http://handicappedpet.net/helppets/view ... =5&t=16027

I don't think it's true that you can't express a large dog, others here have done it, and you have her on medication so that should help.

There are several methods that may be appropriate for her size. One is to just express her indoors lying down. I know you said she doesn't want to go indoors, but you can overcome resistance with the right technique. There is a method of using your hand in the form of a fist, which works better for a big dog than trying to use fingertips. Here is a video showing that. They spend several minutes at the beginning of the video while they are showing the students where the bladder is, but about halfway through they start the actual hands on, and it is the best example I've seen of the fist technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEHSxUf2Nb8

Another method may also work, but it involves standing, so you may need 2 people. I don't know if that is possible since you are on opposite shifts. You put a sling under the dog's abdomen and then lift up, using the dog's own weight to put pressure on the bladder.

What a wonderful day today!!!
I called up to Medvet and told them about the problem we were having expressing her.
The nurse told me to try taking her out in the yard and placing her sling under her and lifting her slightly off the ground with it, this way the pressure would be across her whole abdomen without too much direct stress on her wounds.

IT WORKED!!! She urinated seven times throughout her walk. We were so happy we were crying! LOL The small joys in life, right?

You may want to watch the other videos in the link above. There is even one where a lady expresses with her foot because she has a shoulder problem and it's a big dog. I've never tried it but it's brilliant.

I am pretty sure one of the big stresses on you is that is hurts you to see her in pain, but it does take time for a surgery to heal and the neck is sensitive, so the only thing you can do is just keep going. If you feel her pain medication is not quite doing the job, I would tell the vet. They may be able to give you something stronger, in which case you save up what you're giving her now and use it later when she does not need quite as much pain relief.

She's a beautiful dog!

P.S. Adding a picture of the transport device Bully's mom used to take Bully out to the yard. Please check your private messages, there is a message from her.

[HaleyBear1015]

CarolC thank you so much for your thorough answer. I finally got myself able to get her around myself (thank god for the Help Em Up Harness!). I am able to get her onto the grass to go out and she's no longer needing to go in the house. In addition her new rehab has been working wonderfully and she's making huge progress! No standing or walking yet but it's coming. Her pt says in her experience it usually takes around 3 months to start standing and getting their strength back and we are 7 weeks out.
The only med she is still on is gabapentin and I have no complaints. Just wondering how safe it is for longtime use?