HandicappedPets.Net

Hmmm. Maybe so...

Funniest thing happened. It's cold here and all of a sudden there are flies everywhere (instead of mosquitoes for a change) and some of them get in. So I noticed one near Pip's bed and went to get my clear Coke cup to catch it, but it was gone. So I'm looking around with my cup asking Pip, "Where is it? Where'd it go? Do you see it?" No luck. A minute later I'm in the kitchen and Pip raises a loud alarm in my direction. I'm like "What?! What?! What is it?!" I go check. The fly is back on his bed. He's ratting on the fly! I quick grab the cup and catch it! WOOHOO! I show him the fly buzzing around inside the clear cup, just so proud of myself. It's the little things that make you feel like the Caped Crusader for your furkids.

I'm going to cautiously try CatSip Cat Milk for Pip. I didn't realize it was for dogs, too. We'll see how the milk agrees with him. It's 99% lactose free. Have to get some first. It would be a change from soy milk or Knox Blox.

I would think doggers would like it, too.

He liked it. Now we're waiting to see how it affects his GI tract.

It's lasts 7 days in the fridge.

Gave him half a bowl yesterday afternoon, no real affect on stools, will try more next time.

It does affect his stools. Cannot recommend. My kitty likes it though.

At least no waste.

Yeah, she really likes it. She seems to be putting on just a little weight, which she needed.

Yesterday I had an appointment with the vet to arrange a dental for Pip. He isn't having problems that I'm aware of, but he needs a cleaning at least. The vet checked his teeth and agreed. We discussed a list of things that apply especially to him, with his situation of having spastic quadriplegia and implants in his neck from atlantoaxial surgery. The surgeon put 4 pins and 2 screws in his neck June of last year. 2 pins and 1 screw were already broken at the 8-week follow-up post surgery, and that was 6 months ago. I am guessing the other 3 may be broken too, although I don't know. It stands to reason that if he broke 3 when they were 6-strong, how much more easily might he break the others when they were only 3-strong.

I told him about how Pip does a full body shake (like a wet dog shaking off water) sometimes when being carried, so his staff will be aware of it when handling him.

I told him how Pip sometimes is unable to belch unless I pick him up and change his position, due to the large blob of glue that was put under his chin to prevent his chin from going down onto his chest, thereby opening up the space in the atlantoaxial area. He says he'll have no trouble getting the tube down because they had one for surgery and they had one for the follow-up x-rays.

We discussed his recovery after surgery, and he says he'll want someone to hold Pip while he's waking up, which was something I thought of, too. It wouldn't be safe to put him in a kennel, because he may wake up and thrash while trying to get sternal and hit his head inside the crate. I offered to be there to hold him, to free up their staff.

We disussed how he will kick himself across the room while defecating, which is another case where he could potentially hurt his neck if he does this while confined inside a stainless kennel like they have at the vet.

I explained how he sometimes hooks his front leg with a claw on his hind foot, and how it could appear to be neck pain when it is actually a hooked claw, and what to look for. (There are a lot of things about him that nobody would know if they don't live with him.)

And I described my idea of what to do if his neck gets out of alignment. I worry because he can't hurt himself on the up and down axis (like nodding) because of the lump of glue, but he could potentially misalign to one side or the other. My idea is to invert him so he is head down and hope the "hanging traction" of the weight of his head would fix the alignment. I don't have a better idea. He seemed to think it might be a good idea. I'm sure in the following days he'll think about it more and maybe he'll have a better idea. I just feel like you need some kind of plan in case something goes wrong with alignment and must be done right away.

The last thing we discussed was the fact that the surgeon did the ventral surgery, and that a dorsal surgery exists for cases where ventral failed, but she says they didn't teach it at A&M and she's never heard of it and doesn't know how to do it. So the vet said he would put feelers out and see if he could find anyone in Texas that does it. (That is not part of the dental, just our discussion.)

He has Clavamox tablets that we are to start one week before the dental, and continue another week after the dental, to try to prevent any infection from the dental settling in his implants.

Right now he is scheduled for his dental in early March, and they were careful to pick a date when this vet will be there, so I feel we have done everything the best we can. He says his heart and lungs sound fine. I'll update later when we have it done.

Oops, missed this one. Sorry!

Agree that the remaining hardware is probably easier to break now; I wonder how that could happen?!!

Baby had to be held waking up from her spay, so you're probably right that Pip probably should be, too. Will he only be there for the day? That's typical for dentals.

It could happen any time he hits his head or puts pressure on his neck. For example he kicked himself into the base of the carpeted kitty castle once during toileting. He presses his head sideways against the net side of the playpen when he bounces off of it changing position. He is always standing, walking, and rolling outdoors in the grass. I don't know what to do. I decided I can't bubble wrap him. The best I feel I can do is trust him to be careful, because he knows what he's feeling. He has to still live his life. I don't know...

He's been driving me bonkers today barking. Every time he has his Heartgard he gets restless the next day, and he had it last night. Tomorrow we start the Clavamox. Fingers crossed it does not result in diarrhea. Yikes!

Yikes indeed!

He's done great with the Clavamox, no sign of diarrhea. He's at the vet now, checked in for his dental, and I'm supposed to call them at 2:30.


EDIT TO ADD: He had his dental, they did 8 extractions. It's nearly 8 pm and he's still fairly zonked, just lying there quietly not moving or barking. I can't tell what he's feeling. I can't tell if his neck is bothering him, or if it's his teeth, or mainly the anesthesia. They gave him Rimadyl to start tomorrow morning.