Sunday Morning Bully Report

[karkorny]

The vet called yesterday and said, "We think Bully is TURNING A CORNER." I asked if he meant from the surgery, and he said from EVERYTHING. They love him at the hospital, said he's a wonderful dog - who are they telling!!! It's so good when you know your pet is being treated well, not just medically, but in every way. Tomorrow I'll drive to Greenville and get him, and I'll try again having him at home. As regards the latex, etcetera, that he ingested, I did find a brand name on it (Thera-Band) and was able to identify it as something he ate at the rehab place. I talked to the vet there and she felt terrible about it. But as for any monetary offer, no. I even talked about bringing Bully back there for another week down the road and she made no offer. The more I think about it all, the more upset I get about it. It cost me $200 a day to have him there and it seems they should be extremely careful about things like that. How does a paralyzed dog get into stuff he shouldn't be into? It's scary. The docs in Greenville attribute the colitis he's hospitalized for now to the trash he had in his colon and the enema my local vet gave. How ironic all this is. Anyway, I'll be happy just to have my regular paralyzed dog home.
I wanted some input from anyone who knows about a pool. I know pool therapy is wonderful but I don't have a pool nor do I have access to one easily where I live. The rehab doc said my money would be better spent having one put in at my house than bringng him to her. BUt I don't think that's financially possible. I tried getting a line of credit on my house but I think I'm maxed out. But what about a hot tub?? Anyone have any ideas?? I could probably get financing for that. Let me know what you guys think.
Hope everyone's morning goes well. I think of all the expressing and cath'ing and cleaning up and everything else going on this morning, I feel for you guys. Life is just like a book; turn the page and it's a brand new chapter and everything changes. And we have to go with it, don't we. Have a great Sunday, all, and thanks again for the help through my crisis. I'm not overwhelmed anymore, just have my heels dug in, ready for action. k

[Cindidoxiemom]

Well...I am THRILLED to hear Bully continues to improve. I think it is horrible that the vet who was caring for Bully when he injested the garbage has not made an offer of assistance. I think I would bring it up with them.
I know you miss your Bully and are ready for him to come home!

I don't know about the water therapy with Bully having so little control right now. See...with dogs like mine with IVDD, they can hold up their heads and move their front paws with lots of strenght.
Hummmmmm ...
A. You might want to check into a life vest for a dog his size.
B. An above ground pool may be an option.
C. I understand the cost issue hon...last year alone I was over 10 thousand for Hunter and Oscar's treatment. That did not include Hunter's first surgery several years ago. YIKES this gets costly...but they are worth every cent!
D. Do you have a friend, neighbor or coworker that has a pool you could use?

Maybe wait until he gets a little stronger before you put him in the water. It might upset him since he still is working on his head control, and puppers don't like their noses getting full of water.

Clean up and expressing took a total of about 5 minutes this morning....Not a problem hon....you get it down to an art form! LOL
HUGS,
Cindi

[spasmo]

A life vest is a great idea~ especially at first. You can get them at marine/boating supply stores. If you go with an above ground pool you will need a couple of ramps... one outside the pool and I'm thinking one you can place inside the pool when Bully is done walking. I would talk it over with the vet and make sure that Bully is ready, and what specifically to do before you start doing this.

Good luck and best wishes!

[critters]

Won't you both be glad when he's home again!!

As for swimming, people have devised LOTS of different things, like hot tubs, kiddy pools, and deep aquariums, depending on the size of the pupper. Look around, be creative, and see what you can come up with.

[connie]

so glad he coming home, that will make a difference to him i sure. and aren't great vets wonderful? i was blessed with cricket's surgeon in memphis also, he called every day with updates because i couldn't drive there. and even after 9 months, i still get rechecks at vets at none or little costs. they are cricket's angels on earth. keep us updated , you and furbaby are in our prayers here. and believe me, prayers work, only way i think cricket survived was that. vets were amazed at his recovery.
as far as pools, my boy is little so we use bathtub, but i think a above ground pool from walmart would work, not too costly. i see my neighbor kids are always out in theirs, thinking of throwing cricket in when heat lets up here. lol
last night during hyrotherapy in tub, he got scared, fought to get out, first time that ever happened. he is putting me on heavy guilt trips over leaving him for a few days and nights. lol
good luck , and if we can help in any way, just ask.
he's on the right road to recovery , fighting spirit.
hugs,
connie and cricket

[Mary and Roxy]

Hi
I was doing water therapy with Roxy in my spa, it worked out great . but I'm not a hot water fan so I kept turning off the heater and hub wasn't to happy about that, I went and bought one of the above ground pools, its made of vinyl and PVC pipe its easy to put up Think it cost 250.00. Its 3 ft tall at first I didn't fill it up with to much water, just enough so she couldn't touch the bottom. I wanted to be able to still use the filter but the water level was to low to use it so, I got some of the plastic tube that is used for the filter, and just crammed it into the intake place and had it run down to the level of the water. Roxy is lots smaller then your dog, but ijust picked her up and I just stepped over the top carrying her( I'm pretty tall 5'10 so I didn't mess with the ladder) I've now gotten the long styro foam tube things, I cant think of the name of them now, but I ran some nylon rope thro it. cut it to just fit around her snugly. now I just tie one around her chest behind her front legs, and one in front of her hind legs and she follows me around in circles. I'm not sure how you would get your dog in or out of the pool but I'm sure some kind ramp would be ok. Maybe you could use the ladder that comes with the pool (just dont put the top on that makes it stay up to straight)put some wood over the steps and cover it with the outside fake grass. I was gonna try that in till I figured I could just step over the side..with a little imagination anything is possible.. good luck Mary and Roxy

[karkorny]

Lots of good pool ideas. With winter coming, I think an above-ground pool is a great idea rather than going into any more debt than necessary for something more permanent. I'll have my friend who built my backdoor ramp come over and fashion some kind of ramp so I can get Bully in and out. At rehab they used a lifejacket on him, of course, so I'll have to get one of those. I never saw Bully in the pool but they told me it was a minimum of a two-man job. He can hold his head up and move his left legs. They were tossing a stick in front of him and they tell me he was trying to get to it. I got a peanut - the big exercise ball - in the mail saturday. Don't know exactly how to use it with him yet, but it's here and blown up and ready. I'm picking him up today and can't wait! I'll let you guys know how it's going when I get him home. I'm expecting good things. I put a canopy up in my backyard yesterday so that if it rains I can still put him down on the grass to go pee-pee. That's the plan. He's a big fella, hard to handle for just one person, but we can do it. His stitches from the perforated ulcer surgery are out so that will make me less nervous about moving him around. I think he still has a feeding tube in, but that should be removed this week. THey have to leave those in for 14 days minimum, even though he's not using it. I'm dying to see my boy today. Good thoughts to all of you. Thanks again for the support.

[spasmo]

YEAH! I know you are excited to have Bully home... it doesn't seem like home when our babies are not here.

One thing that the tank at A&M had was jets... I have seen some jet systems that you can put in your bathtub to make it like a spa... the jets messaged Augusta after the long walk. If you are thinking about doing something like this you probably need to talk about an electrician about this just to be sure its ok to use outside.

As far as being a two person job goes... part of the deal is motivating the dog to walk. Nothing replaces having your Momma motivating you. Bully IS a big man... and you wont need a gym membership after his rehab!

I LOVE that Bully has a place to do his business on grass! There is nothing like peeing on grass if your a dog (some times that goes for my husband too... but thats a different story... LOL).

It is going to be a great week!
Best wishes!

[ems736336]

Have you thought about a "horse tank"? They are generally made of galvanized metal and with a bit of ingenuity could probably be outfitted with some kind of a filter and a rubber pad in the bottom so it wasn't slippery. Fortunately our dog is short enough to walk around in a kiddie pool with three to six inches of water in it. I did consider a tank though because that would be deep enough for us to really swim in and he needs that too. I'm glad Bully could come home. You are so right - - - just turn the page and there is a new chapter!