Well, we made it, it's the day after surgery!
Jabby came home last night after 7pm pretty much a "space cadet". The vet on duty for her pick-up explained all her medications needs, when to ice her stifles and so on. I also saw her before and after x-rays, wow, her right knee cap was completely out of place. Fortunately she nice deep grooves in the bone so they didn't have to remove any bone. Just re-adjust the ligaments and surrounding tissues and put a couple pins in. Fortunately her stitches are inside, so it's not as hideous looking or perhaps there's less incentive to licking/chewing on her part.
So, we're home, now what? I took the top off her carrier because I didn't want to be removing her from the kennel by dragging her out back to front. She has bedding (towel/blankets) on the bottom and blankets over top of her. As we know, Chihuahua's love the heat and it's been so cool and damp here, so I have her cocooned. I iced her stifles twice last night and gave her the pain pill (narcotic) about 11pm. She took a little bit of water from the end of a plastic syringe but we didn't push. She had a massive pee on a pee pad before bedtime which I imagine was a huge relief. We also put a bit of the cortisone cream on the areas that were bruised and had some clipper burn. As for her licking, so far so good, she's looked a bit, maybe licked a touch, but mostly where the bruising and clipper burn is. I tried the plastic collar, and it didn't go over to well. She made funny noises and drooled a bit while it was on and I tried it twice. She would just sit there and not move, no lying down or relaxing. So I think she's terrified of it, so we made a deal. If she doesn't lick, she doesn't have to wear it but if she does, it's going back on. She didn't lick after she was spayed or when she burst an impacted anal gland in February, so fingers are crossed!
I slept first on the sofa and then on the floor next to her last night. I just didn't want to be away from her in case there was a problem. She's been such a trooper and has only whimpered a bit when being moved around at times. This morning she looked much brighter and I got a puppy slurp and she wagged her tail when she saw Fab. She has a little bit of canned food and had more water as well. She even wanted a few of my Cheerios from the cereal bowl this morning. Awww Jabs, appetite of a Lab when it comes to people food. We haven't seen her looking longingly at the pee pads as of yet, but when she's ready, she'll tell us.
Well, I think that's all for now, my brain has been challenged even typing this out today, I'm so tired. Thank goodness for spell check!! I have posted some pictures that I took this morning. She even got a new blankie from Nonno & Nonna which she's lounging on now.
Thanks to everyone for the prayers, emails and all around wonderful support! The next few weeks will be challenging I'm sure.
Blessings...
3 comments:
Hi, My name is Sue and we have a Chi that had surgery for luxating patellas last Friday. We adopted Nina from a local shelter with the understanding that we would get her knees fixed. She had grade 4's on both knees. They kept her in the hospital for 2 nights and she came home sunday. She was very shaky and unsteady and very fragile seeming on Sunday. She has been getting progressively better since then. She will be on the pain med until tomorrow yet. It is obvious that she still has pain but it seems to serve to limit her activity. She has progressed to where she is trying to run(which we are discouraging!) She does lick her incisions so unless is under direct observation has to wear the cone. She looks sooo pathetic! The doc was very happy with the result, he was able to get them back to a grade zero post-op. Now we just have to keep her from straining them while she heals! Good lluck with your baby!!
Forgot to say that Nina has had a habbit of peeing while standing on her front legs only(like a sprinkler!) because it hurt her to squat. Now after the surgery when she first starts walking after sitting for a while she walks just on her front legs like a circus dog!! Can walk 5-6 yards this way!
I am so happy to hear that Jabby pulled through like a champ! I was going to send you an email today if you didn't post anything.
The hard part now is keeping her still and quiet while she recovers. I know that the recover is hard just because of that. But you don't want to mess up all of that work that was just done - that's what we made sure to tell ourselves every time we wanted to give in and let her run around.
hugs to Jabby!
Love Paddington and Liz
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