Bocán is WALKING Again!

Today, Bo is walking! He is fully bearing weight on the most recently repaired leg, and not limping at all!

What a great way to end this lousy year, with a glimpse of better things to come!

Atta Boy, Bo!

More pictures soon.

I've deliberately avoided posting the last few days, because we got more bad news on Monday. The culture came back on the infection on his left leg (the one that was repaired with TPLO surgery in October), and the bacteria is a strain resistant to the "normal" antibiotics he was prescribed for the surgery on his right leg. So, we now have him on a much more serious antibiotic to kill that infection. One that will likely screw up his probiotics, so we added yoghurt to his broccoli regimen. Seeing him continue to use his left leg, and now begin to use his right leg, confirms that he is a fighter and he'll get through the worst of this in a few more weeks.

He's Bearing Weight on the Right Leg

Bo has slowly started putting more and more weight on the right rear leg (the one that got the recent TPLO surgery) and today while he was outside doing his business, he took several steps on the leg. A little bit of a limp, and it tired him out fast, but he was walking on it.

This is about five days sooner than the first one. Hopefully, by Monday, he'll be walking on it regularly. Monday is his two-week post-op exam with the surgeon...

In the photo at right you can see where they shaved his left leg to remove all of the hardware, and part of his right leg, which they shaved entirely for the new TPLO surgery. You can also see a little snow - we got close to four inches last night, but this part of his dog run is covered...

A Christmas Gift

Bo slept well last night with no sedatives, just pain killers.

Looks like he'll be sleeping in our bedroom tonight, instead of in the family room. That means I will sleep in my bed tonight for the first time since Tuesday! I've been sleeping on an inflatable mattress on the floor next to him, but he graduates to the cross-pen in our room tonight. Bo's Christmas gift: sleeping with his whole pack again.

Last night, we had a fantastic dinner with friends, but we were a little concerned, leaving him alone for several hours. He was fine.

We enjoyed a great, quiet Christmas with Susan today, and a really nice roasted turkey breast dinner with butternut squash and a wonderful spinach, mushroom and celery dressing. Bo got some of each with his dinner, too...

Bo Supervised the Tree Trimming Last Night

With bells on!

We moved his bed into the living room, so he could watch...

Home Again and Doing Well

My sister Susan is visiting for Christmas. She helped me get Bocán home yesterday afternoon, and I am happy to report that he is doing remarkably well.

When I learned that they had removed all of the hardware from his left leg, in addition to performing the osteotomy and installation of hardware on the right leg, I frankly expected him to be incapable of walking. I know I would have been!

However, he is walking (or rather, hopping) about as well as he did last weekend, although his range between rests is only a few dozen hops. That's enough to get outside to do his business, and make it back to the bed.

In this photo he is resting with cold packs on both legs, after a long massage. He was actually quite comfortable and slept for a while afterward.

He is doing so much better today than he was after his first night back home last time. I'll get another picture of him later today.

Overnight

I spoke with the evening nurse last night.

Bo ate his dinner and actually used his left rear leg (the first TPLO, in October), during elimination walks!

I'll post more later this afternoon, hopefully we'll have him home by about 3:00 PM.

Second Surgery Today

I just spoke with the surgeon. Bo has come out of the anesthesia and is stable. The second TPLO went well, faster than the first because there was very little damage to the soft tissue around the stifle joint. This was expected because the time between the injury and surgery was only a week, instead of nearly a month.

They also opened up his left leg, to remove the long pin that runs at an angle through the bone splice (see XRAY). This was recommended as a possibility at the 8-week check-up; the surgeon thought it might be causing some discomfort. However, when we scheduled the second TPLO, the surgeon said we should just do it, since Bo had to be anesthetized anyway. But, when they opened up the leg, they discovered the beginning of a bone infection, and decided to remove ALL of the hardware (the plate and screws, as well as the pin), flush the wound and culture the fluid.

The antibiotics that he'll take to avoid infection of the osteotomy of his right tibia should kill the infection in his left leg, but the culture will ensure that it's not some new virulent strain* that will need more advanced drugs.

*Side rant: over-prescription and ESPECIALLY MISUSE of antibiotics have created some terrifying "super-bugs".
PLEASE: avoid antibiotics when inappropriate and FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS (take them ALL!) whenever they are needed.

Bottom line is that his left leg will be pretty sore too, but the discomfort from the TPLO will be the worst pain. So, lots of pain meds and low expectations for weight bearing in the first two weeks. 2009 ends with one last blast of fun, I am SO ready for 2010!

We should still be able to bring him home tomorrow...

Better Living Through Chemistry

Amazing what some Carprofen and Codeine Sulfate did for him!

An anti-inflammatory and a buffered opiate got him to at least balance on the repaired leg long enough to do his business without me holding him up, tonight.

I'll need to hold him up for every step for several days after the surgery, but perhaps over this weekend he'll enjoy a tiny bit of independence, and Ann and I will sleep well tonight, knowing he's enjoying an opiate-induced snore-fest...

What a freaking roller-coaster!

Rough morning - looking ahead

Bo is having a rough time using his recently repaired left leg to hop, while holding his more recently injured right leg up. He tried three times to get up this morning, and fell back on his bed each time. I had to practically carry him from the bedroom to the dog run, using a belly band, and when we got outside he had to lie back down to rest.

It depresses all of us that he's so helpless. But, I count my blessings that we now know how this all works, that we have the second surgery scheduled for Monday morning, and we have high hopes for him to be walking again by January. RUNNING seems so far away now, but I'll be thrilled to seeing him walk again...

My sister Susan arrives on Tuesday and she'll be here to help with the worst few days post-op. We expect him to be completely unable to walk, or even stand for a few days, and will need to carry him outside a few times a day to do his business. Fortunately, he'll be doped out on codeine and won't be too aware of what's going on. Having my sister here to help lift my spirits will be a big help, too!

Looking forward to Saturday, December 26 - hoping the worst will be over by then...

Feeling a Little Better

I think Bo is feeling a little better, but he seems to know it's going to be another long road back to walking -- again.

We have to hold him up with a belly band to get him anywhere. He's very good about that indignity (especially during his more intimate business), but he's not exactly thrilled about needing help to do everything.

We let him out of his cell last night for a little while, to hang with us while we watched some TV, and he stuck to Ann's feet like a magnet.

I wish we could get him in for the surgery tomorrow - waiting until next Monday is difficult.

We're grateful that we could get him out for short walks for a couple of weeks.

We hope to be back to that point by early February.

Sad news

Today is the 8-week anniversary of Bocán’s TPLO surgery to repair the ruptured CCL in his left rear stifle joint (the equivalent of the ACL in the human knee). For several weeks now we’ve been walking him several times a day, and a little further every few days. He’s shown steady improvement; we got him up to a little over a mile on Sunday.

His 8-weeks post-op exam was this morning, and as I’d hoped, his repaired tibia has completely healed and the meniscus (and other soft tissue surrounding the joint) is healing well. We got a bright green light to ramp up his activity, and even let him sleep on our bed again!

He hopped into the car and driving home, I was so happy!

But, when we got home, he was reluctant to get out of the car, and when he did, he was walking oddly. As soon as we got in the house, he collapsed on the kitchen floor. When I got him to walk, he was holding his RIGHT leg up and hopping very reluctantly on his recently repaired left leg. He made it about four feet and collapsed again. My heart skipped about twelve beats as it dawned on me what had happened, and then it sank like the Titanic.

Ann and I took him back to the surgeon tonight, and he confirmed our fear; he completely ruptured the CCL on his right rear stifle joint, and the only recourse is a second TPLO surgery.

We’re the sort who always looks for silver linings, and we found a few:

• At least he didn’t do this a few weeks ago, before his repaired leg had healed.
  
  
• He was a trooper and recovered quickly, so he will do so again.
  
  
• We know the drill, and we still have all the borrowed equipment. If it had to happen, perhaps sooner is better.
  
  We would always have been fearful of a second CCL rupture, and now it’s happened. If he’d only had the one injury and repair, we probably would have restricted his activity, and would have been reluctant to let him jump or turn hard when running. What fun is that?
  
  But now, the other shoe has dropped! Once he has recovered from the second TPLO surgery (around the Spring Equinox?), the surgeon says we may allow him to do anything he’s comfortable doing, including leaping for the frisbee, and even COMPETITIVE AGILITY and FLYBALL. We were discussing both of these activities last summer, just before the first CCL injury occurred.

• Another “good” thing; most dogs who sustain CCL injuries suffer slow tears, often enduring months of sporadic lameness and minor improvement. This causes significant wear on the joints and usually leads to premature and severe arthritis. Both of Bo’s ruptures were in single, traumatic events, and getting the TPLO surgery soon afterward drastically reduces the joint wear. So, if we can keep him healthy after these issues, we should all enjoy another 6 - 9 years of creating new, wonderful memories.

We don’t know when the second injury occurred, but it was likely when he jumped into the car. He probably used the right leg for most of the lifting, and it just couldn’t take it – whatever issues led to the first injury also contributed to this second one.

His second TPLO surgery is scheduled for Monday, December 21st, the Winter Solstice. The surgeon is unavailable for a few weeks after that, so we decided to do it ASAP – and Mondays are “TPLO days” for this surgeon.

We hope and will strive for another speedy recovery, and look forward to seeing him back to mile-long walks by the Vernal Equinox. Perhaps we’ll be playing frisbee by May or June, and looking into agility training by the 4th of July? A true "Independence Day" for Bo will be running off-leash!

We're all a little depressed tonight, especially Bo ~ he's back in the cage for many more weeks. So different from the way the day started out...

Thanks for your continued positive thoughts, interest and kind words. If you could please send a little more our way next week, it will mean more than you could ever imagine!

PS - That's his LEFT leg up in the picture (taken tonight) ~ notice how well the fur has grown back!

Walked nearly a mile today, and up a small hill!

Today we walked about 9/10 of a mile and it included a moderate hill!

We've been home for an hour now, and no ill effects!

Later this afternoon we'll do a shorter walk, with a little trotting.

On Sunday we'll make it a full mile, if the predicted snow and freezing rain have melted. He's not ready for slippery stuff, yet.

Hopefully, we'll get a good sticking snowfall late in the season (February?) so he'll have a chance to play in the snow this winter. He loves snow! This picture is from January 2007...

Close to Another Milestone!

Next Monday is Bo's 8 week post-op anniversary and X-Ray, to see how his tibia is mending.

He is up to 2-3 moderate walks each day, and he no longer has any recovery time after each. He's even trotting a little bit.

So, I am confident we will get a green light to ramp up his physical therapy, exercises and walks.

By springtime, perhaps he can play in the yard off leash again...