Author: mardi

Stitches came out today! Buddy has two little spots that haven’t closed completely. The vet said they would close up in a few days. .. just keep the area clean. So for a few days he can’t hang out in the yard with his pack. Because we live near the beach and 4 dogs living in the yard for 10 years has reduced most of the back yard to a sand lot…. that they dig holes in for doggy nests. I fill them in and they dig them out again in 24 hours. But he can sleep with them again in the porch doggy bedroom! Yay!   And mommy can go back to sleeping in bed with daddy! double yay!!

I’ve read so many things here from people wondering if their dear furry child will be the same in some particular way that was always special. And there are those who talk about how happy they were to find their dear little one to still be just as wonderful afterwards. I had one of those things I was wondering if he would still do it with only one front paw.

He is a very big dog so I would never let him jump up on me – or anyone else. But he is big enough that he found he could sit back on his big old rump and raise up his paws and plant them right in the middle of my stomach. Technically not “jumping” as his rump was on the ground… so technically “sitting.” He would do it when he was really excited and wanted to say “HEY MOM” – or when I wasn’t paying attention and he wanted to remind me he was there and he would like some head rubs. I was wondering if he would do that still now.

Day before yesterday, I had been working around the living room and he had gotten up to come over to me. I was standing there trying to think of what I needed to do…. not paying attention to him… when I felt that big old paw right on my middle! I looked down at him sitting back on his rump and his face saying “time to pet me”! I wanted to share that moment with you all so I called him over today and asked him to give me his paw so I could take a picture for you all.

And here is Buddy with his big Golden smile starting part 2 of his new adventure. Tonight he ate his dinner standing up at his new raised dish along with the other “kids” and later he will go to bed with them. I made him a new cover for his giant doggy pillow.

Buddy and I are spending a wonderful morning in the front yard. Buddy is enjoying the grass and I’m enjoying the birds and katydids and other insects singing in the trees. The little cardinal family pecking at the feeder and the bossy squirrels coming around to raid it.

If we keep the ace bandages on, Buddy completely ignores his stitches. We just have to make it one more day until the stitches are out. So I’m keeping the Ace bandages around him. But I have to re-wrap him a few times a day. This wrapping thing is clearly a skill!

I also looked at the post with the video about recovery and tried to feed Buddy standing up day before yesterday. Because he is so big, it is a long way to the floor with his food bowl. He would normally have bent down to eat. But now his one leg has trouble bending down. So I made him a food bowl stand. He liked it very much.

But I did notice last night when he was drinking from his water bowl (still on the floor) that his front leg and back legs were trembling. Could that just be because he has been lying down for the most part for two weeks? When his stitches are out can I start walking him around the block to build up his strength?

Since yesterday was my husband’s day off from work, I left him to watch Buddy while I went to work – a few hours away. Dennis called me at work in the mid-afternoon. Somehow Buddy managed to pull or tear part of his bandage loose. Dennis thought that since Buddy is moving around more that he possibly caught it on some corner of the furniture. I was afraid he had scratched it loose with his back foot.

Dennis wrapped an Ace bandage around it and I called the vet. I told them the bandages had been pulled loose in one place and the stitches were exposed but not damaged. I was in a panic again. Dennis said the Ace wrap would hold the bandages in place until I could get home and get him to the vet today. The vet’s office said that it sounded like it would be ok to wait until today.

So we are back to the vet this morning to get him re-bandaged.

Part II

We went to the vet and the vet assistant took Buddy in to get his bandages fixed. But they asked the vet and she said that his stitches looked really good and he is having them removed in just two days so she thought we could just leave the bandages off. Hurray!

So I brought him home and brought the other dogs into the living room with us. While I worked around on stuff the dogs napped or watched me…….. until…..

I looked over and Buddy was not only licking at his stitches, he was trying to chew them out!!! So I went right upstairs and got the two Ace Bandages and wrapped him up again. As long as he is wrapped up he isn’t messing with it. See my very bad wrap job  below. I’ll have to probably re-wrap him several times before Thursday.

Our house has several steps at various points to get in. The lowest is just two steps up to the front door. I made a ramp to help Buddy get in and out of the house. But he wanted nothing to do with it. After a great deal of frustration and tears,  someone on the forum here said that this was a common reaction with dogs to freak out about ramps, and the two steps really weren’t a problem – it’s the flight of stairs that he should avoid after surgery.

But I found the ramp does work for something else. Our front yard is raised about a foot from the driveways on either side. I can drive close to the raised yard and run the ramp across into the back door of the car, supported by two long 1X4 planks. And with the anticipation of getting into the car, Buddy has been willing to use it.

This has been a huge help for me to get him into the car from the house and get him out of the car at the house on my own. At the vet’s office I get someone to come out and help me unload and re-load him in the car.

You can see the ramp and planks leaning against the tree in the pictures of Buddy and the cats.

About a week after his surgery, it was a beautiful day so I put an old rug out in the front yard and let him lie out there while I worked on my laptop next to him. Two of the cats decided to come visit him. Sweetpea, the little black and white one started flirting and playing with him. It was a very good day – his red doll, the outdoors, a friend to watch and Mommy sitting close by.

Buddy had a check back with the vet 5 days after surgery to have his incision examined and his bandages changed. Then two days later I was concerned that he was coughing and the vet told me to bring him in. She listened to his lungs which sounded ok. She said he was probably vocalizing from discomfort – like we do when we try to stand up with stiff muscles. Then we were back at the vet today (two days after that) for his next visit to have his bandages changed and the incision examined.

Here is Buddy at the vet. He doesn’t want to be there. You see in picture 3 he wants out of the room. He’s tired of this vet office. I totally don’t blame him for that