Puppy in surgery, healing vibes please :(

[MrsL123]

Just got back from seeing the orthopaedic specialist about the puppy's elbow dysplasia, and she's so bad he's going to operate on her straight away. So we've had to leave her there (2 hours away) and can't bring her home until Friday

I was in tears all the way home, felt so guilty for leaving her. Especially as it was a bit of a shock - we were expecting him just to examine her today and make us another appointment to come back, or maybe ask to keep her for a couple of hours to take some new x-rays. But to have to leave her there for 4 days without any preparation.... well, it wasn't nice. And somehow it seems worse, knowing she's so far away. We had to do the long drive home with her blankets and toys still on the back seat, and I left the vets clutching her lead and collar, so it almost felt like I'd left her to be PTS. Even DH shed a few tears! And of course we've just got home and our other dog is looking for her, so that makes us feel even worse. They puppy has never been away from home before, in fact she's never been away from our older dog before, apart from a few hours when she went in for her x-rays last year. So it's horrible that her first night away, she's all alone and in a strange place. The surgeon said someone is there 24 hours though, so she won't be left on her own. I was trying to be all stiff-upper-lip but I think he could tell I was very upset about leaving her!

I am happy he's doing her so quickly though. He asked us to walk her up and down in the carpark so he could see how her elbow affects her, and she didn't even manage to do 10 feet before the limp started. And when he extended her elbow to examine it, she yelped in pain (and then still tried to give him kisses!). He said it was clear she was in a lot of pain, one of the worst he's seen, and he didn't want to wait. So he's going to operate on her either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. He's hoping that when he opens her up there'll be something glaringly obvious causing the problem, like a loose bone chip or a flap in her cartilage. But he also said there's only about a 50% chance that removing something like that will help her lead a normal life (it could reoccur), and even if she does get better, she'll still get arthritis in later life (if it hasn't already started - x-rays were taken 3 months ago). Until now I'd been under the impression that the op would sort everything, so that was another shock. Glad he was honest though. And he was very nice, which made it a bit easier to leave her.

We've got to call at 6pm tonight to see how she's doing (think I'll make DH do that - I'll probably just end up sobbing down the phone!). If he's managed to fit her in this afternoon and it all goes well, we might be able to get her on Thursday, but it'll most likely be Friday because she needs to stay in for 48 hours afterwards. And after than she'll need to be on crate rest for 4 weeks. Not ideal as it's so last minute I can't book next week off work, but luckily (or unluckily, I suppose!) my MIL is at home with a broken shoulder at the moment, so we can crate her there so she won't be alone during the day. Two invalids together! She's never been crated before, but after a few days in the vets she should be used to being in the cage, which is good.

So right now, I'm very sad and anxious, and the house seems very empty without the tazmanian devil puppy here. Don't know how I'm going to last three more days of this, so hopefully we'll get the call to pick her up sooner rather than later. Luckily I booked the whole day off work, so I can just sit and cry into my cup of tea for the rest of the afternoon!

But it'll all be worth it in a couple of months when she can actually walk without being in pain, and jump around like a normal dog

Oh dear, poor you, poor puppy. Hope all goes well; it sounds like she's in good hands.

poor you and pup. Fingers crossed it will all go well and be for the best in the end. It's probably better not to have to worry about it in advance though really - less angst all told.

Poor you & poor puppy. I can imagine what a wrench it was to leave her! But best that it was just the one journey, and it'll be over sooner. Hope all goes smoothly.

Thanks everyone, starting to feel a bit less like a bad mummy owner now! It's those sad little eyes when you leave them - I'm sure they do it on purpose

I'm just looking for a crate big enough to take her, preferably one made of indestructible materials! We also need to get a belly band for her apparently, as we have steps down to our garden and she won't be able to manage them on her own without someone helping her. And she'll probably want some socks too - the vet says she'll be shaved from her wrist to her shoulder when we pick her up

She'll hate us!

Oh poor Pup and hugs to you too (I know, very un-MN!).

I totally understand that feeling of leaving them. When we had to take our tom to the Royal Vets college (1.5 hours from our house) I kept it together until vet explained he would be admitted that day for surgery the following day. I amazed myself actually with how upset it made me .

Try PAH for a crate. That was where we got ours from for our tom (which is so huge it will be big enough for our Viz pup too).

Aw - poor you MrsL, but undoubtedly best thing for pup. Pain over quicker and only one long round trip in car as opposed to two.
She won't hate you!
Your local vet may be able to lend you a crate till you manage to buy one.
Sending lots of positive vibes xxx

We have a Ferplast crate for our border terrier and it is huge. It looks like a Little Tykes house. Hope your pup recovers soon.

poor pup hope he gets better soon - and rem its the best for him

Hopefully I'll be able to get one at PAH tonight, if they've got them in stock. If not, I'm sure they'll have a more expensive substitute for me . We have got a crate in the shed that a neighbour gave us, but I don't think it'll be big enough, I'll have to measure. I think I'll need to get two anyway, as we'll need one for MIL's and one for our house, unless we're going to cart it home every night.

Not sure what size to get - there's two choices: 107cm x 72cm, or 118cm x 79cm.

Her favourite bed is 90cm x 70cm and she can stretch right out in that (if she curls up she uses a little over half of it). So I thought the smaller one would just fit that in perfectly. But the larger one would give her a little bit more room around her (not much though, considering it's more expensive). I don't want it to have too much room in it, as she's just supposed to lie and sleep in it, but I don't want it to be a tight squeeze either. She's never been crated before and I'm not sure what size the kennels are at the vets.

And I'm presuming I'm ok to just put her normal bed in there - would I be best buying some vet bed instead, so there's not as much packed in there?

I buy when I'm fretting, as you can probably tell

Oh you poor thing but better to get it all sorted asap. One day gone and hopefully she will soon be back. You are going to have to be inventive with the crate games to keep her happy and amused for a while as she recovers!

I would go for vet bed rather than her bed but up to you.

Lets hope all goes well let us know later what the vet says and no she will definately not hate you at all.

Ohhh poor her, and poor you MrsL - I know what you mean about those eyes - the look our pup gave me over her shoulder as the vet led her away this morning (for spaying) was heartbreaking. I'll keep my fingers crossed for her, and will look out for good news here - and as you say, it will all be worth it when she can hare around and have fun with the other dog.

I guess it is just as well that you don't need to put your MIL on cage rest too!

Ohh, and she definitely won't hate you afterwards - but she may adopt a theatrical limp when she wants a bit of special attention - at least, that's what our cat used to do (not always the same leg, either).

lol - she could do with being caged sometimes, believe me!

Presuming they've got it in stock, this is the crate I'm going to get her (the dog, that is!) It doesn't look the sturdiest, but she won't be left alone in it anyway. The one I've got in the shed is 90x60, so it's not huge, but it'll do as her night-time crate upstairs. And the new one will be taken to MILs for during the day. I don't think we'll need to bring it home for the evening because she'll be shut in the living room with us, so there's no chance of her sneaking off to do any damage to herself!

Minimu I did think that her bed might be a bit too squishy - she likes lying on the carpet, so I thought she'd like the vet bed. I just didn't want her elbow to be uncomfortable if it was too hard in there. She's got a wainwrights memory foam pad that's pretty thin, so I'll just use some vet bed on top of that.

Surgeon has just called me - he finished her operation about 10 minutes ago and she's just being bandaged up (I must have looked really upset for him to call me that quickly!).

He found a few things - she had a partially detatched peice of bone in her coronoid process (the bit in the middle of her elbow), but he didn't feel that it was worth removing as hopefully it'll reattach itself now he's removed the damaged bone underneath - it wasn't at the point of falling off, it was just loose. She had a fair bit of damage underneath that where the bone has grown abnormally. From the x-ray he thought it was abnormally hard/thickened bone, but once he got in there it turned out to be abnormally soft and it was all yellow instead of healthy pink, so that doesn't sound good. He said he's scooped and smashed out all the damaged areas (boak) and hopefully it should now grow back as healthy bone. He said there were no real signs that arthritis had set in either, which is good. And he managed to do it all with an anthroscope, so there was no big incision, which means faster recovery.

He's told me to call at 9am tomorrow to see how she's been overnight and arrange an appointment to pick her up and go over the results. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that he'll let us pick her up tomorrow night, as seen as she hasn't needed a big slice 'n' dice

Glad vet called you as soon as he could. Worth hanging on to that chap, methinks

You must be relieved MrsL, despite the not so great news on the bone. Anyway, he did say that he had hopefully remedied that so generally good news

Obviously, I have no experience with pup yet, but when our tom had to surgery on his leg, we had to keep him in as small a crate as possible. It had to have enough room for a piece of vetbed plus a litter tray. It is heartbreaking to see them in there but its for their own good in the long run. Poor boy miaowed his way through the first day he was crated but settled on day 2. We made sure he wasn't left alone for any length of time and that when we were there, we opened the crate door and gave him lots of fuss.

We also used a Feliway plug in to help him relax and we definitely noticed a difference in his stress levels once it was in (and those of our girl cat who was wondering why on earth he was stuck in there ). I wonder if those DAP things would work in the same way?

Glad she's through okay and the vet sounds like he's done a very thorough job.

I'd definitely get some vet bed, at least for the first few days - there could be a little seepage from her wound and you wouldn't want to mess up her lovely bed

Crate is bought - they only had the 107cm one in stock, so I got that. It's pretty big - DH and older dog both fitted in it (don't ask - involved a very embarrassing sizing dilemma in PAH!). She should be able to stretch out fully in it, and there's plenty of head height and enough room to turn around. Just a pity it takes over the entire living room

I didn't like the PAH vet bed - the fleece seemed to come away very easily and they wanted £30 for a piece big enough to fit the crate. So I bought this instead for the same price. It's machine washable so it doesn't matter if it gets dirty and it's a lot thicker than the vetbed was. I'm going to top it off with a couple of fleece blankets in the hope it'll keep the chewing at bay for at least a day! I also bought lots of non-messy non-sticky chews to keep her entertained, although not sure how long that'll last.

The older dog is now completely over the fact that the puppy is missing, and is enjoying being the centre of attention again!

The crate mattress is exactly what we had for Luca in his crate (I thought it was vetbed but it definitely the same). It was great because every other day I took it out and put it through the wash to minimise infection risk - it dries very quickly. It doesn't shed either. Luca loves it so much he has it in his regular bed now too We also bought another of those for the sitting room for pup to lay on.

I'm glad to hear that things have gone well, MrsL, and I hope that your ddog is home tomorrow. Our puppy is home, and seems to be doing ok, though still a bit dazed from the anaesthetic sometimes.

The vet told me to put her in a t-shirt to try to keep her away from her body bandage, and she looks funny and cute in it.

I think she'll like it because it's the same material as her favourite teddy. The cat certainly seems to approve, anyway! Think the puppy will have to share it

Hopefully there won't be much of a wound at all, he said if he can do it all with the arthroscope there should only be 1 or 2 small (1cm) incisions, so he'll probably glue them instead of stitching them. And because it's her elbow there won't be much flesh around them to get sore/infected IYSWIM. So she'll probably be in less pain after the surgery than she was before - it's going to be a hard job to keep her quiet for the next few weeks!

lol @ SDTG - your poor dog! When our oldest was spayed we put a vest on her and bound the bottom up with pink vet wrap, she was NOT amused. It keeps their shaved bellies warm though

How did they do her spay, was it a midline incision or did they do it keyhole? Our oldest was done midline (ovaries and womb removed), and we were shocked when we picked her up. We'd only had cats spayed previously, and there's was a tiny incision in their flank. The dog looked like she'd been attacked with a hatchet! It looked so sore, but within two weeks she was back to normal. The place we took the puppy today offers keyhole spaying (ovaries only removed) but we don't know if it's worth the long journey for her, especially as they heal so quickly anyway.

,>>

done.

Good luck

((((healing vibe type hug)))) I hope all is well soon.

I am experimenting with crate 'games' at the moment, the most sucessful I've found for my (permanently hungry) hound is to stuff a kong with her dry biscuit dinner, add a little water and freeze (I now have 3 kongs) keeps her stationary more or less and happy for ages.

If minimu would like to suggest some betters ones....

It was a midline incision - they didn't mention keyhole, but the incision doesn't seem too long - a couple of inches max. So far she's leaving it alone, but we'll have to see what she does tomorrow when the anaesthetic has worn off more.

Would it be truly sad of me to go and get her a nice, more feminine t-shirt, do you think? Just a cheapie one from Asda, not Next or anything, but perhaps pink......?

What's your puppy MrsL? I have the Savic crate and it's sturdy - my pup is now quite big and leaps in it, but it's never budged.

I have the size smaller than yours, I think it's 97cm, for my golden retriever. He's 4 months now and there's still masses and masses of room so I think it will be fine.