Barley’s second round of surgery (torn ACL this time) went very well, and he’s recovering happily. Of course, he’s probably still got hope that he’ll be running by Wednesday.
I’ve put pictures up in the gallery. They show his last weekend playing at Hagg Lake, His x-ray’s (and his strong hips!), and his first weekend of recovery.
Today we had an appointment with Barley’s surgeon. We’ve been waiting to do surgery on his second hip since the first surgery, and figured it was finally time. Oddly enough, his hips look great, and because of the exercise he’s been getting, his thigh muscles help hold his “bad” hip in place. His front leg, which had been developing some arthritis, hasn’t degerated like we’d expected it. The surprise was that he’s got a partially torn ACL.
So, all the parts of him we expected to be bad are fine, and his knee just needs some “adjusting.” This is mostly good news because the surgery is much less expensive than a hip replacement, and is somewhat easier than his previous surgery. Michelle and I are breathing easier, and Barley’s as happy as can be, cause he got to see all his friends at the surgeon.
Yesterday Barley and I played with 4 great danes at the dog park. It was a lot of fun for Barley, and he almost knocked one over. He was really enjoying himself, but I think he was secretly envious of their stature. Maybe that’s what led him to eat an entire chicken carcass off the counter.
That’s right, while we were watching a movie, we heard a noise that sounded like Tigger’s cat door opening and closing. We got up to find that he had eaten an entire chicken carcass (Rotissiere) and was licking the plastic container across the floor.
Crap. Don’t feed your dogs chicken bones because they splinter. That’s the addage we both though of. Crap. We called Kathy, Michelle’s mother, Our Vet, and finally, the weekend emergency vet. The Vet said to feed him rice and watch him. As we were on the phone, he went back into the kitchen and was leaning on the counter licking up the bits he had missed. What a punk.
He’s got an iron gullet; he’s eaten a pair of Michelle’s eye glasses, rope, posters, sticks, the wand that lets you rotate the blades on mini-blinds…. lets hope he can pass this one too.
Sorry for the delays. I’ve been busy at work upgrading WebCT and the Student Web Server. I didn’t feel much like being on computers. I had to post to Alan’s Blog because he’s gone, and I volunteered for a week or something.
Anyway, Barley had physical therapy today, which is the highlight of his week, because he gets to play how he used to. He’s in water, so there isn’t the same stress he’d feel otherwise. This was the first Saturday session, so I was able to go. It was such a blast. I took some pictures and video because it was such a spectacle. The therapist says Barley’s the most playful of the dogs. We expected that though.
Yesterday we became concerned when Barley started to stink like he had trenchfoot. We cleaned his incisions with diluted peroxide, but the smell only got worse. Since his incisions were somewhat puffy, we were worried that he was infected inside. I thought of a myth character called a wight, which is a stiched together corpse that walks around and explodes on people, infecting them (gross).
This morning the smell returned, and it turned out to be just his compressed rawhide bone. I smelled the bone, and it was just about as bad of a smell as you can imagine. We haven’t thrown it away if you want it.
We picked up Barley this morning after his night away. Dr. Munjar thinks the TPO went well, and we may have difficulty keeping him immobile.
I’ve added pictures of the ordeal, and I’m using my new web format. Like it?
Naturally, we’ll keep taking pictures. Sarah brought some get well gifts over, but Barley will have to wait to play with the squeaky hedgehog. Rats..
Barley went into surgery today. It was was quite painful to leave him, especially once I turned back and saw him straining to follow us with a shocked look on his face. Dr. Muhnjar called to tell us that the surgery was successful, and that he’ll most likely gain full access and motion in his right hip. Whew.
If you’re bored, check out this great doodle tool. There are some very creative people out there.
Barley, our “chesapeake bay retreiver”, has pretty severe hip dysplasia. We took him to a specialist, who conceded that we might be able to get along without surgery if we are careful about his activities and such. This was somewhat relieving since the recommended surgery, a TPO, costs about $2200 per hip.
Since the initial visit, Barley’s gate has quickly degraded, and he’s walks with his front legs splayed out in a V, and his back legs are very loose. We put him on Cosequine, and I want to blame that for making him all loose, but that’s virtually impossible (according to the vets…)
So, it looks like Barley’s going to have hip surgery. I’ll have to sell my Apple stock, which should cover most of it, unless he ends up needing the surgery on both hips.
I think what’s most frustrating is the lack of options we seem to have, and the lack of time to make decisions. Technically, we could skip the operation, but he wouldn’t be able to go hiking and play with other doggies. Who knows, maybe a miracle cure will surface in the next week and a half…
