Good Girl, Now Put Your Head Down and Just Take a Little Nap Please

It's been a week.

 

When I adopted Min, I knew she came with some health issues.  The most major was hip dysplasia which is an abnormality of the head of the femur and the hip socket.  She could spend her life on pain pills or she could have surgery.  I voted for surgery and so we went and consulted with Dr. Stephan at the Utah Veterinary Center, (specialists) thirty five miles north of us.  He said she was a good candidate because she is young, lean, and has good body confirmation.  First we had to make sure her UTI was cleared up.  That was taken care of with our regular vet.

Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday, 06/17.  On Monday Dr. Stephan called me and said he thought it wasn't explained correctly to me because Tuesday was actually the drop off day and the prep work was started. Surgery would be done on Wednesday with pick-up on Thursday.  Ok then, I scaled back my anxiety a day.

Tuesday I dropped off Min and 80% of the estimate.  Dr. Stephan called me Wednesday morning and told me she had been bathed and shaved the night before and was all ready.  He would call with an update later in the day.  I called at 5 wondering why I hadn't hear anything and Min was in surgery.  There had been an emergency (Akita vs. miniature poodle) that pushed the schedule back. Dr. Stephan called at 6:45 saying everything went well and she was recovering nicely.  Hooray!

He called again on Thursday morning and said she was doing very well, he was pleased, everything looked good and I could pick her about 3.  Whew.  Janie came with me for emotional support as well as to be another set of ears for the instructions and to keep her calm on the ride home.

Jessie, one of the techs came in and explained the care routine, meds, etc. and then said basically I should think of it as 4 weeks of bed rest.  Oh. Not exactly what I had imagined/planned.  While he went to get Min ready to leave, Dr. Stephan came in and explained the surgery, showed me the after x-rays and also said he would like her head on a pillow for 4 weeks.

Jessie brought Min in and Dr. Stephan looked at her and saw her leg was externally rotated out which it hadn't been earlier.  He hoped it was just because she was worried about the tile floor so we took her out to the grass.  He was even more concerned and brought her in for a quick x-ray.

Bad news.  The rod in her femur had twisted.  Dr. Stephan was so very frustrated.  Another surgery was scheduled for Friday and we went home Min-less..

Dr. Stephan called me at 9 Friday morning to say Min had a good night and that they were getting ready to prep her for the surgery.  He called me again at 5 to report that "it had been a day."  Of course Min is not his only patient but her surgery was not without some difficulties.  They had a terribly hard time getting the rod out of her femur. When it had twisted it settled into place tightly.  The rods are tapered so he likened it to falling into a well with your arms at your side.  You're wedged in.  The struggle to get the rod out caused a fracture in her femur.  He fixed that with a bone plate and is satisfied.  It's there forever.  I thought maybe that meant a cast on her leg but no.  Her incision, however, is now twice as long as it was.

So in the end it all went well but it was a longer surgery, 4 hours, and because of that I have an extra week's worth of antibiotic.  Dr. Stephan said once again that the ideal recovery is to have her head on a pillow for four weeks.

There was a mix-up with phone messages so I only spoke to him Saturday morning and will wait to see the latest after surgery pictures when we go in for our 4 week post-op visit.  I was lucky that Janie was able to go with me again to picked up Min as the exit was closed on the freeway and even though Dr. Stephan gave me the work around detour, it was nice to have her in the navigator's seat.

So right now this is how things are:

Icing with bags of frozen corn.