the saga of the paw continues

The results of the biopsy on Penny's sore paw came back and it turned out our vet had made a good diagnosis - she had a chronic infection, of unknown origin. Perhaps a trauma of some sort, perhaps from licking. The vet and I are both of the opinion it may have originally been some sort of trauma.

He took quite a big piece off her paw for the biopsy and thinks the surgery itself may help healing, because of the increased blood flow to the area.

All good...

On Tuesday she was doing well after the surgery, and went back to the vet to get the big, padded bandage off. He put a lighter bandage on it, and repeated the important instruction to keep the bandage dry. Human number two soon spotted the fact that Penny's limp was much worse.

How could this be?

Well, she went back to the vet today - and the bandage was putrid and damp! We have no idea how it got wet. It's quite a mystery.

Thank goodness human number two picked it up. Now Penny has no bandage, but has to suffer the cone of shame.





She wasn't too happy when she came home, but it's all worth it if the paw heals cleanly and quickly.



We've got one of the old-fashioned types of collars. I'd have liked to try the new one I saw on a recent post by The Portuguese Water Blog or the Kong EZ Clear Collar reviewed by Hound Girl.

great dog book to read

I've just finished reading Frank Robson's book, Lucky Goes to Sea.

It's the sequel to Lucky for Me, which I loved.

I notice that in this sequel there's a small section that I've read previously in an article Frank Robson published a couple of years ago. He says he and his partner

refuse to be cowed by Australia's official war on dogs: if all the no-go zones were observed, dogs wouldn't be seen anywhere except sulking in backyards, which is crazy.

I wrote about how I felt Penny reacts to being on lead, after I read that article. It's interesting to me to look back at what I wrote, because for the last five months Penny has not walked off-lead at all, and in fact has even been on lead every moment she is in our own garden. She seems not to be bothered by that.

I can't wait until we are given permission for her to walk off-lead. The other day I asked the physio if we could let Penny off-lead in our own garden and she said, yes, certainly...if we could guarantee that Penny wouldn't run or jump. And that's not likely!

Anyway, back to the book...

It's wonderful. I loved every word of it. What I like about it is that the dog is the central point of the book, not like some stories where the dog is just a means of telling the story of the humans. In Lucky Goes to Sea, of course we find out what is happening in the humans' lives, but the love of their dog shines through.

And it's not depressing, as many dog stories are. It's upbeat and optimistic.

He does write about the inevitability of aging, but hopes Lucky will be around for many years to come:

He's our once-in-a-lifetime dog, and even if he lives to be twenty (not that unusual among small breeds) it won't be enough.

I sure know how he feels!

going for very slow walks after surgery

I was looking at this video clip I took last week of Penny setting off for a short walk with one of her humans and I was interested to see how clearly it shows the need to go at a slow pace after extracapsular surgery for her torn cruciate ligament.

When Penny came off the ramp, she hopped instead of using her left leg, and when her human picked up the pace a little at the end of the driveway, Penny once again hurried along without exercising the leg that has lost muscle tone.

We've been told that walking is a way to build up stamina and strength, but that it still needs to be very slow at this stage.

day sixteen after extracapsular cruciate repair

Day sixteen and Penny seems to be feeling well. These mornings we go out to the backyard, because I got s-o-o tired of standing out in the street waiting for her to wee or poo. The final straw was the day my neighbor stopped her car to talk to me and Penny tried to jump up to say hello and while I was holding her down, the youngsters across the road passed by with their four dogs, and then in the middle of it all an off-lead dog raced by. Penny was going ballistic and I grabbed her up in my arms and carried her inside and put her in her crate.

I guess it was then that inspiration struck and I realised I could put a ramp down on the side steps at the back if I took away one of the planks from our front ramp and added it to the remaining spare plank that was lying around the garden.

This was one of the few occasions where I felt like leaving it to someone else to follow up on the loose dog that had raced past. I'm pleased to say I didn't do that. I took Penny's lead and went up and down the street to look for the dog. But I didn't find it and I haven't heard anything about a lost dog.

The move to our own backyard is very pleasant and now Penny relieves herself regularly in the mornings (number one and number two, to put it delicately, lol).

We visited the vet yesterday and he said Penny is going well with her recovery, bearing weight on the operated leg. Today I even reduced the Metacam dose to see whether she continues to use the leg, and I think she is okay. I'd like to get her off it as soon as possible, but the vet says the pain relief it brings will enable her to use her leg more confidently and thus heal more fully.

It's tempting to allow her to do more, but, thanks to the internet, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence about how important it is to take things slowly.

dogs, constipation after surgery and weight-control

Today I came across a short article about dealing with constipation in dogs, following surgery. I would have liked this info last week, when we were stressing about her lack of defecation.

It suggests feeding canned pumpkin. I notice many sites in the US suggest this, and I wonder why plain cooked pumpkin is not recommended. I just bought pumpkin and boiled it up, because I wouldn't buy canned pumpkin in case it has sugar added. I also mixed cold cooked potato in with her food, as it is not digested and gives her a sense of fullness. I was told about this by a fellow club member of Cindy's Walk and Talk group, and it's mentioned at this site on weight loss in humans. I think we have to be careul about assuming what is right for humans will be okay for dogs, though. But it did mention that the hunger-satisfying effect was tested on animals, so that could be worth further internet research.

I notice the article also suggests

If it's been a few days and you're starting to worry, try adding some psyllium husk to some canned dog food. Follow the directions on the container to get the proper amount for your dog's weight. As a general rule, a child's dose is ½ to 1 teaspoon per day. Most veterinarians feel a teaspoon per day for a 60 pound dog is adequate. Make sure the dog drinks plenty of water after eating psyllium husk.
Salt-free beef or chicken broth may get your dog readily drinking fluids. Make the broth yourself by throwing in some meat bones with water and simmering the liquid for an hour or two. Offer this liquid by itself or add it to your dog's food.

That's exactly what we did, giving her chicken broth so she'd drink, and adding a teensy tiny bit of psyllium husk to her food. But because we didn't know how much to add, we only threw in a couple of grains, so I guess it didn't have any effect.

She's still only defecating about every second day, where she used to do so every day, but, as the article says,

a dog's urge to have a bowel movement is closely linked to exercise.

They suggest taking the dog for a short walk, but as we can't do that, I took her for a drive in the car today, and that worked its magic.

Yep, I'm driving my dog around the streets so she can poo on someone else's grass. But I do pick it up!