The week has moved on and Zane seems to be doing better with the help of the Prednisone and his neck brace. He is moving a little easier although not nearly as well as he did in the month following the implants. He is back to climbing up on the furniture and getting into trouble in other ways! His rear legs are not in sync with his front so he is back to sideways running and kangaroo hopping.
The prednisone has helped Zane get his appetite back. He lost 3 pounds during his backsliding and wasn't very interested in eating...well at least not his food. He doesn't really love the Science Diet that we feed him to comply with Dr. Durkes advice to keep the calcium down to limit Zane' growth until he turns two. He prefers the Canidae that he used to eat and that Zeke still does eat. I have made a compromise and add about a third of a cup of the Canidae on top of the Science Diet to get Zane started. He is also drinking like crazy and several times this week we have made potty trips outside in the middle of the night. This is not much fun with Zane as he never comes right back in. He likes to go exploring in the dark!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
7 Weeks Post Surgery...and backsliding
I haven't been the best blogger lately. I like to write when I have good news to share. I don't like to write about my worries. I've been worrying a lot lately...my wonderful sense of intuition has been dead on once again. When I sense doom, I prefer to ignore my intuition and not act on it, hoping that things will pass and maybe this time I will be wrong.
For the past 2 weeks I have been watching Zane and noticing his movements seemed off...just little things about the way his back right leg would jerk out to the side at times, other times he would be slow to rise and appear very stiff. Last weekend, Greg threw me a surprise party for my big 4-0 and I noticed that night how tired Zane appeared. He tried hard to work the crowd but he was tripping and falling again. As the week progressed, Zane started becoming more and more unsteady.
On Thursday, Zane's friend Luke from the rescue came to visit for the weekend. His foster Mom was going out of town so we offered to watch our buddy. Luke came to the rescue as a stray with a severely damaged rear leg/hip. We raised the funds to allow him a second FHO surgery and follow up rehab in an attempt to save his leg. It worked beautifully and now that Dane runs like the wind. He can out run all of my healthy, able bodied dogs any day. Luke was a good distraction for our foster dog, Daizy Lu, as it gave her someone to wrestle with other than Zane. Zane did his best to join in on all the fun and it seemed to wear him down even more.
Friday afternoon I phoned Dr. Durkes to address my concerns. He recommended that we put a neck brace back on Zane and call him Monday morning with a status report. We could not find the neck brace supplies anywhere in and out of town. We tried all the specialty stores and finally settled on using leg wraps made for horses. We created a brace for Zane but knew it was only temporary. He continued to become more unstable. By Sunday evening, he looked worse than before his surgery.
This morning, I called Dr. Durkes at 7:45 (he's an early bird) and he recommended we get Zane on some Prednisone to help reduce the spinal swelling. Thank goodness I have my own pharmacy of vet meds...always a little of this and that on hand. I also called my regular vet to have him help rewrap Zane's neck. By lunchtime, we had Zane back in his fashionable neck brace. He gave him a shot of steroids to help jump start his system. Now we just sit back, wait, and pray that this helps Zane come back around again.
For the past 2 weeks I have been watching Zane and noticing his movements seemed off...just little things about the way his back right leg would jerk out to the side at times, other times he would be slow to rise and appear very stiff. Last weekend, Greg threw me a surprise party for my big 4-0 and I noticed that night how tired Zane appeared. He tried hard to work the crowd but he was tripping and falling again. As the week progressed, Zane started becoming more and more unsteady.
On Thursday, Zane's friend Luke from the rescue came to visit for the weekend. His foster Mom was going out of town so we offered to watch our buddy. Luke came to the rescue as a stray with a severely damaged rear leg/hip. We raised the funds to allow him a second FHO surgery and follow up rehab in an attempt to save his leg. It worked beautifully and now that Dane runs like the wind. He can out run all of my healthy, able bodied dogs any day. Luke was a good distraction for our foster dog, Daizy Lu, as it gave her someone to wrestle with other than Zane. Zane did his best to join in on all the fun and it seemed to wear him down even more.
Friday afternoon I phoned Dr. Durkes to address my concerns. He recommended that we put a neck brace back on Zane and call him Monday morning with a status report. We could not find the neck brace supplies anywhere in and out of town. We tried all the specialty stores and finally settled on using leg wraps made for horses. We created a brace for Zane but knew it was only temporary. He continued to become more unstable. By Sunday evening, he looked worse than before his surgery.
This morning, I called Dr. Durkes at 7:45 (he's an early bird) and he recommended we get Zane on some Prednisone to help reduce the spinal swelling. Thank goodness I have my own pharmacy of vet meds...always a little of this and that on hand. I also called my regular vet to have him help rewrap Zane's neck. By lunchtime, we had Zane back in his fashionable neck brace. He gave him a shot of steroids to help jump start his system. Now we just sit back, wait, and pray that this helps Zane come back around again.
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