Day 3

This morning Zane had woken up in quite a bit of pain. Since we had to run Zeke into the vets to get his infected anal gland rechecked and drained, we decided to bring Zane in for a help me feel better shot. It wasn't the best day for this, a Saturday, and our vet was swamped. We had to wait an hour for the shot and Zane was totaled drained by the time we got him home. He was so drained that he couldn't even sit up to get out of the van. We got him out of the van and uprighted him, but his feet and brain were not working together. He just couldn't walk. We had to carry all 140 pounds of him into the house. We laid him down on his bed and he didn't even move. We hoped that we hadn't "broken" him carrying him into the house. I spent the next few hours napping on and off while checking to make sure Zane was still breathing. Any time he moved, he would groan and I would immediately wake up.

Later in the afternoon, I offered him some food and he ate a little. I was out in the kitchen cleaning up his dishes when he suddenly came charging out of the bedroom. He had to go potty in a big way. We didn't make it outside in time before he released his first #2 since Wednesday. We did make it out in time for #1 thankfully.

His energy seems to come in spurts like that. He went straight to his bed as soon as he got back in the house. The rest of the evening passed quietly. Thank goodness we didn't break him!

Day 2 Post Fusion Surgery

Zane is hanging in there today. He is tired and sluggish and not overly interested in food. He didn't drink all day until the evening. He has made it outside to pee a few times. He heads outside energetically but runs out of steam very quickly. Twice I ended up sitting in the grass with him while he regained the strength to make it back into the house.
The technical name for Zane's surgery (part 1) is cervical distraction/fusion of C4-5, C5-6,and C6-7. He had a diskectomy done at these sites while titanium screws, bone cement and bone grafts from his shoulder were used to put things back together. We paid over $400 for those wonderful titanium screws (all 24 of them). The bone cement was $268. He has a ventral midline incision (underside) of his neck with about 25 staples. He has 4 staples closing the site where the bone grafts were removed from his right shoulder.
It is a little challenging to put a harness on Zane since the front straps rest on his incision site but he doesn't seem to mind. Collars are forever off limits with Zane. They could reinjure his neck. Last week Zane's good Ruffwear harness broke so I ordered him two replacements and they just finally arrived today.

Zane is walking!

Good news this morning! Zane is already up and walking. The doctor says that he is doing as well as can be expected. Zane will stay at the hospital until early afternoon so that they can give him a few more doses of the really good pain meds. I am so relieved to know that he is able to get up on his own. I have been cautioned however, that next week's decompression surgery is the one that could set him back for a bit. So we will do a little happy dance for todays success and live in the moment!

Zane is home now and resting. He clearly has pain and he holds his head very low and stiff. He has made it outside to potty twice and ate a can of food for dinner. So now he has finally laid down to rest.

The Big Day, part 1

Well today is Zane's big surgery day. I could not be any more nervous about this but I am focusing on staying positive. Zane's surgeon just called to say that he would like to do the surgery in two stages. He will do the fusion today and then next week follow up with the laminectomy. He feels this will be less stressful to Zane as the surgery to do both procedures is over 4 hours long. He would prefer to not keep Zane under anesthesia that long. He also assured me that we would get Zane back home as soon as possible. He appreciates that Danes are a rather sensitive breed and feels that Zane would be less stressed at home. I feel better already....

It's 5pm and I just got the call from the doctor that Zane's surgery went well. Zane is awake from the anesthesia and is resting. His xrays show that everything is as the doctor wants it. If he is not too painful tomorrow, he will be able to come home.

I can't even begin to say how different the mood of the house is right now. All the other dogs are so quiet. Zoe has been sitting by the front door just watching the world go by. Of all of them, I would think she would appreciate the peace and quiet the most. Zeke and Daizee have been playing together a bit but mostly just sitting out on the deck. This morning, Daizee was so sweet. She knew that Zane was not feeling well and she gently nitched up and down his neck with her teeth. She was giving him a little massage that he was loving. Then she cleaned his ears for him!

Tomorrow is the big day

A little behind in posting....
Zane's incision has finally healed over and I am going to have what is left of his sutures and staples removed today. Last week, I started weaning him off the prednisone in preparation for his cervical surgery on May 6th. By the end of the week, he was getting really wobbly. He lost his balance while barking at our neighbors from the back deck and crashed down kind of hard on his back legs. He held up his bionic leg after the fall and limped. The following day, which was Friday, he still limped and acted sluggish. I put in a few calls to the vets on Team Zane and it seemed that everyone was off for the day. I ended up speaking with one of the nurses that cared for Zane after the TTA. She assured me that there is not much he could do to damage the implants and that he was probably just sore from the fall. She recommended that I give him additional Tramadol. She was great to talk to as she formerly worked with a neurosurgeon and is well acquainted with what Zane will be going through with his upcoming surgery. She was right on the money and the extra Tramadol had Zane feeling a little better the following day.
On Saturday, Zane's neuro surgeon, Dr. Bergman, left a message saying that we could move up the surgery to this week to prevent any further problems.
So here we are just a day away from what is to be hopefully the final surgery for Zane. He has been put under 5 times in the past 6 months for various tests and treatments. Hopefully this will be the beginning of stabilization for Zane.

14 pills for breakfast

Zane is on a new antibiotic regimen to ward off any nasty bugs that may be hanging around his incision site. He is taking Antirobe, Doxycline, and SMZ. Add in some Tramadol for pain control and some Prednisone to reduce spinal swelling and Zane has quite a breakfast cocktail! Then we do it all over again after dinner.
Yesterday Zane went back to our regular vet in the afternoon. He did a nice job of restitching Zane and removed the loose dangling staples. Zane was nice and calm while the vet stitched him back up.
We finished off the afternoon with a small ice cream treat for Zane on the way home. We also stopped for carry out pizza...always a favorite with the pack. Poor Zane was going nuts smelling it all the way home.
We have officially broken in the new van now. Last week, Zane dripped blood on the new, overpriced mats and yesterday he enjoyed hanging his head out the side windows for a bit. Nose prints are on nearly every window and there is already a bit of fur floating about. Thank goodness for leather seats which have already been smeared with blood and covered with fur. They clean up nicely!
Today I should receive a new collar for Zane. It's called a "no bite collar" and is designed to stop licking. Hopefully, this should keep Zane from licking when I am not around. I have needed to keep a close watch on him lately so that he doesn't keep licking at his incision. Now I am just dying to get out of the house for a bit and not have to worry about coming home to an open wound.

Drip, drip, drip

And the leaking continues...
Dr. Clark, the vet who performed the TTA surgery gave us a follow up call yesterday and now this morning. He is concerned about the leaking as well. Hallelujah! We are not being overly neurotic. Dr. Clark recommends that we up the antibiotics. Thankfully, I have a good storehouse of antibiotics so we are adding in SMZ and amoxicillin to the Doxy that Zane is already taking. There is also a bit of an odor to the incision site which makes us think even more that it could be getting infected. I got the go ahead to wrap Zane's leg to keep him from licking at it. We are to change the dressing each day to make sure that no pus starts draining. I am really impressed with the follow through from Dr. Clark. I have never had a doctor, let alone a surgeon, check in so often and I am very thankful for his thoroughness and caring.