Zane and Zala waiting for the pool to fill up

Rehabbing the knee and enjoying those bubbly water jets

Zane's twin peaks

Spring 2009 brought more surgeries for Zane....

You would think by now we would have had enough with surgeries for Zane. Unfortunately, his body said otherwise. In February, he suffered a partial tear of the ccl in his right knee. Right on schedule, since about half of the dogs with ccl ruptures will tear the other ccl within a year. Rather than wait for the tear to get worse and start causing Zane more pain, we opted to go ahead with surgery quickly and try to head off any additional problems. Seemed like a good enough plan.

Zane had another TTA surgery on February 12th. The surgery went well and he was able to come home again on the same day. He took all his pills on schedule and easily resigned himself to being leashed for potty time out back. He had a much easier time getting around than last year and didn't seem to have as much pain. He was recovering well aside from a lot of seepage from his incision. We kept that in check as best we could by applying pressure bandages.

Ten days later, disaster struck. I noticed Zane toe touching more than usual with his right leg and not putting much weight on it. By the following morning, he was having a really hard time walking. I took him out back to potty and he stopped walking. I couldn't get him to move. After about 5 minutes I bribed him with a ride in the van. He limped off to the van and we headed to the ER for xrays.

More bad news for Zane as something went wrong and he had a tibial crest failure. On the xrays, it looked like a broken leg to me. His surgeon took the weekend to figure out how he would like to repair the broken Zane and order a bone block for grafting. By Tuesday the cadaver bone was in and I drove Zane back out for another surgery. This time he spent the night. He came home wearing a huge "Carolina Blue" cast to further protect his leg.

Ten days later, stitches were removed and we tried going cast- less. A few days later and I was in with a local surgeon to wrap Zane in another cast for stability. This one we did in bright green since St Patrick's Day was quickly approaching. That lasted about a week. In general, he continued to do well even though he was much more cautious about using the leg.

Another week or so later and Zane was suddenly coming up lame... again. Through the course of a day, his knee cap developed some twin peaks. Off to the ER for more xrays. The pins that were used in his revision surgery were backing out. So the following day we scheduled surgery with a doctor we didn't know to go in and get the pins out before they broke through the skin. Another new incision and more healing to follow. Oh, and another $1000 bill.

Certainly not the way we envisioned this knee repair to go. We thought this one would be so much easier since we were just dealing with a partial tear.

7 Months later and what has Zane been up to?

I know, I know...way over due on the updates!

Zane has been doing very well since surgery back in May. His rehab was coming along nicely but something was still off with Zane. I was sure of it but just couldn't put a finger on it. Everybody suggested that I be patient, after all the poor dog had just been through 3 major surgeries in only eight weeks time. It was his personality that seemed down. He wasn't eating well and his weight was starting to drop. He was occasionally vomiting in the morning after getting up. My intuition is good so when I had finally convinced myself that he wasn't right, I took him into my regular vet and asked to run a full blood panel and fecal. I asked for everything to be sent to an outside lab. I was a little suspicious of whipworms since I had a foster dog last summer that had them. They can hatch in your soil and stick around for a long time to reinfect your unsuspecting dog. We were pretty surprised with the results.

Zane had a major coccidia infection brewing in his gut. Generally, this is a puppy parasite problem and healthy adult dogs can keep this parasite in check. However, it can present a problem for dogs with weakened immune systems (thanks to the prednisone) and dogs that are under stress ( 3 surgeries) and are in otherwise poor health. Zane stayed on antibiotics for another 3 weeks and showed a gradual improvement after about 10 days. He started to eat again and his energy level perked back up. We did a follow up fecal check a month later and all came up clear.

I learned 2 things from this experience. First, do fecals more often than at the yearly check up. We now run them 3 times a year. Second, only do fecal checks by centrifuge. Fecal floats don't show everything and if I had relied on that method, as I had in the past, the coccidia would not have been detected.

The summer resumed and Zane enjoyed hanging out on the back deck under his giant umbrella with the misting fan blowing cool water his direction. My pack loves to play in the doggie pools so every day we would refill with fresh water. I know, a bit of a no- no in a drought but the other neighbors do it with their kids so why not with mine?

I started back up with another dane rescue after taking a bit of a hiatus from the rescue I had been with previously. This group promised more organization and an active volunteer group. I had been sending them Danes in need of rescue for months now so I finally jumped on board mid summer. I agreed to help out at meet and greets (adoption events) and was up to doing short term foster for special needs Danes.

I'll save that whole story for another post but know for now that the pack has grown!

Zane has had several follow up visits with his neurologist and all is healing well. He runs and plays with the other dogs. When he has had enough I tell him so or he just heads off on his own to my bed for a little rest time. He looks great and is enjoying life. We are enjoying it right along with him!

Happy Birthday Zane

It's birthday number 2 for Zane. It's hard to believe all that he has been through in a years time but he is a healthier and stronger dog for all of it.
Zane has now been to 2 underwater treadmill sessions. He has taken to it pretty well and has a nice smooth gait when he is being buoyed by the water. The tank gets filled almost to hip height. Since Zane holds his head lower than normal, they have to be careful to not get the water too high or his nose might dip down into it. He walked for 2 separate 2 minute sessions on Tuesday. We are working up to 3, 3 minute walks per session. It doesn't seem like much but walking in water is hard work. Five minutes in the water is equal to 40 minutes on land.
At home, Zane is taking one 8-10 minute walk daily. We will slowly increase the time walking as he is able to tolerate it. I allow him to wander the backyard freely as long as someone is there to stop him in case he tries to play. He has demonstrated that he can run quite smoothly now too. We keep that to a minimum though! He is building up his stamina by trotting through our small wooded area. When he is tired he comes up to the deck to lay on one of his mats under the umbrella.
Zane's progress is great. At his 4 week post surgery check up, his Dr stated that he is doing great neurologically. When you flip his paws over to check for ataxia, he flips them right back where they belong. Way to go Zane!

Nearly 2 weeks since the latest surgery

Zane is doing very well. He has resumed eating and drinking but still hates taking all his medicines. He so hates his painkiller, Tramadol, that we have stopped giving it to him since he seems fine without it. The antibiotics are still a challenge to get into him. For a while, I was able to mix them in a little soft butter and then slap them on his tongue with a tiny spatula, clamp shut his mouth and blow a little air in his nose. They would slide right down his throat. One day however, he got his mouth back open just long enough to spit them back out. To show me just how much he hated the whole procedure, he spit them directly at me and nailed my whole side. I had Dane slobber mixed with (now)liquid butter and pills sliding all down my arm and leg. It was pretty nasty getting hacked on by my dog. He seemed rather amused as he ran off to the other room. I swear he acts like we are trying to poison him.
Zane's gait has been improving as well. It seems that his bionic knee is healing nicely and he doesn't limp on it anymore. He has returned to his favorite sleeping grounds, formerly known as my bed, and gets up and down on his own. We still keep him confined to "his" room (formerly known as the spare room) when we have to be out of the house. He even knows what it means when I tell him to go to his room and heads right in. He has a special Winnie the Pooh comforter that we got after the last surgery and he just loves to bury his face in it. He is also back to drinking out of the bathroom sink faucet. He just stands in front of it until someone gets up and turns it on. Sometimes he even does this in the middle of the night. Today he practiced climbing in and out of the tub (with my assistance and watchful eye) while Zoe and Zeke drank from opposite sides of the tub faucet. I have no idea where Daizy Lu was as she certainly missed out on all the tub fun. Had she known, she would have been right in the tub with Zane! I can't wait to get out the kiddie pool after Zane gets his staples removed. I bet Daizy will just love it!
Speaking of staple removal...tomorrow is Zane's 2 week checkup. He should be getting his staples removed as we find out what the next steps are in his recovery process. Hopefully, we will get to start doing rehab soon....keep those fingers crossed.