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.

A leaky Dane

This incision site is driving us crazy! On Friday night, it looked like part of it had opened up so we took Zane over to the ER. Last thing we wanted to see happen was this thing tear wide open again, especially in the middle of the night. So we wait our turn and the ER vet looks at us like we are nuts and says the incision is fine and all this bloody serum drainage is normal. Fine, with tail between our legs, we pay the $83 bill and head home. Ok, so maybe we are just a little overly concerned. The incision never drained or opened in the week following surgery but supposedly this is all normal now...
Now on Saturday morning when we get up and check the incision, all is the same. Later in the morning, however, we notice that the stitches have come unknotted and are starting to unravel. Back to the vets we go...got to hurry because they are only open half days on Saturdays. The vet throws in some staples and says not to worry. They waive the office visit fee and we pay $20 for the staples. In case you are keeping track, that is now $263 for the incision that won't stop draining.

1 week + 1 day following TTA Surgery

So this morning around 9:30, I take a peek at Zane's incision and remark at how great it looks. It's healing up beautifully and the edges are sealing up. We head outside for a potty break and some fresh air. Come back in a little later and Zane settles down for a rest while I hit the computer to check the morning mail. A few minutes later, I hear big, slurpy licking that can only belong to Zane. I walk around the corner to check on him and there it is, a big pool of blood sitting in a wide open incision. I slap a maxi pad on him and some bandaging and headed out to the vets. Since we had just been outside, he was still in his harness and I still had on my sneakers so we were able to make a quick getaway.
Once at the vets, they recommend sedating him so that they can clean out the incision and resuture it. All goes well and I bring a very groggy Zane home a couple hours later. The rest of the night is pretty quiet while Zane slept off the anesthesia. Cha - ching, there goes another $160.

Day 5 Post TTA

Zane is doing great! I am so pleased with how quickly he is recovery from his TTA knee surgery. Each day, I have seen significant improvements. Today, he is able to get up fully on his own to stand and walk. He has no problem getting on the furniture to sleep. I guess with 3 weeks of a painful leg, he figured out how to get on the couch without using the sore leg.
The swelling in Zane's leg has almost disappeared at this point. I was pretty fanatical about keeping cold packs on his knee for 20- 30 minutes every other hour. The packs would actually be hot when I removed them. His leg is still pretty red but it looks better every day. We have started doing very gentle range of motion exercises to keep things limber. He doesn't seem to mind.
Today, Zeke even tried to entice Zane into a game of chase. Thankfully, Zane didn't even attempt to get up. There was a lot of rooing and smack talking going on but that was about it. That will probably be my biggest challenge....keeping everybody from wrestling and chasing. For now, they are satisfied with mouth wrestling and stealing toys from each other. A couple times a day, I pull out a big bag of toys and everybody plays romper room style. The we pack up all the toys and end the play session with a cookie break. I think it keeps Zane from getting overly bored. He is always ready for a good nap afterwards.
Speaking of naps...Zane has been sleeping so well during the day that he has been restless at night. He gets up and wanders, which of course makes me nervous that he may fall. I always end up getting out of bed myself just to put him back in his bed. So Saturday, I called my vet and asked for a sedative. The rx said 1-2 pills so I went light and gave Zane just one pill at bedtime. What a sweet night it was! He only got up once and that was just to reposition himself on a different bed in the room. Yesterday, though, he looked wasted all day long. His eyes were so red and droopy. The effects of the meds lasted from 10:15pm to dinnertime the following day! Despite sleeping most of Easter Sunday, he did ok last night (without a sleeping pill) and only got up once to go potty.
The potty breaks in the middle of the night are a pain because we have to get him in his harness and put a leash on just to take him in the backyard. Otherwise, anything that catches his interest will cause him take off running. He will need to be leashed for the next 2 months to take potty breaks. The prednisone is to blame for these late night sessions because it causes the dogs to drink a lot.
At this point, I am looking into rehab for Zane. He can start in another 10 days. I don't think he will need much in the way of physical therapy but I just want to make sure he starts to use his leg properly. I know that he will love the underwater treadmill. He has always loved to submerse himself in deep water. At just 2 weeks post surgery, his orthopedic surgeon will have him start a walking program that involves 5 minute walks, 2-3 times per day. Zane will have a 4 week recheck and then xrays at 8 weeks to check bone healing.