Lucy had been in pretty good spirits since her surgery last Monday, until today. She had been playful and very, very loving over the past week and was walking a bit on her cast, but today she was hopping around was hiding from me like a hurt dog (under the bushes in the back yard when I took her out to pee, under the dining table, etc). She wasn’t snapping at me or growling, but she was obviously not feeling well. I inspected the bandage/splint and noticed her toes had swelled up pretty large, so I called the surgical center and they told me to bring her down. A few hours later she has a new bandage and a new attitude, and hopefully I can keep her quiet enough to prevent the bandage from shifting again (which is what was constricting her toes today).
Lucy had surgery last Monday to help correct her “leg posture” so she would not continue to roll and slap the foot down which creates an ulcer on the bottom of the foot. The ulcer grew larger and consumed part of the large pad on the foot, and because she still cannot feel the bottom of the foot it only gets worse with every passing day. Once an infection set in we had to make a decision about how to move forward with her medical care: surgery or amputation.
Operation Expensive Dog is comprised of at least two steps:
1. Arthrodesis surgery (competed). This surgery fuses the bones of the ankle into a more upright posture, with a little bit of “pigeon toe” thrown in, to prevent the rolling and slapping of the foot when Lucy walks. There’s a titanium plate screwed to the bones to hold the leg in the correct posture and facilitate the fusion. Healing time is approximately six to eight weeks.
2. Skin graft. About two weeks after the first surgery is deemed successful, Lucy will go back for tissue grafting. The surgeon will take cartilage from the ancillary pads on each front leg (the pads that don’t touch the ground) and graft the tissue into the area where the large pad has worn away. Hopefully it will only take one surgery but if the ulcer has not healed enough there may be a second graft required.
Lucy will have an “altered gait” for the rest of her life, but she already had a funky gait anyway because of the way her leg moved. I’ve been told she will be able to run and jump and do all the things normal dogs do, but we’ll have to always take extra care of the foot since she won’t ever regrow the nerve endings that allow her to feel what’s under foot. Lucy definitely will wear her hiking booties when we’re out in the wilderness, and that’s okay with me.
The difficult thing about all this medical work (beyond the incredibly high costs) is that she needs to be “quiet” for the next three or four months. Try telling an 18-month-old Labrador Retriever mix to be quiet! We’ve already had some issue with her jumping on and off furniture and the bed, all of which is forbidden by the doctors. She could displace the plate or cause the bones to not properly fuse together, and I’m really not ready for the alternative.
Lucy has been in good spirits today and even has her appetite back. She wants to play! now! Oooh, look a squirrel! I’ve stacked objects on her favorite chairs and ottoman to keep her from perching on them to look out the windows, and closed the bedroom door to keep her off of the bed, but she still finds ways to get into trouble. Clearly this is going to be more difficult for me than for her.
Fabi is staying with Mike and Antoinette and Emily until tomorrow, but when she returns I know I will have to watch them both like a hawk to keep them from playing and wrestling in their normal fashion. Perhaps I can call our vet and see if she will prescribe some sedatives for both of them.
An update on Lucy
Lucy’s foot has not improved over the past few months. We had a follow-up appointment with the vet and the ulcer had become infected again, so it’s another round of antibiotics. We’re also going to see a specialist to see if they have any ideas for helping heal the tissue on the bottom of her foot. My vet is not very optimistic, however, and there is a high probability that we’ll have to amputate the leg to avoid a massive raging infection.
It’s not been a very happy day here.
Fabi Flashback
I recently came across this “vintage” footage of Fabi playing with a very young Emily at Mike’s house. (Also starring a younger Mike)
I took the doggies out o the North Platte river near Deckers, CO, for the first official swim of 2010. Lucy didn’t do any swimming last year due to her leg injury so I was curious to see how quickly she would take to the water.
After wading in a few times she finally got caught in the current and swam enough to get back to shore. After that she repeatedly waded out to the deeper water and drifted downstream with the current, and even went out in the river alone a few times.
Lucy update: 31 August 2009
I took Lucy to see the vet today. I wanted the vet to look at the sore on her toe-pad and to make sure the nail she broke off on Saturday was not infected.
The vet said that the toe was slightly infected and re-wrapped it after cleaning it a bit — it looks like one of those casts that football players wear on a broken hand. She prescribed some antibiotics as well and we’re headed back next Wednesday to see how it’s healing.
My vet is still not convinced that we won’t have to amputate the leg. If we can’t keep get the toe to heal it will be a never-ending battle with the ulcers and eventually the toe will become very infected. I asked if perhaps instead of taking the whole leg we could just amputate the outside toe, since it is not really a weight-bearing part of the foot. The vet was not sure that would help, since the ulcers appeared to be caused in part by Lucy’s unorthodox walking manner.
The vet was impressed by how much Lucy uses the leg and how well she walks and carries her weight on it, but she is really trying to manage my expectations by keeping the idea of amputation in my mind.
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