Luxating Patella Surgery

[ladyjane]

Poor Dee. Wishing her a speedy recovery. She looks so sad.

[ladyjane]

My suggestion is to call your vet and ask him how you can assist her to walk and relieve herself. I have never had a vet wrap pups legs like that after surgery....at least not two of them. When my surgeon does CCL repairs, they have a tiny bandage on them .. not wrapped straight like that. I don't have a clue how Dee can walk that way. Surely they will have ideas for you.

[anniernc]

Poor baby. I hope she has a speedy recovery and feels better soon.

[Shelby&Seymour]

It may be a little bit before she goes potty.... Seymour had surgery on one leg last week, but has no bandage or cast. Our little girl Shelby had LP surgery 6 years ago and she had both legs in casts. We used a cloth and went under her tummy with it and helped her "sit" a bit easier went she went peepee. We used a long strip of soft material. It took a couple of days before they did a BM after the surgery... which is normal.

[Kayleen22]

Dee is progressing really well. Yesterday she was back to eating and drinking normally.
I FINALLY got her to go pee and poop. I was getting really worried because her stomach was feeling really tight, she was breathing heavy and grunting. So at 2AM she decided it was time. I gave up trying to do it outside and instead put a potty pad in a corner of the living room that she likes to leave presents every now and then. She was able to walk around a bit and she did both jobs on her own without me holding her up.

Today she hasn't gone to the bathroom at all and its 1pm. Took her to the vet for her first laser treatment. They take off her bandages in order to do so. They decided to keep them off because both legs are looking good (well as good as they can look at this point).
When she had the casts on it was difficult for her to walk but they kept pressure off her knees so she was able to stand and sort of walk. Now that they are off, she's unsure what to do. Her knees are obviously too weak to hold any sort of weight. I have a towel to use as a sling but today will be another interesting day as far as getting her to go to the bathroom.

[yorkieusa]

Originally Posted by Kayleen22

Dee is progressing really well. Yesterday she was back to eating and drinking normally.
I FINALLY got her to go pee and poop. I was getting really worried because her stomach was feeling really tight, she was breathing heavy and grunting. So at 2AM she decided it was time. I gave up trying to do it outside and instead put a potty pad in a corner of the living room that she likes to leave presents every now and then. She was able to walk around a bit and she did both jobs on her own without me holding her up.

Today she hasn't gone to the bathroom at all and its 1pm. Took her to the vet for her first laser treatment. They take off her bandages in order to do so. They decided to keep them off because both legs are looking good (well as good as they can look at this point).
When she had the casts on it was difficult for her to walk but they kept pressure off her knees so she was able to stand and sort of walk. Now that they are off, she's unsure what to do. Her knees are obviously too weak to hold any sort of weight. I have a towel to use as a sling but today will be another interesting day as far as getting her to go to the bathroom.

Poor little girl. It will be very difficult for some days for her. I know this is hard for you, too. It's tough to watch them in that position and not be able to help. Let us know how she's doing.

[Kayleen22]

Third day. Dee slept through last night really well. It was her first night with the cone collar on. I put a thin cloth through it so she has something soft to rest her head on which i think kept her a little more comfortable throughout the night.
She seems to have less of an appetite today. She peed once this morning otherwise i haven't been able to get her to do anything else.
She is able to stand for a short while on her own, but she hasn't be able to take any steps. She tries to get up on her own but her legs are just too weak yet.
I've noticed one of her legs looks more swollen than the other, so i've been putting ice on it twice a day. Otherwise she is doing really good!

[yorkieusa]

Originally Posted by Kayleen22

Third day. Dee slept through last night really well. It was her first night with the cone collar on. I put a thin cloth through it so she has something soft to rest her head on which i think kept her a little more comfortable throughout the night.
She seems to have less of an appetite today. She peed once this morning otherwise i haven't been able to get her to do anything else.
She is able to stand for a short while on her own, but she hasn't be able to take any steps. She tries to get up on her own but her legs are just too weak yet.
I've noticed one of her legs looks more swollen than the other, so i've been putting ice on it twice a day. Otherwise she is doing really good!

You can put an ice pack on her legs about six times a day for about 10 minutes at a time unless she shows discomfort with you doing so. You don't want her to struggle trying to apply the ice pack is what I'm trying to say. It sounds like she is doing better. It will just take time.

[Mom to Hot Rod]

Bless her little hear. Dee sounds like a little trooper. Hopefully the ice will help and the swelling will stop.

I offer soft cone collars for post surgery care. You can click on the link in my signature to check them out.

[Kayleen22]

Day 4 (i meant to write this yesterday)

Dee is gaining strength back in her legs. She is now going to the bathroom every time i take her out, i do still use the sling to help her along. I think she'll be able to go on her own by the end of the week. She's almost able to get up on her own now from laying down but it's still a struggle to get into the full standing position.

The problem now is..she won't take her medication. She takes two pain meds..Trimadol (?) three times a day and Metacam once a day. The metacam is fine because it's in liquid form. The other one though, i've wrapped it in cheese..she got sick of that. So i started wrapping it in chicken and after one day she's sick of that! I'm at wits end trying to figure out how to get these down her. I welcome any suggestions..

[Mom to Hot Rod]

Hot Rod has to take a pill every day and he loves sweet potatos. I usually can give him a big chunk of the sweet potato and put the pill in the middle of it. He's never refused it, yet. Good luck.

[Kayleen22]

Originally Posted by Mom to Hot Rod

I offer soft cone collars for post surgery care. You can click on the link in my signature to check them out.

Awesome! I knew something like this had to exist somewhere. The ones i found at petco weren't really what i had in mind plus they were heavy and $27.99!
I'll keep this in mind..my other dog will be spayed later this year!

[yorkieusa]

I learned how to just put them down their throat and hold their head up with the mouth shut until the pill went down a long time ago. With the tramadol, you could probably just hide it in some boiled chicken alongside her kibble and she'd not notice it.

[Kayleen22]

it's been a week since her surgery.
I realized the reason she wasn't taking her pills was because the Tramadol isn't a coated pill so the bitterness is very easy to smell and taste. Her antibiotic pill is coated and she has no problem taking that with some cheese. So i'm lucky if i get her to take one a day. I've just been giving her two doses of metacam instead.
For the past week she didn't really make any sudden movements or attempts to jump. I could leave the room for 10 min come back and she wouldn't have moved an inch. But today she jumped off the couch while i walked out of the room to get something to drink. I'm sort of freaking out thinking her surgery has now just reversed but she didn't cry out or anything and she doesn't seem to be limping so i can only hope it didn't do any damage.
She also didn't do a whole lot of licking the first 3 or 4 days so i rarely used the cone collar. But now if she's not eating or chewing a bone...she's trying to eat the staples on her knees.
She's been going potty fine but she hasn't pooped in quite a few days. I'm done with the sling as of today and i will be using a leash from this point on. She takes FOREVER to poop and use to walk back and forth across the yard for a good 10 minutes before dropping. So she won't like to be limited to a small patch of grass but hopefully she'll get use to it!

[yorkieusa]

Please don't put her up on furniture. You need to advise the vet of this as well. Be sure and use the cone or she will get to those incisions and that could be catastrophic. Sending you our very best wishes for a safe recovery.