Bobby's FHO Surgery
 

My little Bobby just underwent FHO surgery today and he's laying in my lap right now all cuddled in a blanket. I just found out two weeks ago that he needed the surgery due to Legg-Calve-Perthes in his right leg and also found out he has hip displasia in the left. Staring at his x-rays and the doc's office, I stood in shock:eek: Later that night when it wore off, I started researching and found I couldn't find the type of information I was looking for specifically for the recovery period of a Yorkie so I thought I would post a thread on Bobby's journey through recovery with pictures.

Bobby's story actually starts before now since he was rescued early this year after spending five years in a mill only to be mauled by a large dog in his foster home resulting in one ear being torn off and both eyes punctured. After receiving Bobby in our care, we had one of his infected eyes removed, neutered, and a dental that resulted in all but five teeth being pulled. During his recovery and being newly blinded, he became so attached to me that there was no question I was going to adopt him. He had seen so many doctors at this point that when I got this LCP diagnosis, I about fell off the edge of the world. What else could happen to this poor little boy :confused: I do have his before and after mauling pictures if anyone is interested but didn't want to go too far off topic on the first post.

So Bobby's surgery was outpatient today and he is home with me tonight. I have been given a three-page summary of what to expect over the next few months of recovery and will get more detailed information on each step when he goes in for checkups. Right now he is on restricted activity for two weeks; short leash walks being okay after the first 24 hours. Tonight he ate a small amount of food and I was reminded at how fast he can toss a pill out of his throat. We had our first go around with pills when he had his eye, teeth and, hummm,,,, boomers removed. Poor little man !

Anyway, pictures below from yesterday before surgery and tonight on returning home including a pic of the incision. Ask questions if I'm leaving out something you want to know about:)

Bless you for taking in this little fella and loving him. He sure is a trooper and been through so so much! Hopefully he is now done hurting and can live out his life free from pain in your loving care.

First I would like to say, Bobby's a handsome little fellow. :)
When I read such sad stories of these little ones going through so much pain because of humans it makes me angry and so sad.
It's so hard for me to imagine people being so cruel! :confused:
It's a blessing to know there's people like you who become these babie's angels, for that I Thank You. ;)

Day 1
 

Day 1 following surgery has been pretty good after a rough night. Bobby is taking two pain medications and they wore off around 3 am and he started to cry and couldn't settle. Lesson learned, tonight I'll bring his 8-hour pain relief with us to bed so we can stay on top of the pain for the first few days.

Once we had the pain under control again this morning and a long nap, Bobby went outside with me for a bit and I found him on the doggie bed with a toy !! Just a bit ago we went outside for our first walk, if you can call it that. I carried and walked and he relaxed in my arms until we got to Bobby's favorite spots so he could potty. He is crying when being moved so this was a very short journey. You can see from the picture below that he is using his tippie toe to balance himself when we stop and I think that's great !!

Otherwise today has been a very sleepy day for Bobby:dogzzz:
Thank you for your well wishes for Bobby's recovery. He is a survivor, that's for sure. He stole my heart before he even arrived in our care. If you are interested in seeing his story and before/after pictures at the very bottom of the bio page, you can access it here: Bobby's Web Page

Spanky is the other Yorkie in my care and my forever foster and his bio page with pictures at the bottom is here: Spanky - SPONSOR ME!'s Web Page

Thank you for your encouraging support and well wishes !!

Isn't it amazing what these pups go through and still open their hearts to love for the first time. Often it's on their own terms but it's still quite amazing their ability to survive and continue on. Both of my special needs boys are the love of my life and, after caring for them, I'll probably always adopt special needs pups. Some days I think I'm nuts when my counter top looks more like a pharmacy than a kitchen and the laundry always has a pile of potty pads ready to wash, but they do appreciate their new forever home and I honestly get more back from them than they'll ever know.:)

Day 4
 

Day 4 following FHO surgery and Bobby is doing extremely well. As long as I stay on top of his pain medications, he uses the leg about 70% of the time on our walks and he is already walking around the block. Bobby goes into the vet this coming Friday to get his stitches removed and they will show me his physical therapy exercises and evaluate his pain level without medication.

A down side in our household is that Spanky, my other special needs Yorkie, went in for his routine bloodwork (he takes pheno and Kbr for seizures) and the results basically came back with low protein, this that and the other thing. The day of Bobby's surgery, we sent in urine samples to be tested for a protein creatinine ratio and it came back even lower than the first test. So yesterday Spanky was scheduled to have some teeth removed so while he was under anesthesia, they also performed a liver biopsy. He is one cranky little man today:(

I'll keep you updated as we go along.

he is a handsome guy, he was lucky to have found you

Aw, bless his sweet little heart:love: He is such a little trouper and SO very lucky to have a loving home now. If I were better off financially, I'd love to take in special babies too.

Day 6
 

Bobby continues to do well trying to walk on his hind leg following FHO surgery. Our walks have gotten longer and have picked up pace a tiny bit. :dogwalk: Bobby is a huge leg lifter and he has started to use his surgery leg to stand on while doing his wizz bizz.

Today is day 1 of physical therapy and he is to "dance" on his hind legs. Being blind he hasn't danced for treats like some of the other pups do so I hold his front legs and he has to stand for a few minutes and repeat a few times a day. Maybe he will learn a new trick:jump28ib:

what a cute lil man! so wonderful of you to save him and spanky and take such wonderful care of them both. glad hes coming thru and recovering! what a amazing lil man after all hes been through.

AWWWW Bobby is just precious. I am so happy to read that he continues to do well with his recovery.
I hope his physical therapy gies well for him today.
Prayers continue for his recovery. He is certainly one remarkable boy.

:cheer::cheer:Just here to cheer for Bobby!:cheer::cheer:

:animal-pa Hope your recovery is fast, sounds like it will be!:animal-pa

He's amazing!! And really cute!:aimeeyork I seriously didn't notice his ear till you typed about it-lol- makes him even more handsome! :animal36

:cheer:And you're a pretty awesome owner! :cheer:Not many people would care for dogs that are soo challenged!

Sending prayers to you and your boys!

Bobby is a real cutie!! What a brave boy, and very very lucky to have found a great home. Please keep us updated on his progress with the therapy. We're crossing our paws for Spanky too :xfingers:

Day 10
 

Thank you everyone for your well wishes in Bobby's recovery from FHO Surgery. Today he had his stitches removed and the doc is very pleased that he is using his leg as well as he is already. We take 4 to 5 short walks around the block a day and this has definitely helped with his leg stability.

We have one extension exercise to start where I pull is leg back as far as he will allow me while holding his tummy and we do the flex 10 times, 3 times a day until he is allowing the leg to be flexed back for full range of motion.

Bobby is only taking one pain med now, Metacam, so he willingly uses his leg without pain. Overall, this experience has been much better than I was imagining !!

Just a quick update on Bobby's recovery from surgery. He is a super duper trooper. Other than having a "swing" to his walk, he is using his leg almost all of the time now, he is no longer on pain meds, and has a giddy-up on our walks for the first time since he was rescued in May this year. He had to be in tremendous pain before surgery to be this much faster on walks less than a month post surgery !!

Thank you all for your well wishes ~ the power of love is tremendous :)

Just saw this thread and so happy that Bobby is doing so well. My Piper had FHO surgery for Legg Perthes Disease when she was 8 months old. If you look at my album you'll see almost the same pictures of the day after surgery. Piper is now 4 years old and we take a 3 mile walk every day and you would never guess she had a surgery on her hip. Good Luck and keep up with the exercises and Bobby will be as good as new before you know it.

Awww what a sweet little fellow. So glad he has you to help him.

I am sooo happy to hear how wonderful Piper is doing 4 years post surgery. I looked at the album and yup ~ that's one familiar pic !!

I posted pictures in Bobby's album tonight that shows some of the struggles he's had since being rescued from the mill. It shows what he looked like right out of rescue up to today. I left out the really gorry pictures. Lost an ear and both eyes punctured from a mauling in his first foster home. They removed the ear because it was dangling before we got him but his eyes were badly infected. We had one of the eyes removed and all but 5 teeth shortly after. Then the leg issues. All that in 6 months time.

Actually when I was going through the pics, there is one of him sitting on the floor with his front legs bowed out that should have been a hint that he had hind leg issues. And when he arrived, he walked like he was bent in the middle. Everyone attributed it to being newly blinded from the mauling. Hindsight being 20/20 and seeing how straight he walks now even with a swinging leg, the bowing in front is pretty much gone.

Tonight Bobby completely forgot about his leg when he had popcorn for the first time ever. Oh my goodness, he was climbing all over and struggling to get to the bag. Do not get between a Yorkie and his popcorn apparently :p

Thank you for updating us on Bobby! I enjoy seeing him improve and progress with each update :)

My little baby Bella is having this surgery on Tuesday (she is 6 mos old). Both my husband and I work full time. We have two dogs from the same litter -- do you think we will need to arrange for them to be kept somewhere during the day, when we are not there?