Bella's MPL (luxating patella) surgery

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by 107barney

That's awesome. Now I want some chicken salad. Good luck with Bella. I haven't had a dog turn down chicken broth yet so let's hope this works for her too. She's lucky you're so attentive to all her needs.

Yes, my mouth was watering too after I wrote my last post. I'll make another report tonight after we're done making the broth .

[pstinard]

We have 2 1/2 quarts of tasty chicken broth and a whole bunch of fall-off-the-bone tender chicken ready to be made into chicken salad. Everything is scalding hot right now, so we'll let everything cool down until bedtime and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Bella will have to wait until tomorrow to try her broth.

Bella is doing even better today, having more energy than ever and wanting to play tug of war with her long skinny fox toy. I'm not playing that game with her because I'm afraid that it will stress her leg too much, so she's just carrying the fox around in her mouth. When I got home from work and went upstairs to change my clothes, I put Walter in charge of watching Bella. She got away from him and bounded up the stairs to my side. Bella didn't injure herself, but I'm questioning Walter's skills as a baby sitter, LOL! Bella is curled up and sleeping on my back right now.

[MauiGirl]

Sounds good.

**Note to self: attach one end of leash to Bella, and the other end to Walter when he is baby sitting.

[107barney]

Originally Posted by pstinard

We have 2 1/2 quarts of tasty chicken broth and a whole bunch of fall-off-the-bone tender chicken ready to be made into chicken salad. Everything is scalding hot right now, so we'll let everything cool down until bedtime and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Bella will have to wait until tomorrow to try her broth.

Bella is doing even better today, having more energy than ever and wanting to play tug of war with her long skinny fox toy. I'm not playing that game with her because I'm afraid that it will stress her leg too much, so she's just carrying the fox around in her mouth. When I got home from work and went upstairs to change my clothes, I put Walter in charge of watching Bella. She got away from him and bounded up the stairs to my side. Bella didn't injure herself, but I'm questioning Walter's skills as a baby sitter, LOL! Bella is curled up and sleeping on my back right now.

That makes two of us. I stopped for a chicken on my way home and cooked it after all this talk. I made soup and then saved some of the chicken for chicken salad. LOL. I hope Bella enjoys the fruits of your labor and does you proud drinking up her home made defatted chicken broth!

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by MauiGirl

Sounds good.

**Note to self: attach one end of leash to Bella, and the other end to Walter when he is baby sitting.

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by MauiGirl

Sounds good.

**Note to self: attach one end of leash to Bella, and the other end to Walter when he is baby sitting.

That's hilarious!!!

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by 107barney

That makes two of us. I stopped for a chicken on my way home and cooked it after all this talk. I made soup and then saved some of the chicken for chicken salad. LOL. I hope Bella enjoys the fruits of your labor and does you proud drinking up her home made defatted chicken broth!

Enjoy your soup and chicken salad! I filled Bella's water bowl with a 1:1 mixture of defatted salt-free home-made chicken broth and water, and she drank 2/3 of it in one sitting. Since it's a half cup bowl, that means she drank 1/3 cup of liquid. Not bad! I laid a barricade across the stairs so Bella can't follow me upstairs, even if she gets away from Walter. It's been 5 days since her surgery. I can't wait until day 14 when she gets her stitches out (and Bella can't wait either)!

[107barney]

Originally Posted by pstinard

Enjoy your soup and chicken salad! I filled Bella's water bowl with a 1:1 mixture of defatted salt-free home-made chicken broth and water, and she drank 2/3 of it in one sitting. Since it's a half cup bowl, that means she drank 1/3 cup of liquid. Not bad! I laid a barricade across the stairs so Bella can't follow me upstairs, even if she gets away from Walter. It's been 5 days since her surgery. I can't wait until day 14 when she gets her stitches out (and Bella can't wait either)!

Yay! Glad she is drinking. Teddy drank his today too. He has to have 1/2 cup at every meal for his bladder issue.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Sounds like little Bella is coming along well and has loving caregivers who watch her like a hawk, attend to her every need and will keep her from getting into any trouble. She's obviously a very well-loved little girl and I hope and pray she will get an excellent result from this surgery and one day be able to live a fairly normal life again.

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Sounds like little Bella is coming along well and has loving caregivers who watch her like a hawk, attend to her every need and will keep her from getting into any trouble. She's obviously a very well-loved little girl and I hope and pray she will get an excellent result from this surgery and one day be able to live a fairly normal life again.

Thanks! The most important thing is to keep her from injuring herself while she is recuperating. She is more active each day. She THINKS she's already living a normal life and can do the same things she used to, but it's only five days after her surgery. We're doing our best, and when it's overwhelming, she gets some crate time for her own safety. She's a very energetic little dog!

[ladyjane]

Typical yorkie. Little characters. That's great that she is doing well.

[pstinard]

I gave Bella a small handful of frozen peas as a treat before bedtime, and she drank about 1/3 cup of chicken broth mixed with water just before bedtime. She woke us up at 1:30 AM throwing up. She threw up a few partially digested peas and some clear liquid. We threw another blanket on top of her soiled blanket because it was the middle of the night, and she smacked her lips for a while, and then went to sleep again.

This morning, we laundered everything and she has a nice clean bed in her crate again. We gave her her daily dose of Metacam, she ate 1/3 cup of her Blue Buffalo food, and 1/6 cup of broth/water mixture. I just wanted to see if she could keep food down, and she did.

It's a mystery why she threw up in the night. I was concerned that the broth disagreed with her, but now I'm thinking that maybe I gave her too many peas before bedtime. She swallowed a lot of them whole, wolfing them down since she loves them so much, so maybe they irritated her stomach? I'll call the vet a little later for alternatives for keeping her hydrated because she still turns her nose up at pure water. I've heard people say good things about Pedialyte. Does the taste of Pedialyte appeal to dogs?

[107barney]

I feed peas to mine and they like it. In fact Winston's diet is beef and peas. I always cook them though. I doubt the broth would set her off since it was diluted and skimmed of fat. But you never know. My dogs like coconut water which is good for hydration but I hate to try things if they are having upsets unless I know they can handle it. Maybe you can ask the vet about giving her Pepcid for a few days. Pedialyte I haven't used. I would probably do nothing by mouth and feed a small meal tonight.

[ladyjane]

Bella has been through a lot this week. Sometimes they just get sick and we never know why. Hope she has had a better day!!

[mky]

Hi there. Glad your sweet baby is recovering well. My Kiko had surgery for ccl and mpl on March 15th. She was also on meloxicam/metacam. One of its possible side effects is stomach upset, so it is possible that your pup's tummy upset was from that. Hope she is feeling better today.