Beloved LGD has to have surgery next week... :(

[cmjust0]

Glad everything went well for you and it sounds like he is going to be fine. Will he get some pain meds for a couple days?

He got a shot of Ketofen before he left the vet's office, which should last probably 36 hours. After that, the vet wants to see how he does. Basically if he can lay down and rest without being in pain, he doesn't get pain meds. If he can't, and is just in pain no matter what he tries to do...if the pain keeps him from being able to rest, in other words...he'll get a little something just to take the edge off.

Reason being, the surgical technique they used stabilizes the leg to the point that the joint would feel more or less normal to the dog right off the bat. The only thing to keep him from using it at this point is the pain in the soft tissue.. If you dull the pain of the soft tissue too much, the dog goes "Wow, I'm healed! Let's play!"...and that's definitely not what we want.

He's a tough dog.. Even with that much damage in his knee before the surgery, he'd still come up on his hind legs if he got excited. After seeing him this morning, laying quietly and looking fairly content, I'm pretty sure he'll make a more complete recovery without pain meds.


BTW, the one thing I was actually looking forward to doing yesterday....gettting Ivan on a scale....didn't happen! I thought they'd have to get a weight to anesthetize him, but they didn't. So we still don't know how much he weighs.



Something else we don't know yet is the cost.. The vet was more concerned with us getting the dog home and settled in than with collecting the check (or, rather...the credit card slip ), and said he really didn't feel like entering everything into the computer right that minute. He was just like "We'll settle up sometime. Just, ya know...whenever." We shook on it, I thanked him for everything, and off we went.

 

[Roll farms]

I love a vet like that (more interested in the animal than the bill).

Hoping for a speedy and uneventful recovery for Ivan.

 

[ksalvagno]

I take it you don't have a livestock scale in your barn. We got one quite a few years ago for the alpacas and it has been wonderful to have. You would be suprised at what some of the alpacas weigh and I'm very glad that I can weigh them and get a correct dosage. I'm also finding that my goats are suprising me with their weights. It was important that I had a correct weight when I dosed the Draxxin (at least according to the vet).

When Blake had his surgery, he also didn't get any pain meds. The laser surgery was supposed to make him feel better quick and he couldn't run for a couple of weeks. We had to take him out on leash and he wasn't allowed to do a lot of stairs. Luckily our house is a ranch so steps weren't a problem but it was hard to keep him from running and it got old fast to walk him every time he went out. But following the vet's instructions was well worth it since we had no further incidences.

Here's hoping for a full and quick recovery for Ivan!

 

[DonnaBelle]

Yes, I have been saying little prayers for that dog. I am wishing him a speedy recovery.

I was suscribed to the topic so I wouldn't miss your report on his condition.

We have Brittanys, yes, they're bird dogs, but soooo much more.

DonnaBelle

 

[cmjust0]

I just spoke with the vet tech a few minutes ago about "The Burp." I've no experience whatsoever with gastric torsion in dogs, so I just called to see if I needed to bring him back to get checked out or anything..

She said big dogs like that just bloat sometimes.. I indicated that I thought it was usually related to overeating, and that he hadn't eaten anything in well over 24 hours (he's not hungry yet)...she said that with dogs that big, it didn't have to be eating related.

To me...that was weird. To me....nothing in tummy = nothing to break down = no gas = no bloat.

So I do a little research. Turns out, "aerophagia" is coming under increased scrutiny lately as one of the primary causes of bloat in big, deep-chested dogs..

"Aero"=air, "phagia"=eat. Air eating. Yeah, I know...exactly what I had originally suspected he was doing. And it fits perfectly with what the tech said. What's weird is that it's not even necessarily related to anesthesia or anything like that.. He could just eat too much air one day, bloat up, and die.

Good to know. :/

So anyway, I asked what he'd be doing now if he were in trouble. She said that if it happened almost 24 hours ago, he'd be WAY sick by now.. Told me to primarily watch for him trying to retch and vomit, but not being able to..

He's not done that since he burped, and he only did that for about 5 seconds before he was actually able to burp. I take it as a good thing that he didn't have to work so hard, considering there's such a thing as "uncomplicated bloat" (uncomplicated meaning, without torsion) that still requires medical intervention..

So, at this point, I'm content to call it 'anesthetic-related uncomplicated aerophagic bloat' due to being conked the hell out on anesthetics and opiate painkillers, laying on his side too long, and basically breathing through that big gaping maw for too long..

That said, we'll just keep an eye on him for now..

Jeez, though.. Super glad I noticed it when I did. He's so heavily coated, and he had a blanket on...and with his leg shaved, I couldn't tell if his belly just looked a little distended on account of being right next to the newly-shorn leg....and with the way he was laying at the time....I mean, the presentation was actually scarily subtle. I could very easily have missed it, and it's not as if I was looking for it in the first place. He might not have realized it, either, as he was pretty sound asleep..

Yikes..

 

[cmjust0]

Ivan ate some dinner last night, and had some breakfast this morning. Takes his pills like a good boy. Hasn't had a single accident in his confinement area. He actually whines when he needs to get out to pee, which isn't very often. If he doesn't need to go out, you can't even make him go out. He seems to have claimed his little cubby as his space and seems pretty content to be there, which is really good.

It's really, really surprising that he's being so cooperative and easy going about all this, frankly. We're talking about a dog who -- to my knowledge -- has never been indoors, and here he's pretty much acting like an old pro at it.

He's getting up and moving around in there, too.. Rearranging himself pretty regularly. He's drinking plenty of water.

He's diggin' his big fluffy bed and array of pillows, too. I had sorta thought he might reject those to lay on the cool vinyl floor, but nope.. Everytime we've looked in, he's laying over on the mountain of cushiness.

When I went in to visit with him, feed him, and give him his pills this morning, he seemed good. Yesterday and last night, he was just OK...clearly sore and hurty, but OK.

This morning, though, he seemed much more like the happy boy we're used to.

 

[ksalvagno]

Sounds like his recovery is well underway and he will be fine in not time.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Glad to hear he's doing better. Can we have some pics?

 

[AlisonJ_SFW2]

Poor Ivan is going to wonder what's going on when you kick his butt back outside with the goats!

 

[cmjust0]

Maybe...if I can figure out where they are. My wife had me take some of her and the big guy in his 'stall', right after surgery.. I took one of the incision, too...it's rough.

Lemme see if I can steal one off my wife's facebook.

ETA: Found one.