Today has been a good day for Mosby – and we needed it! We started out with a trip to PT, which went well, although he still can’t do the water treadmill until his infection is totally cleared. Boo. He’s doing great with sit-to-stands, cookie stretches (why don’t I have cookie stretches in my exercise program?), and hip rocking. Last night I had him do “high five” while sitting. He’s a super star.
Meanwhile, his infection does look a little better and is hopefully healing, and we tried peanut butter for his meds for the first time. He ate the meloxicam with no problems. We have slightly bigger pills tonight, so we’ll see how it goes, but it’s promising. His tummy has mostly settled, as well.
The weather is nice outside and it’s put him in a good mood. He also played with his nylabone today! Ok, I sort of encouraged him, but he did romp a bit and chew on it. He enjoyed our trips outside. I’m going to try to post some videos and a photo below. He is having a nice nap right now – he deserves it!
A dog and his porch.
Ok, trying to post a video of him today:
And here he is chewing his bone today:
Last but not least, this is from a few days ago, but Mosby wanted to show off one of his best tricks:
It seems like as every time we think we have resolved or at least developed a strategy for one problem, another one arises. Mosby’s wound seems to be healing, but starting yesterday he developed tummy issues, that have yet to resolve. He obviously feels awful and needs to go out a lot. Or else he lays there and whines. And, of course, repeated squatting on one leg is taking a toll on him. The good news is that we went to the vet today to get his CBC, and his white blood cell count is normal. Platelets are a little down, but the vet did not seem concerned. When I mentioned his tummy issues, the vet said that can be a symptom of the antibiotic he’s on – which we switched to due to the wound infection. He gave me a probiotic to give to Mosby once a day, so I have given him that, but things have not resolved. I just want my poor boy to feel better. We are going to try giving him some pumpkin with dinner and hope that helps.
Today was a holiday at my work, although I worked at home and also had to attend a committee meeting for a nonprofit I’m on the board of, so I brought Mosby along to the meeting. The nonprofit is horse-related, so there are lots of dog people, but Mosby’s also just a great citizen in general. He greeted everyone sweetly, and then laid down on the bed I brought and snoozed through the meeting.
He did not have a lot to contribute to the meeting, tbh.
So far his appetite doesn’t seem to be affected, but he’s obviously miserable, and I just wish I could fix it. A lot of days it seems like we just keep getting kicked while we’re down. I hope that there are good days ahead.
Mosby has a pretty bad habit of getting into trouble when left by himself in the house. People who know him think I’m lying when I tell them this, because he’s so well behaved in general (he has perfect recall, both by voice and whistle), and super chill and laid back (professional napper). But when left in the house by himself his brain goes haywire. He’s typically crated (this is after many breakouts from a VERY strong crate, which I finally reinforced with gorilla tape on everything but the front, which is secured by multiple carabiners … only after that did the breakouts stop), but we always wish we didn’t have to confine him to such a small space.
So, being good parents, we ordered two 39″ gates and installed them today, so he now has the living room and sun room to wander around in (keeping him out of the kitchen, which is where he gets into the most trouble, and off all hardwood floors). As a test run, we left him while we went to the grocery store today. I worried the whole time that he’d try to jump the gates and hurt himself (or try to force his way through them), so we rushed through the shopping. I ran upstairs when we got home … no Mosby at the gate … no Mosby in his main bed. I went in through the gate and around the corner — there’s Mosby with boxes of Ghiradelli chocolate, packaging torn everywhere.
Chocolate is his VERY FAVORITE bad thing to get into. I panicked, pulled out the hydrogen peroxide … roughly 10 min later we were back inside the house and Mosby’s tummy was empty (I felt awful). Once we were able to dissect the packaging, we determined he had NOT been able to get into the main chocolate, but he had eaten a chocolate covered graham cracker in a separate package, so he did get into some chocolate.
Turns out, while we thought we’d been so thorough in checking the space, the Christmas presents for my husband’s family – which we couldn’t deliver, because our trip was cancelled due to Mosby’s surgery – were in the corner. Among other things, the packages contained the chocolate and cookies, which Mosby had found. Face palm. I’m thankful he didn’t get into the main chocolate (he tried, oh he tried), but I feel awful that we didn’t realize it was there. I feel awful that I had to make him throw up.
I don’t feel too bad, though, because last night we gave him is VERY FAVORITE (non-chocolate) thing: PASTA:
This is a very dignified pose.
And we did, after all, install some very nice (and not cheap) gates for him.
Foxy loxy holding the gate open.
And also today we received our doggie DNA test, so that is set to be picked up on Tuesday. We know Mosby is part lab, but have always wondered what else he is. Probably something at least as mischievous. We are excited to find out.
So, Mosby keeps bringing the excitement. Whether it is worry about his wound (which is looking better) or worry about him staying by himself, there is always something to keep me occupied! Tonight we’ll probably head to Bruster’s after dinner for a doggie sundae … because as naughty as he might be, Mosby still deserves it. He’s at least 98% Good Dog.
Today, Mosby had his first rehab appointment. I was incredibly impressed with the vet clinic and his rehab vet. It’s a full service clinic, but the vets are also certified in orthopedic rehabilitation. They have an amazing facility with lots of equipment and a water treadmill. I think Mosby also fell in love with his vet, Dr. Johnson, and at one point almost crawled into her lap while she was working him up, stretching him, getting a gauge on where he was in pain, etc. Here’s a picture of him after she finished the initial work-up — I don’t think he realized he was at the vet!
At first the vet couldn’t get him to react at all when she was trying to determine where he was sore – he’s that stoic. Finally and only after he relaxed a bit more she was able to find a lot of tightness and soreness in his back – not surprising. So she used a TENS unit to relax his muscles in his back, and he enjoyed that. He’s tight in his shoulders, but fairly relaxed in his left hind leg, surprisingly. And very tight through his back.
Ultimately, the water treadmill is going to be great therapy for him, allowing him to get exercise without having the uneven strain on his body. He unfortunately couldn’t do it today, because in the last 3 days he’s developed an infected spot on his incision site. This vet feels it’s a suture that is dissolving and got irritated. In a dog that isn’t immune-compromised, it would probably not be a problem. In a dog doing chemo, it got infected. She consulted with his oncologist, and they decided to culture it and also switch to a broader antibiotic (he was already on one as a precautionary measure for the chemo). I’m hopeful that this will clear things up. We will keep it clean and keep him from messing with it.
They were able to do some good exercises with him. The vet was VERY impressed with his ability to sit for a treat (she didn’t have to ask – such a good boy), because he’s able to sit very squarely, which can be a challenge for rear amputees. He did cookie stretches, sit-to-stands, and hip rocking. They also helped him stretch out his back and relax using a big exercise ball. We have also been given instructions to do these exercises with him at home.
We are scheduled to return a week from today — fingers crossed his wound will have healed so he can do water treadmill! The other vet there does acupuncture, which can be a good palliative therapy for amputees, so we will probably be doing that, as well, at some point in the near future.
Onward and upward. It has been a stressful week as I’ve been monitoring and worrying about the wound, but I’m hopeful we can get that resolved. Mosby has to be at home tomorrow. We have a new soft cone, so we will try that on him so he doesn’t mess with his wound. Over the weekend we are going to put up some gates in the hope that we can restrict him to a small area, so he can be outside of the crate but not get into trouble. We found the tallest gates we could get, but we are still going to have to rely on the fact that Mosby won’t feel up to getting into trouble. Pre-amputation, he had no trouble jumping 6 foot fences, and I have a feeling he could manage a pretty good height even with the one back leg. Yikes. Monday I am off, so I will be with him and we’ll also go in for our 10 day CBC; hopefully everything will look ok.
Today was a big day for Mosby – the first day he held down the fort all by himself (ok, with an hour long visit from our sitters in the middle of the day) while we were at work. For now he’s crated, but we are working out how to confine him to a larger space where he still won’t get into trouble (this dog, who is a saint in company, can find trouble no matter how hard … like the time he hid bags of bread in the stuffing of my big chair). But he did a great job, and Sally on the Tripawds forums, after talking me down off a ledge of uncertainty (uncertainty is very hard for a Type A person like myself, just FYI), suggested that Mosby needed a puppaccino. Yes, he definitely did need a puppaccino.
So we loaded him up in the MUV (Mosby Utility Vehicle), which is my 4-Runner with a luxury Mosby suite in the back (believe me, it’s the only luxurious thing about that truck … and this isn’t a post-amputation thing, he’s always had a luxury suite in the back … kind of makes it hard to actually put luggage in it when we go somewhere.) and went to Starbucks.
Is that an entire cup filled with whipped cream?Yes, yes it is.
Sometimes you gotta take time to taste the puppaccino.
