Tear Confirmed...

Well depending on how you look at this we are and are not lucky. Lucky to have a diagnosis, but not lucky in that Casey has to have another surgery for a tear in his CCL on the left leg. I guess we knew it was a matter of time anyway.
So after a months of rest nothing changed and my guy was still limping. In fact he got so bored with the confinement he began to behave really badly and we have had to gate him in one room when we are not home to control his acting out. Since he has IBD we need to keep him out of stuff that he may eat that will aggravate this condition. When I reported in to the ortho on the no change in the limp after 2 weeks rest he again suspected a tear that may not be detectable through radio graphs and the drawer sign. He has seen these cases, but said for the behavior issues to let up on the restrictions and in which we may also see maybe the knee tear more and get confirmation of the tear at a later visit. So this pretty much happened. The increase of movement increased the limp, but he was happier! What a trade off huh!
We went back today and without sedation (thankfully) the ortho felt effusion in the knee and diagnosed a partial tear. We decided for now since we are in the dead of a horrible winter that we will wait until early Spring to do surgery. In the mean time we will make him comfortable and try to be careful with him, but also let him be a dog as well. so let up on the confinement a bit, but no running or anything crazy, but stairs to go to bed and leash walks are okay.
I was relieved to have a diagnosis since the not knowing was mind boggling and so scary. On orthodogs.com there are so many cases where the not knowing has become something awful and this really is so fixable and he is healthy!
Good new was Casey lost 4 lbs in 4 weeks! So he is at a good weight of 99lbs and we will try to maintain this. Let's hope the knee hangs on with a partial tear until Fall and not become a full tear before then which would require more immediate surgery. Casey is on some great supplements and we now use a ramp for the car and we just are so much more educated this time that I think he will be fine in the interim.
I will be sure to update soon and of course will do so regularly during his next recovery too.

Happy Holidays to you all.

Melissa & Casey :)

YIPPEEE!

Good news came to us today! One day before Thanksgiving and we surely have something to be thankful for. Casey does not have a torn ligament in his left knee! We were thrilled to hear this not only does he not need surgery right now, but financially this is great news as we head into the holidays!

We saw our orthopedic vet and he was not able to manipulate Casey's knee in the office due to my big lugs high anxiety and he was stressed! Of course too there was no limping going on, but that was consistent with him from the last tear on the right leg. I remember each visit he never limped and finally I have to video tape him so they could see the limp before he was officially diagnosed! Clever and stoic he can be! My big devil! So since he was not cooperating and was stiff they decided to x-ray and manipulate the leg. The great thing was the ortho had an x-ray from about 6 months ago of both knees that he took and thus gave him something to compare to once he took the new pictures. So after sedation and manipulations our orthopedic said there was no tear. He searched high and low and couldn't find anything. Also aspirated a fatty tumor on his leg just to rule that out and that was fine as well!

Soooo, what is causing the limp??? Well the ortho thinks it must be a muscle issue. He said to rest him for one month and by then he should be back to normal. So he is attached to the leash for potty breaks, and he can walk 10-15 mins a day and he is free to use stairs. This is a cake walk compared to TPLO recovery! So that is our plan and I only pray that is will go away during this recovery and that he will be better!

We have no idea how this happened other than to say it must have been while playing with his buddies at the doggy park. We aren't sure though.

Another issue we learned of while at this office visit was that Casey's weight was up a bit. How on Earth is this happening? He is on 2 cups of kibble a day, a few pieces of boiled chicken the size of quarters, and also some canned pumpkin for added fiber for his IBD. We switched his treats to an eighth of the size he was getting and also now they are the lite formula. I am stumped, but must say I could almost care less as the IBD is under control so a bit of weight means nothing in the grand scheme of things. He was up 1.2 ounces! We joked that the larger plate he has with the 8 screws must count for some of that right? The orthopedic says he carries his weight extremely well and he says he is fine. If we chose to have him lose he said only 5 lbs were needed. We were thrilled with this.

Another great thing that resulted from today is that while Casey was out the orthopedic decided for his own curiosity to x-ray his tplo leg again just to look in on it since we are 8 months out. He said he did this for himself and he did not charge us for this picture. The great news is he said "It is beautiful!" Everything is stable, in place and his muscle looks great! He has never once limped on this leg since he has been recovered. We couldn't be happier with the results of that surgery!

So we are nursing our boy back to health again! He doesn't do well from sedation and cries a lot and gets so out of it. He has been pretty good today but I am excited to see his happy go lucky self tomorrow morning when the sedation is truly gone!

I will post again at the close of our months recovery for you all to learn more! Keep your paws crossed!

Melissa & Casey :)

Not again :(

Could it be happening again? Not another knee injury! It is like we are reliving the last 2 years. Casey began limping and of course we obsess now over his right leg since his TPLO surgery, so we immediately assumed it was his right leg. After resting the limp stopped. Once we returned to his "regular activity" the limp returned. Then I began to really observe the limp and discovered this weekend that I actually think it is the left leg! OH NO! You know how they say go with your gut? Well I am and I am all too familiar with this limp and the inconsistencies with it coming and going. My guess right now is that he has a partial tear. No idea how partial it is. So of course here we are on a holiday weekend and the chances of reaching our respected ortho are slim. I am hoping for tomorrow on Monday, but I bet the call will actually happen on Tuesday. Hoping to get him seen in a week or two.

In the mean time we have restricted his activity some what but we are still walking him a bit, but really cut back until I can get him seen. I don't want to completely eliminate his walks and have that muscle begin to get atrophy. I am hoping the knowledge of the past will be and added bonus whether it is another tear or not.

So here we sit and wait. I am unable to prescribe nsaids for pain as he has had a bad reaction in the past to them and having the IBD it may cause issues with that. I was told by the ortho before not to give them unless advised to. Plus our ortho doesn't know about the recent diagnosis of IBD.

I will be sure to update our blog. In the meantime please keep Casey in your thoughts and check back in on our big beloved boy!

Update-October 27, 2007

It has been two months now and this blog originally began as our adventure through TPLO recovery and now has become a blog about Casey the dog as a whole! So to update all our readers...Casey is doing excellent! His colitis is under control for the first time in 7 years! We changed his food over to California Natural which is a hypoallergenic dry food. He is on the lite formula to reduce some weight on him that he accrued prior to and post surgical. He enjoys the food and we have added some home cooked boiled chicken and then switch between canned pumpkin and unsweetened applesauce. He is on supplements as well.

Casey has returned to an active life of two walks a day and recently he has begun play time and socialization at the dog park as well. This he really seems to love! He is a social boy and loves to be with other people or dogs so the dog park is a fun time for our boy!

I will upload some recent photos soon too. I have some great Fall ones amongst the leaves!

Wishing everyone our best and healing to all those post op!

Diagnosis!!!

Got a call from the vet today and she got the results from his last apt saying he tested positive for Colitis. I was relieved to have a diagnosis and also to hear it wasn't anything more serious.
Colitis in dogs (I am sure is the same as in people) is the irritation to the large intestine. Casey will have to be on an antibiotic probably for life, but later on a maintenance dose and also have a diet change where he will have high fiber. I go tomorrow to get the prescription and talk more about what our response to all this will be. My poor boy has been suffering for so long. I am so happy in hopes we will get this taken care of. 7 years and finally a diagnosis!!!

Update-August 19, 2007

Casey is doing fabulous. He was still limping up until about a month ago and I had put in a call to the orthopedic and I was told he was on vacation and would be back in two weeks. Well before the two weeks were up, Casey's limp disappeared! So he has been cleared by us to play and be a "dog"!
Today he played with some other dogs in our neighborhood for the first time off leash and since the surgery 5 months ago! He was so happy and we also were thrilled to see him be free.
We are still walking him 2 times a day and playing outside ball when we can. During the recovery we were able to really work on cleaning up any "loose ended" behaviors. By this I mean that prior to surgery Casey was a great dog and behaved well, but I think he thought he was a bit of a leader in the house! We were able to clear up his role and place in the house and work on his leash walking a bit better with my girls in the jogging stroller. I also have adopted some of Caesar Milan's tactics he uses for discipline and it really seems to be effective for Casey.

Our biggest issue now has always been a silent issue for our boy. Casey seems to have and always had some sort of tummy issue. I have told his primary vet this numerous times and I have been reassured and told that it is nothing serious and since he is not losing weight that he is fine. 1 week post-op Casey had some major tummy issues and we assumed it was due to the nsaid he was on. Looking back it very well could have been the nsaid or maybe been his tummy issue. So tomorrow Casey will go to a vet to have this issue discussed in depth and see what our next step is to try to help him feel better. My husband and I are not happy with our current vet and we want to switch to the vet at the location he had his surgery. Typically they do not take clients that are referred as this is a bit "taboo" to do to a fellow colleague. Regardless we decided we are leaving the current vet. I called the "new" vet and she agreed to see Casey for his tummy issue and any further treatments we could discuss in office. So tomorrow I will learn more about this as well.
When I first called this vets office they immediately said it sounds like IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease) Or IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Not once has this ever been mentioned before. So I went to the computer and began some online research and I must say his symptoms really sound like one of these conditions. Both are hard to diagnose so we will see what they suggest to us tomorrow.

Thanks all for reading and staying caught up on our big boy! I also have to thank all the support and help from the wonderful members at Orthodogs.com! What a great group of people! I have learned so much from them!

Week 16

Casey is doing fantastic. He is not limping any more. Rarely if we worked him hard he may get up and need to stretch the muscles. He is pretty much free to do anything he wants at this point. We have thrown his ball with him a few times and he has been fine. So happy too!

He is still eating the Canidae with a mix of can foods with it. He seems to enjoy it. He also is still on Cosequin DS which I think seems to be helping.

I think at this point we really want to resume our normal activity with him, but we are worried to not have his other leg tear and go through this again. I feel as though in some ways the tplo surgery really aged him. I will say though a few nights ago he was wound like a top! We had a heat wave of 90+ degrees for 3 days and high humidity and it was just too hot for him to walk so he had all this pent up energy. He was playing like a puppy and into the trash in my bathroom when we weren't home and mischievous things. It was a nuisance, but nice to see he was feeling well.

Not sure when he goes back to the surgeon or if he even does. I will update again soon.

Slobbers and tail wags to all~ Melissa & Casey

(photo is from 3 years ago. He just looked so cute running with his Buddy ball. I need to take more and will post them soon.)