Were Back!!!

Well now that I am working full time again I feel as if I have no free time! Since getting back from Texas I have not been blogging as much but will do my best!

While away in Texas, Josh said Zoe was miserable and wasn't using her leg as much as she had been. I think that it was just Zoe missing me! When I got back she was still miserable and never wanted to go for a walk, barely would walk to use the bathroom. Since Zoe stopped taking the medication she wasn’t using her leg as much as she should have. We should be taking her for at least 3 walks a day but she would get to the end of the road and refuse to walk back!

Because my husband is not a fan of calling anyone I had to call the vet when I got back and ask for suggestions. They recommended we give her the rimadyl that was given to us when she was first diagnosed with hip dysplasia. It is an anti-inflammatory. Since starting with the medicine Zoe has been acting a little more energetic and has some life back in her! She is going for a couple walks a day, when it is not raining and is back to using the stairs.

My dad came up to visit this past weekend and Zoe was excited to have a visitor. We also had a friend come over and do a Reiki treatment on Zoe. It is suppose to assist with healing. I had it done on me first and it was interesting. I felt a sense of calmness and warmth, and if you know me at all I don’t think I am ever calm! Afterwards I was really tired and took about a 2 hour nap! Zoe went next and I guess Dogs are more difficult but more open to it than humans. Afterwards she almost looked as though she was on some sort of drug and she too took a two hour nap. I am not sure if it worked but we have now decreased Zoe’s anti-inflammatory drug to a half a pill and she is still doing ok. I took her for a walk yesterday and she was doing great until it was time to come home. I use to think it was her hips but no she doesn’t want to go home! It is a pain in the butt to get her to start walking back but eventually I con her into going home.

Zoe is due for her shots tomorrow so she is going in to see the vet and we have been having problems with her getting sores on her back, not sure if it is the food or what but she has about 5-6 sores on her back. Next week we will take her off the anti-inflammatory and hope she doesn’t regress again. She goes back to Dr. Glennon on the 16^th of September and we will decide what to do about her other leg. 

Tired Dog

So Zoe survived her first night without us (since the surgery) at the trainer’s house. She was very tired when we brought her home and didn’t want to eat or go to the bathroom. We let her rest as we were exhausted from the traveling and then decided to take her out to the property to try and walk her around. She was so excited once we got out there that we were able to walk her around the woods and our field. She didn’t show any signs of being in pain until we got home. She was not a happy camper – she whined and whined and refused to eat. Josh gave her one of the pain pills we are trying to avoid but she was so uncomfortable we had to give her something. We even tried to rub arnica lotion on her leg to try an heal it, but she just wanted to lick it off. Yesterday she seemed back to her normal self but she is being a brat about eating now, she wants us to hand feed it to her. This morning we put it in one of those balls that releases food as she plays with it and she ate most of her food. Right now she is sleeping and her howling and barking seems to be so much better. Not sure if she is just in pain or if the “Bark Off” really does work!?

I will not be posting anything this week as I will be on vacation away from the dog – which will be nice to sleep in a little, but I will miss her and my husband a tons! 

Haircut & Pain Meds

Today is Zoe’s first day without her pain medication and you can tell. She didn’t want to go down or up the stairs and she wasn’t moving around as much. This morning I dropped her off before going to work to get her hair cut so she wouldn't look so funny with a shaved leg. When I picked her up she was her normal "I am excited to be here" self but when we got home it was a different story. I had taken her into my work to see some people and she was excited to see them and didn’t act like anything was wrong but when we got home she was not a happy camper.

She didn’t want to go up the stairs and I practically had to carry her. When she laid down she started to do her whine “no one loves me, I am sad”. I would pet her and lay with her but she was exhausted, not sure if it is from all the excitement or her leg truly hurting. I now wonder if she really was progressing or if it was just the pain medicine. I couldn’t even get her to go to the bathroom; she ended up peeing in the middle of the yard, which Josh yelled at me for killing the grass. What am I suppose to do carry her? She weighs 50 pounds and is not the easiest thing to carry!

On another note I bought her a life vest today – it is pink, the only girly thing she has! She was not a fan of it but if we want to take her to a pond, canoeing with us or go to a lake we now have it. It is nice because it has a handle on the top to pick her up if she is struggling. When we first got Zoe we had a scare when we took her canoeing, she jumped out into the cold October water and was struggling to get up luckily she was small and didn’t weigh much so it was easy to get her out of the water.

My Brother-in-law (Jay) made a statement recently on my Facebook page that I should name Zoe - Marley from the Movie/Book Marley & Me. This week she destroyed yet again another rug we had in the kitchen. We had laid a bunch of rugs out so that Zoe could walk around and not slip, and she decided to ruin them so NO MORE RUGS! That statement got me thinking that I should write down all the things that have happened since the beginning of getting her. I am not a writer as you can tell by reading this blog – I can’t spell (thanks to spell check) so I am not doing this to write a book or anything but it would be interesting to write everything down and re-read it later! I am sure I could get a few chapters out of her 1^st year. August 16^th will be the 1 year anniversary of us bringing her home! I can’t believe we have survived a year already! As crazy as she is we still love her! 

2 weeks later . . .

So we are now at two weeks later and she has her stitches out- YEAH! This past weekend we traveled to visit Zoe’s grandparents and attend a surprise party! She hates car rides – the whole two hours she sat maybe a few times and finally laid down when we were on the back roads! The first night she howled starting at 3:30, 5:30, 5:45, 6:00 and so on! Needless to say Josh and I didn’t sleep well! Her grandparents set up their back deck with gates so she could run around outside and she loved it! Although at times it was a headache for us to make sure she didn’t eat the poisonous flowers or wasps! Yes I said wasp as Zoe at one on Saturday and then Sunday morning tried to eat a bumble bee but I think it stung her on the tongue because it flew out of her mouth!

Saturday Zoe’s grandma and I took a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase and item called Bark Off for 10 dollars. As I said before it was not a fun night of sleep so I wanted to try something to keep her quiet at night. This is a small device that emits a loud noise that only dogs can hear and it is suppose to get them to stop barking. It didn’t really work outside but that night I left it on in the kitchen and she didn’t start to make noise until 6:30 and at that point she just made a whining cry and stopped right away! Not sure if she was exhausted from the night before or if the item worked – will have to test it out some more!

Sunday we had a surprise party for grandpa so we had to fake leave and come back – Zoe was not a fan of this because she had to get in and out of the car multiple times. Then when the party started we had to put her in room. She cried for a while but then I put the bark off in and she stopped – again not sure if she was tired of barking but she was behaving herself for the most part (until she spilled her water bowl all over when we were getting ready to leave). The two hour ride back home she again never laid down – and with her collar on it drove both Josh and I nuts! Her collar would get stuck on the barrier and make awful noises and she rubbed it against any surface she could trying to get it off! When we got home we all were exhausted and thankfully she let us sleep in until 8 this morning (I of course got up and took her out, fed her and put the bark off on at 6:30).

Then the exciting part – we went to the vet and got her stitches out! I think most dogs when they go back to the vet’s office they are scared or don’t want to go in – NOT ZOE! Her tail was wagging and she was so happy to see everybody. They said she was a great patient but I think they say that to everyone. They were all impressed with how well she was doing. Dr. Glennon was extremely impressed stating that most dogs that have this procedure are only using their legs 20% barely toe touching and she is able to run around and weight bear. He said we can now leash walk her unlimitedly and get her muscles to build up in her leg or take her swimming in a pond. Unfortunately I don’t think she knows how to swim so I am nervous about taking her to a pond but willing to try! The doctor said he didn’t need to see her for another two months and that he was very happy with her progress! YEAH ZOE!

Josh and I were a little hesitant to wait two months for the next appointment so we scheduled it for 6 weeks sometime in September. At that appointment we will decide whether to do her left leg or wait until after winter – it is very important to do the procedure during the spring, summer or fall so she has enough time to rehab it before winter. Dr. Glennon said there is no rush and that it would be up to us if we wanted to do it this year or next. We don’t want to rush anything and since she healed so well on this leg we might just wait till the spring!

Since getting home this morning Zoe has been busy licking away and walking around the house without the cone – she is very happy! We took her for a short walk and she seemed tired half way through - but finally made it home and then crashed! Thanks everyone for your support! 

Survived the Weekend

Well we made it through the weekend alive! On Friday Zoe was going down the back stairs without us having to carry her! She weights around 50 pounds so I have a hard time carrying her up and down the stairs. She was back to her old personality, a little miserable here and there but she was excited to see us when we came home and would whine and bark when we weren’t paying enough attention to her.

I am a little worried about what will happen next – she is now use to us babying her that once she is all healed is she going to continue on with her whine – knowing she will get pity? I think it was wearing on both Josh and I this weekend.  Zoe is so use to cleaning herself and having the freedom to lick where ever she wants that this collar she has on is driving her nuts – as I am sure the stitches on her leg itch!

 Saturday she laid around the house and wasn’t very active. Josh and I went out to get a car barrier for the back of my car so when we travel we don’t have to bring her crate anymore! On Sunday Zoe was starting to act as her normal self – barking at the gates – trying to pounce around and even trying to get on the couch while we were relaxing! She is walking really well on her bad leg – I am surprised how much she weight she is already putting on it. We walked her around the back yard a couple times because as I am sure we all get cabin fever every now and then and she is going nuts in the house. Zoe even tried to play with some of her toys yesterday but with her collar they tend to fall out of her mouth and get stuck in her collar or under her collar and she can’t get it. It is funny to watch though!

One more week and we get to take this stupid collar off! WOOHOO! This morning when Josh took her out to the bathroom she actually walked up the stairs on her own. I guess she was so shocked that she made it up on her own that she started to jump around! Josh was a proud dad and came in to tell me while I was still sleeping! (I guess that’s what I get for going to the bathroom and waking everyone including the dog up at 4:30!). So we will see what this week brings.

PS - I added pictures of her Xrays down at the bottom of the page

1st day home

Surprisingly Josh and I slept through most of the night. She woke us up around 12:45 when a skunk had sprayed nearby. Josh and I both got up to check on her and she was just lying in the kitchen resting her head. This morning I got up early (even though I could have slept in a little later) to help Josh take her out to the bathroom - she went pee YEA! We still had to carry her up and down the stairs it is just too much right now to ask her to try them. 

I had class today (my last one ever - or at least for a little bit) so Zoe spent the afternoon locked in the kitchen. We have all sorts of rugs lying in the kitchen to help her walk so she doesn't slip. When I got home I could tell she needed to go potty but she was very excited to see me and I was not excited about taking her out alone! I knew I had to do it for my baby so I picked her up (as best as I could - she weighs 50 pounds) and took her out our front door. I was amazed at how well she walked to her potty area - even using her lame leg. She eventually went pee again but wanted to stay out and walk a little so we checked the mail and I had to pretty much carry her to get her to go inside. I think the most painful part is not seeing her all happy and running around (no more games of run away from mommy for a while). 

She seems to be having a good day today - a little whine here and there but that is to be expected. She doesn't move much from the kitchen but it is kind of nice, she did try to cuddle with me on the couch but the doctor said no (and so did josh) :( Tonight after Josh went to bed she started to whine again and since she hasn’t had a bowel movement (yes I will tell you everything on this blog) I figured I would take her out. She has been eating her normal one cup at night and one cup in the morning with no problems. So again I carried her down the front steps and took her out back to go potty! She even made it to her area this time and she pooped! This was probably the most excited I was today (other than finishing my class).

So I have tomorrow and next week off completely so I will be babying her as much as I can! She doesn’t get the stitches out until August 2^nd which means she has to wear the collar and be uncomfortable until then. So my week with her should be fun!

Zoe's Home

So Zoe is now home! YEA!!! She did great with her surgery and even ate this morning when they fed her. She is still a little groggy from the anesthesia! She has a sling to help her walk but only needs it when going up and down stairs - if you have ever been to our house it is all stairs! She also has Elizabethan Collar that she absolutely hates! Josh rode with her in the back seat to keep her from moving around and hurting herself. It will be awhile before I try to take her anywhere by myself.

Right now we gave her half her food and she ate right away – this is a good sign as they normally don’t want to eat. We haven’t tried the bathroom yet and are not sure how it is going to work. She was not a fan of the steps when we got home, Josh had to practically carry her with the sling to get her up the stairs. When we got home she walked around checking everything out. The kitchen floor is a little difficult for her. She instantly slid when she walked on it so we have created an island of mats towards her food bowl and to the living room.

Update – we just tried the bathroom – unfortunately josh is not a patient person so he carried her down and up the stairs. Hopefully by the end of the week we can get her to try the stairs on her own.

She is struggling to get up once she lies down so we have to help her a little so she can get to her water and food. We will see how night time goes – she might have me up all night (and I might be up trying to finish my school work)! I will try to post some pictures on my Facebook account and on here but like I said I am new at this Blogging thing! 

Surgery Successful

Well it was a rough night last night – I think Zoe knew that she was going in for the surgery today because she kept Josh and I up all night! This morning she was a little rambunctious running away from me when I tried to take her to the bathroom. Since I am not the dominant one she knows how to push my buttons. I had to chase her around the back yard and eventually trick her into getting into my car. On the way there she looked sad, almost as if she knew what was going to happen (or the fact she is never happy in the car). Once we got to the vet she was ok and then starting crying when we went into the room. She did not want to be there! When I left her with her towel an toy in the kennel she had sad eyes!  Then she started howling and I thought – well at least Josh and I will have a quiet night of sleep.

Around 9:30am I got a call from the Vet that she was under anesthesia and Dr. Glennon wanted to know which leg to do – Josh thought right, I thought left and of course the Doctor sided with Josh!

Around 11:45am I got the call from Dr. Glennon that everything went well and she was recovering! We can call back later for an update and they will call me if anything comes up! Tomorrow I can call after 9:30 to set up her discharge! Once we get her home I am sure I will have lots to update you on!

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for reading my Blog! Josh says I have to update it more often but we don't live that much of an eventful life and until Zoe gets her surgery we really don't have much to update!

Zoe is spending the weekend with us in Olean, NY - she loves it here because she can run around the back yard without being on a leash! The part she hates is the drive - we have to keep her in the crate and although she doesn't bark she refuses to lay down and be miserable the whole time (for 5 hours). Luckily we stop to visit my cousins in Binghamton and give her a 15 minute break!

Last night she didn't want to sleep - not sure if it was the new place or if she was hearing noises all night but no one (except maybe uncle tom) got any sleep in this house last night! Well that is it for now - my next update will probably be on Tuesday after I drop Zoe off for surgery!

Starting out

I am trying to Blog but don't know much about it. I write a lot about my pup Zoe on Facebook so I thought I would Blog about her so I don't have to constantly update everyone on my Facebook - only the ones who want to know can read this Blog!

Zoe is my Airedale Terrier Puppy - she just turned 1 on June 21st! She is full on energy and a hand full at times. Recently we found out she has sever Hip Dysplasia. This is a genetic gene that both her mother and father had to carry in order for her to develop it. Now we could have brought it out earlier than latter by running her around and she is on the higher end of her weight but in the end it comes down to the genes of the parents.

The Breeder where we got Zoe takes no ownership of this and acted as if it was all our fault. I do not recommend anyone out there looking for Airedale to get a Dog from Hemingway Terriers in Westerlo, NY. I emailed the Breeder just as an FYI and I was completely shocked when she told me we should put the dog down and that it was all environment that caused the Hip Dyplasia. Putting Zoe down was not an option! If you personally know me, I was outraged and ready to attack - but now that I am growing up I just let it go (complained to my friends and family of course) but refrained from writing a nasty email back to the Breeder.

Well enough about that - Zoe will be undergoing a FHO (Femoral Head Ostectomy) next week. They will be removing the head and neck of the femur in order to reduce the pain that is currently caused by her "ball" of the femur is not in the correct place and is rubbing on the outside of the socket causing arthritis to form (see wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_dysplasia_(canine) For information on FHO this wiki was helpful for us ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femoral_head_ostectomy)

We met with an Amazing Vet out in Pattersonville, NY Dr. Glennon - who spent an hour talking to us about our options and showing us XRays of other dogs who had the procedure done. We were feeling more positive about the surgery when we got home and scheduled it right away. July 20th Zoe will go to the Hospital to have her first procedure (not sure which leg because she needs both done). Hopefully with this done she will be able to function around 80% - which is better than what she can do now because she tend to be in so much pain after a while.

I will continue to update through this Blog about Zoe and how she is doing. We had a little scare this week because she started throwing up Sunday and Monday morning. The vet thinks that she ate something that her stomach didn't agree with - they checked her bowels and didn't find anything wrong, she is now taking Pepcid AC to relieve the acid that is building up in her stomach. This morning she had the sad face on and wouldn't get up to eat but eventually she ate half of her food and has been running around playing (no vomit) so I think she is feeling better!

These next couple weeks are going to be difficult because she will be very high maintenance because the most important thing for the FHO to be successful is treatment after the surgery and the physical therapy! Wish us Luck!