Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Thankfully Katniss is off to the Ortho surgeon on Thurs. to get her stitches removed and to be evaluated for the acute pain she is continuing to have.
I have a muzzle that was recommended by her rescue group for long-snout English Bullies. I am going to work with her on that tomorrow based on the tutorial videos I found on this wonderful site!
However, because we don't know the source of her pain, we are hesitant to try to get her into the new Pick Me Up to adjust and fit it. She rarely comes to a complete standing position. (She does on the occasion she'll eat out of her bowl without a pain fit, but that's about it.) We anticipate moving her around too much may trigger the acute pain she has with the loud crying. I'm afraid we need too much time to work with the harness.
So - she typically lies on her side, but does sometimes lie with her belly down. Our thought is to drag her bedding to our door to the garage (a very short distance). Then . . . ?
It's about getting her in a stable position that my husband and I can both lift her with the muzzle on and get her into the back seat of a sedan.
Can you get your hands on a piece of plywood that you can put under her bed next time she gets up? Or figure out how you and your hubby can slide ot under her bed if she's still not mobile.
Then you can jist lift her up like on a "gurney" and get her into the car.
So just to clarify. She is on consistent pain meds now, right? Yet she can only lay on her side or partially on her belly and cannot get up on her own or walk? And she basically yelps in pain of she does much movement at all???
Two thoughts. Possibly some of the staples are poking her with every movement??
Also, on rare ocassion, a nerve is left "dangling" and was not cut off properly. It causes awful pain off and on. It does require the Surgeon going in and taking care of the problem.
Make sure the Vet thoroughly checks up and down the spine and next fir any sign of tension, disc issue, etc.
I'm so sorry she is still dealing with this type of pain and also not being mobile yet. IF still on the Trazedone, that could DEF keep her too sedated and too woozy to get up and walk on her own.
Now, back to the plywood gurney. You could start "practicing " ahead of time. Jist lift her up and down a couple pf times, take a few steps, give her a cookie! Jist make it a fun game. Each time you lift her, you give her a cookie....set her down, she gets a cookie,,, take a couple of steps with her on the gurney, she gets a cookie.
Just throwing out some thoughts. Be sure and share your Vet's asses when you can.... cause, tests done to come up with the cause and then the solution.
AND....be sure and maintain a calm and confident energy as you use the gurney! Your energy is jmporta t. Visualize in your mind over and over with each step how smoothly this trip will go!
Extra hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Sally that idea for the DIY gurney is BRILLIANT! Yes, a piece of plywood slid underneath here slowly and carefully could do it.
I also think there could be a random staple that's poking her in the wrong place. I really hope that's the problem!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
She has stitches rather than staples. Or so they said the two internal ones that need to be removed are stitches, not staples.
She definitely can stand up and walk. She has the ability. She will do it. But about 80% of the time, she ends up in pain - howling - and this is how you get bit we found out a week and a half ago. (Although, again - we have a muzzle now.)
Her first two days home, she did a good amount of it to go outside to potty and to move around to get comfortable. I feel like her hesitation right now is she's scared if she moves too much, she'll have those acute pain episodes. She will often whine before she tries to get up - like she's anticipating it. (But then sometimes she pops right up, pees on the pee pad, hops to her bowl and eats and lays back down and nada - not a peep.)
I'm secretly hoping they keep her overnight tomorrow so they can observe her an entire day. I desperately want her to feel better so she can make progress.
I thought about the plywood idea. Just makes me nervous if she moves, even though it's not a big height. We actually have the tray from her old crate, but I couldn't fit it into the back seat of the car - the door doesn't open wide enough. (I need to get my new SUV and that would have helped.)
We did think of just lifting her up on her favorite blanket, which has these knots at the end that we can grasp pretty well. We will do a dry run (with an object her size) today for sure.
Hmm. Ok so there goes the staples theory.
katnissthebulldog said
I feel like her hesitation right now is she's scared if she moves too much, she'll have those acute pain episodes. She will often whine before she tries to get up - like she's anticipating it.
That's entirely possible. In this article, Dr. Petty describes a condition just like this called hyperalgesia:
“Hyperalgesia means that when a painful stimulus is applied to a nerve, the pain that is felt by the dog is much greater than what would be expected by the stimulus. For example, we all probably have stubbed a toe or slammed a finger in something. Of course it hurts at the time of the injury, but in many cases, just a small bump of the same area at a later time, often within an hour or two, causes as much if not more pain than the original injury. This is hyperalgesia or “wind-up” pain.”
In many cases, dry needling acupuncture (described in the article) helps.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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