Happy Sunday everyone! This is my first post, and I'm excited to tell you all about our bestest boy, Soren. He's a majestic floof of a golden retriever, and we love him more than anything.

Soren was born on September 3rd, 2015 and had his furever home day October 28th. He was a model puppy, easy to train, and for the last nearly nine years, has been a joy every day. He has never once done anything wrong and has had the privilege to free-roam since six months old. He's a couch potato, loves sitting on the porch or watching TV with his humans, and is a sweet heart. He loves snow and plushies but hates pretzels.

Our world shattered on Tuesday, July 30th when he broke his leg just doing normal morning business out in the yard. The grass had been wet that morning, so we initially thought it was an ACL injury and waited the hour until our local vet could take a look at him. We were utterly shocked when he came back in with x-rays showing a break and likely osteosarcoma.

Now, our local vet office has been declining the last year or so. The man who owns the practice is, frankly, a jerk, and his practice has suffered finally because of it. All of his other veterinarians have left, so he's on his own (for good reason). We were intending to move our pets' care elsewhere after Soren's original (and great) doctor left earlier this year. This situation only strengthened that decision because this man wasn't even going to splint Soren's leg until I snapped at him, asking what I was supposed to do? He was just going to send us home with some pain meds and a referral to a specialty clinic. We also had no idea there were actual 24-hour hospitals for pets, but we do now! They are a ways from us, but now I know better. I wish I had known that before this traumatic event - every 'vet hospital' I looked up wasn't an actual hospital -- just a clinic that called themselves a hospital. I don't understand how they can call themselves that, but I tried everything I could to get us more help. No practice had any openings for over a week. So we went home. 

With the splint, we had a very rough few days waiting for specialty care. I continued to call every place I could find, searching further and further away, and they all said that this "referral and wait" was how things worked. I thought that was ridiculous, and I spent those first few days in a very dark place. The referral sent us to an actual animal hospital, where I learned they had 24/7 care and an ER. Unfortunately, we did have to take a trip there a few days before our appointment because I was suspicious Soren had developed a UTI. But I'm glad we knew that was an option on a Saturday afternoon. And I'm glad we went because they gave us far more support at discharge - we got a better harness to help him out and an overall better idea how to care for our baby. We managed with a broken leg for 7 days before we got in to see a surgeon, with surgery scheduled for the next day. 

Soren had his right rear leg amputated this past Thursday. He did have some complications -- he has some severe bruising around his incision, which meant he had some post-op bleeding and needed an extra night in the hospital. They gave him blood transfusion and some medicine to help his body clot better. This did stabilize his red blood cell count, and his care team was confident he was ready to come home. I'm happy to say, the care we received at this facility was so much better than our initial, local experience. 

We were discharged with Codeine and Gabapentin for pain, Trazodone as needed for anxiety, Firox (an NSAID), Amoxicillan, and an herbal medicine designed to continue to help with his bruising. So far, his first 24 hours home have been okay. He immediately peed and pooped when we got home and has continued on a regular schedule since then. We've been hanging out in a 'recovery nest' I made from a mattress topper covered in a sheet that I put on the floor. Appetite has been good and, when he's not in a medicine induced sleep, he's showing bits of his normal personality. I haven't seen anything I think is a pain response, just some mild unsettled-ness (dysphoria) when the drugs start to take effect again. He's been calm, even without the Trazodone, which I'm only going to use if needed. 

We've been out to potty several times, and I was getting confident in us both managing life on 3 legs until this morning when he tripped and went down. Ugh, let me tell you, I nearly had a panic attack. The extent of his bruising and not being entirely sure that is fully resolved yet, plus a little tumble and yelp has me on edge now again. I am just so anxious. I can't tell if the bruising is getting worse... I don't think so, we did take a sharpie to the edge of it to try and track it, but I could only do so much of that -- I can't see what is happening on his belly... I am so worried, but what I do know is his gums and tongue are still a normal color, he does not seem in distress (his breathing is normal and he is calm), so I think he is doing okay...

We've had a rough go, and I am really hoping that his recovery goes smoothly from now on. This momma could use some good news!

I'll eventually figure out how to post some pictures here, but in the meantime, check out #sorenpuppy on Instagram. I documented almost every day of his life so far there.