Welcome!  Sorry you and your Doberlady have to be here.  So glad to hear it wasn't cancer in both legs.  Wow that must've been a really stressful time for you!  I'm not going to be any help with the losing weight part but Rene (Jerry) has given you wonderful advice in that area.  As she gets stronger it'll be easier for her to do her business.  She's still learning how to navigate this early on.  I've heard it takes 2 to 3 weeks for recovery and over a month for mobility to get good.  That is why those core exercises Rene gave you the links to are so important.  Sounds like recovery is going well let us know if we can help you in any way.  You're doing wonderfully with her your love for her shines through your post.  Hugs to you and your beautiful girl.

Linda, Ollie, Riley & Spirit Mighty Max

Hi and Welcome!!!

I'm not here as much as I'd like but I just happened to be checking to see what's been going on and came across your post.  Like you My Leland was a handsome 125lb Dobie boy...he's the one pictured in my avatar.  When you mentioned struggling with your Dobie girl's weight (what's her name by the way?) I just had to respond.  Like you our Leland struggled with weight.  I had him on a premium dry dog food for food sensitivities (he'd dealt with chronic diarrhea issues all his life).  I only gave him 1/2 cup (literally I measured it out) of dry food in the morning and evening.  I also included some grilled chicken or steak (he was a temperamental eater as well).  The vets always kept saying he was overweight and we needed to cut his food.  Well as you know a large breed dog needs to have some food and I couldn't see where we could cut much else.  Leland got some treats and he loved peanut butter in his Kong toy.  This went on for several years and it wasn't until the surgeon who would be performing Leland's surgery had blood work run to check his organ functions did we find out what the problem had been all along.  Leland had hypothyroidism (low functioning thyroid) which in turn caused the weight gain.  Our local vets kept telling us "he's too young to have a low functioning thyroid."  Leland was 4 1/2 years old when we discovered this and I'd say the weight issue had been going on since age 3.  Hypothyroidism can be treated with medication in dogs just like humans.  Your vet should be able to run a blood test on your Dobie girl.

Hypothyroidism is a pretty common disorder within the Dobie breed.  If you've tried cutting her food but she's still not losing weight and is even putting weight on I'd be asking the vet to check her thyroid function.  My husband and I felt so guilty after we found out what was really going on because we had cut Leland's food so much trying to get the weight down.

Anyway...hope that helps and gives you a direction with regard to the weight issue.

Warm Wishes

Sahana and her Angel Leland and Lucian too

Kudos to you for being such a strong advocate for your doberlady and getting her the veterinary assistance she needed. As far as the weight issues, I have the opposite problem with my tripawd (can't get her to eat), so I can't help you there. I did have a little Yorkie at one time who was quite the chowhound, and we helped him lose weight by supplementing his diet with frozen green beans and baby carrots. So I think you're on the right track.

As far as pain meds, my own dog was sent home with Meloxicam (also known as Metacam) and codeine, but they wanted her off the Meloxicam just a few days past surgery, and they only prescribed the codeine for seven days past surgery. I did notice that she would start whimpering an hour or so before her next codeine tablet was due, so I called my local vet and was able to get the codeine refilled for another several days (until she got her stitches out at two weeks post-op), although even my local vet didn't think it was needed and wasn't happy with refilling it. However, the local vet was happy to refill the Meloxicam, so she got to take that for another week or so.

I do think my Susie experienced Phantom Limb Pain, so at two weeks post-op, I was able to persuade the surgeon to give her a prescription of Gabapentin. That helped tremendously, even though I only gave her one capsule per day (in the evening, when her symptoms were usually worse), instead of the three capsules a day the surgeon prescribed. Tonight was her last night to take the Gabapentin, and I'm so relieved she'll now be off all pain meds.

I'm not a vet, but my advice would be to listen to your dog. If you think she's in any pain, I'd call the vet and describe the symptoms and ask to continue the pain meds for at least another week. If your doberlady suddenly yelps or screams out, she could be having Phantom Limb Pain--and, in that case, Gabapentin could help her, as it helped my dog. If she seems fine without the pain meds after a week post-op, that's okay, too. There have been other dogs on these Forums who have done well even without continuing the heavy-duty pain meds for weeks. Every dog has their own individual timetable. You just have to take your cues from your dog and don't be afraid to be an advocate for her if you think she's having any pain.

It sounds as if your doberlady is trying to get right back in the swing of things very quickly. It's great that she's got such a good attitude--that will definitely help with her recovery. But one thing I noticed with my dog is that on the days she tried to do too much the first two or three weeks after surgery, she paid for it the next day with pain and stiffness (which was different from the regular post-op pain). Your dog is having to relearn how to get around and is using new muscles and joints--that's bound to take a toll on her and she'll need lots of rest.

I love it that Sahana brought up the hypothyroidism issue that's commonly found in Dobermans. It would be great if your vet could test your Doberlady--that way, keeping her weight down may not be such a struggle anymore, as a thyroid condition could be so easily treated.

I'd love to know your Doberlady's name, too!

((((hugs))))xxxx from Nancy and Susie

I'm not sure if the blood test has to be specific to the thyroid or if it's something that's picked up in a general screening.  Check with your vet to see if the thyroid function was checked in the previous blood work Venus had run.

Regarding what happened with my Leland we had noticed his left knee joint was swollen and it caused issues with his walking.  We saw some different vets because his original vet practice wouldn't do an x-ray of the knee at our 1st apt.  They wanted us to schedule another apt to come back so they could sedate Leland to take an x-ray (all the while charging us for 2 office visits).  So I called another vet who was able to see us the next day and took x-rays right then and didn't need to put Leland to sleep to do it.  The vet was stumped about what was going on in the knee so he referred us to a larger practice.  The next vet thought Leland had cancer and wanted to do an MRI of the knee and biopsy of the "mass".  So we agreed only to have 2 inconclusive results on the biopsy.  When he wanted us to bring Leland back to sedate him and cut open his knee and surgically remove a piece of the mass to be biopsied we decided no.  We would make Leland's life as wonderful as possible for whatever time we had left with him.  This all occurred in February 2014.

So I researched various supplements and herbal treatments and started Leland on them.  We'd take Leland to our local vet once a month to be checked out and to x-ray the knee/leg to see if there were changes.  By early May 2014 our local vet was shocked to not see any changes to the bone in the knee/leg.  If this had been cancer it should have started to eat away at the bone.  The vet didn't think we were dealing with cancer and referred us to another surgeon well versed in TPLO procedures to correct knee injuries.  Like our vet this surgeon didn't think we were dealing with cancer either and wanted to proceed with the TPLO procedure.  He removed the "mass" in Leland's knee and told us he'd never seen anything like it.  It was sent off to be biopsied and came back as non-cancerous but unsure of exactly what it was.

After the TPLO surgery Leland came down with an infection in the leg.  His meniscus also was not holding the screws of the plate in place.  His TPLO surgery had failed and he was hospitalized for 4 days trying to get the infection under control.  The surgeon advised our only option now was to amputate or put him to sleep.  We went in to see our boy and he came in dragging this useless leg behind him.  He was so miserable and we felt horrible.  We had brought all sorts of food with us because Leland wasn't eating.  I was able to get him to eat some jars of baby food so my husband and I decided to give him a chance with amputation.

The recovery was rough but at least we had our boy with us.  Getting around for him was tough because the knee in the remaining hind leg was weak.  The surgeon had indicated that we may have 2-3 years before it would need surgery because the ligaments would go out.  So we took extra care in helping Leland get up and maneuver.  Sadly, we didn't have 2-3 years but only 4 weeks before his remaining knee went out.  Leland's health also started declining pretty rapidly soon after the amputation.  There was a lot of visible muscle wasting in his head and neck.  Our local vet advised this was a sign of an autoimmune disorder and started Leland on a high dose of prednisone.  The large dose of prednisone was havoc on his thirst and urinary function and he ended up starting to urinate on himself while he slept.  My husband and I also noticed his tan markings around his backside had turned a cream color.  The surgeon had stated he could do a TPLO on the remaining leg but he was not confident in the success with these other health issues plaguing Leland.  Plus my husband and I couldn't bring ourselves to put Leland through a 3rd surgery within 5-6 weeks.  So we decided to let our Leland go 4 weeks to the day of his amputation surgery.

We miss our boy everyday and there's time when both me and my husband cry for him. 

But we now have Lucian in our lives...he's another Dobie boy of course.  He'll be turning 2 years old this May and he can definitely be a handful at times.  However, he does make me and my husband laugh with some of his crazy antics.  Right now he's put on lock down in his crate when hubby and I aren't at home.  He was doing so well there for a long time in being left alone in the house.  However, I think he's realized how much fun it is to rip up hubby's car magazines, shred pillows, and chew on mom's Longaberger baskets that we can't leave him alone in the house.  We're hoping that eventually Lucian will grow out of this because I'd like to get this huge crate out of the living room and he looks so sad when we get home to let him out.

Here are some recent pics of Lucian from last weekend finally getting a chance to play outside after it warmed up a bit...

And this is Lucian after a hard day of playing with the rake and his ball....

Sahana and her Angel Leland and Lucian too