Kristen King » lame

Ty’s Surgery Was a Complete Success

Kristen King — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:37:38 +0000

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — Tomorrow marks three weeks since Ty’s cruciate ligament surgery. He got his stitches out six days ago, and the doctor proclaimed him “the healingest dog I ever saw,” saying he was doing better at 2 weeks than most dogs were at 6 weeks.

Of course I’m one proud mommy!

He is almost back to normal, which is great except that he has three more weeks of not being able to do anything but laze around the house and go outside only on leash and only to potty and come back in. He’s bored out of his giant, giant skull, but his attitude is positive (if mischievous).

Oh, and did I mention that we’ve completely given up on trying to keep him off the furniture?

Being Separated From Ty Is Killing Pickles

Kristen King — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:05:14 +0000

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — I didn’t realize exactly how co-dependent our dogs are until Pickles couldn’t be in the same room as Ty for what seemed to her an interminable period of time. This is from the second day he was home, and it’s only gotten more pathetic:

She just sits outside the office door and cries all day when he’s in with me. I think she’s actually making herself sick with sorrow over not being able to lick Ty for cumulative hours daily. They have started napping nose to nose under the gate, but every time I try to take a picture, they move.

I tried holding her in my lap so she could see him, but she went so crazy that I had to put her back out of the room for fear that she would snag his stitches with her insane clawing to get free.

It’s kind of completely heartbreaking.

Why We’re Best Friends With the Emergency Vet

Kristen King — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:52:34 +0000

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — Ty wasn’t even home for 12 hours before we had to rush him to the emergency vet.

This dog is terrified of baby gates, so the first night he was home, we put him in my office with his e-collar on and put up a baby gate and figured he’d be just fine while we went to dinner. We locked the other dogs in the mudroom with the dog door and headed out.

When we got home, Ty met us at the door. Yeah, he jumped over the baby gate out of the office. For the first time in his life. The same day he came home from the animal hospital from major surgery. And apparently he didn’t quite clear it, because it was dangling from the door frame.

He was just as happy as could be, but we were totally freaked. We rushed him to the all-night emergency vet, convinced he had ripped open his internal sutures, where they said he was just fine and sent us home. (That would be after Jesse and I waited in the exam room for an hour snipping at each other because we were so freaked about Ty.)

No more alone in the office when we left the house!

Then, two days later, Jesse took the e-collar off to get Ty his dinner, and about two nanoseconds later, Ty licked open his stiches and was gushing blood all over the floor. Twenty minutes of hard pressure did nothing to stop the bleeding, so we wrapped him with an Ace bandage and carried him out to the car. I basically laid on top of him for the 30-minute drive to the all-night vet’s office to keep him from jumping around in the back seat.

And then we got there and he had stopped bleeding. Awesome. The vet, a different one, cleaned him up and said he didn’t even need new stitches and sent us home.

Since then, he’s made a few other attempts to thwart the baby gate, but no more bleeding, thank goodness.

This dog will be the death of me yet.

Ty Is Not Looking Forward to the Next Six Weeks

Kristen King — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:41:27 +0000

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — Ty was doing so well after his surgery that the vet sent him home a day early. Although he’s delighted to be back in the house, he’s not looking forward to spending six weeks in a crate wearing an e-collar. Good times.

Leaving the Vet’s Office After Surgery

Getting Settled In at Home

Mopey, Mopey Pre-Surgery Ty

Kristen King — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:02:47 +0000

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — The night before his surgery, Ty was very sad, partly because he couldn’t eat after 8 and he looks forward to evening treats, but mostly because he was in a lot of pain.

I got it in my head that I needed to take a lot of pictures of him Monday night in case Tuesday’s surgery didn’t go well (did I mention that I cried all night?).

Cruciate Repair: Why Ty Won’t Be Walking Much for the Next 6 Weeks

Kristen King — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:38:23 +0000

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — Mr. Bighead started holding up his right rear leg again on Friday and still couldn’t walk on it last night, so we called the vet for an appointment first thing this morning. The diagnosis: Ty has officially torn the cruciate ligament in his right knee. And I don’t mean “torn” as in tiny tear that will heal in a week or two, but “torn” as in completely severed it.

“This is one brave man,” the vet said as he examined Ty’s hurt leg. “He is in a LOT of pain.”

He arranged his schedule to be able to operate on Ty tomorrow, so we’re taking him in at 8 for surgery. And as I’m sure you can imagine, I will spend the whole day calling the vet every 15 minutes to see how it’s going. Jesse and I are totally freaking out about the thought of our big guy going under the knife, but we are trying to stay moderately sane and keep him calm so his pain levels stay as low as possible.

My poor baby…