Thursday, August 16, 2012

Dog Daze

In an earlier post I briefly mentioned that one of our flea-bitten freeloaders beloved pet canines had suffered the doggie equivalent of a torn ACL. Yesterday we had it surgically repaired. The process involves replacing the shredded ligament with, of all things, high-test fishing line. It also involves putting the animal under general anesthesia, shaving her leg from hip to toenails, and cutting a four inch incision along her leg.

The procedure went well, at least according to the vet. She's on pain meds and is pretty well doped up for the next few days. She's also not able to walk on it for a couple of days, which means you-know-who gets to carry her outside when it's time to take care of business. Funny how the we-promise-to-take-care-of-them brigade vanishes around that time.

She doesn't weigh that much - around 40 pounds or so. That's about the same weight as the duffel bag I lugged around on our recent trips. The difference is the mutt doesn't have handles or wheels, so it's a little more awkward. I also get to hold her up while she 'performs,' something I never had to do with my luggage.

The bandage stays on for 10 more days, then it's two more weeks of restricted activity. Finally, about four weeks after the surgery, she'll be allowed to resume normal activity.

Here's what she looked like right after surgery. She was still pretty groggy, so we held off putting on her Cone of Shame until she's a little more awake.


On a related note, both of our flea-bitten freeloaders beloved pet canines have long hair. We give them haircuts in the summer to help them cool off and to reduce the amount of shed hair floating around the house. I get a kick out of it because I swear they're embarrassed the first few days after they get trimmed. Here's the before and after pictures.



Okay, enough about the dogs. Normal blogging will resume shortly.

4 comments:

Pascvaks said...

Random thoughts:

Think maybe the haircut explains why poodles act so strange? (Well I always thought they were 'strange', not like a real dog.) The rich Hollywood ones are always getting their hair cut and they're really strange.

"There's a market for everything" -- wonder where the cut hair market is - seems like such a waste to put it in landfills. Delaware? DuPont must need it for some reaction or other. What's the tanning industry do with all that cow hair? You don't suppose they sell it to the meat packers as filler do you.

Wouldn't 10% dog hair lined winter gloves be better than 100% 'rabbit' hair lined gloves? I mean Men's gloves, not the other kind. Wouldn't we all spend a hell of a lot more for a pair of winter work gloves lined with 10% Sheepdog Fur, 15% St Bernard Fur, or 30% Pit Bull Fur? the rest could be cow fur or even rabbit;-) Just think what you could charge for 50% Coyote fur lined gloves. You don't think it would endanger the species do you?

JT said...

It's funny how soon you will forget the strain of carrying the dog out and taking care of her post-op. That vet bill might remind you for a bit, though.

Old NFO said...

Glad that she has a 'helper'... And we WILL do amazing things for our pets!

CenTexTim said...

Pascvaks - two words: mattress stuffing.

Harper - Oh, I won't forget. I'll be reminding the wife and kids about it for years. "Remember when I..."

NFO - Our dogs are like members of the family. They're just like the kids. Lay around all day, eat their weight in food, leave messes behind, whine a lot ... you get the idea.