So, I took her in to the surgery center on Thursday morning. Dr. Milton wanted to make 100% sure that Sassy's knee was messed up, so he asked to re-scope it. He wanted to do this because he examined her again on Thursday, and she wasn't limping at all. Well, as he and I both expected, Sassy's knee was messed up but not at the emergency stage. However, what makes the timing more important is that we have a real baby on the way, and we need to go ahead and get her rehabbing finished asap! So, Dr. Milton asked if I wanted a few minutes with Sassy before they took her back, and I definitely wanted that time! She was so nervous, and she was so happy to see me. I'm still not sure if seeing her was the best for her, and I'm not sure it really helped me either! That look on her face when I left the room caused me to have a complete meltdown on my way into work. I was a big ball of nerves all day Thursday, until I got the call...Sassy had done great!!!! I cried again - for her and for me!
I called Friday morning to make sure I could pick her up on Friday. The vet tech came on the phone LAUGHING! He told us that Sassy was a "big ole handful of a dog" and that she had already broken 2 e-collars. No surprise there. Her last e-collar had so much duct tape on it, it probably weighed 10 pounds! He also explained that Sassy had decided that she had had enough of her IV, so she went ahead and took it out for them. Again, no surprise there. If Sassy doesn't like something, it gets "taken care of" asap, by her. It's best for everyone when Sassy isn't left to make those decisions, but hey, sometimes she outsmarts us all!
Sassy has already started walking on her bad leg, which is awesome! We tried to hold her up with a towel under her abdomen because some dogs need that. Not our Sassy Frassy! She is a trooper! I'm amazed by her every time I'm with her. As much as she's got to be hurting, she wags her tail, rubs her head on us, and gives us countless kisses!
We've had to sort of go with the flow when it comes to spending time with her. We can't let her out of the laundry room, especially with little Eloise running around! The e-collar they sent us home with has a Velcro closure, which has been great! She only wears it in the kennel. We get up with her in the morning, let her out of the kennel, give her all of her medicines, take her e-collar off, and pet and pet and pet! We pet her before we take her outside because it calms her down significantly! Which is good because she's 91.5 pounds (see below) of bounce otherwise! We put on her leash, walk her outside, and let her stay out there as long as she wants or as long as we can be outside with her. This morning, for instance, we went out around 4:30 and stayed out there until about 4:45. Dr. Milton said to encourage her to walk around and sniff things - so we are. Then we go inside, get her food ready, sit with her while she eats, and then have one last major pets and kisses session before she gets the e-collar back on and she goes back in her kennel. She gets her medicine 3 times a day, so we've decided to go through this process (including feeding her) 3 times a day. She's used to eating twice a day, but it seems to be working well because she doesn't want to eat that much at one time. So, at least 3 times a day, we get her out and she gets to move around for about 30 minutes. We also get her out for a quick bathroom trip before bed and before we go anywhere, but she's usually not really interested. It's a lot of time out of our days, but it is well worth it. When she's running at top speed in a year and leaping for tennis balls, I will look back on this time and know that I would gladly have taken even more time to get my little girl back to tip-top shape!
Speaking of food, Sassy has refused to eat her own food, but she has fallen in LOVE with Eloise's food. Unfortunately, she can't eat all of Eloise's food, but we let her eat a few bowls just to get her eating. We bought her some soft food that goes with her hard food yesterday, and that seems to be going over relatively well. We've had some trouble with getting the e-collar back on Sassy. But, Pup-peroni to the rescue! We tell her she's getting treats, and she about puts the e-collar on herself! Thank goodness for Pup-peroni! Our lives would be a lot more difficult without it! She has lost 3.5 pounds since she initially went in for an evaluation a few weeks ago. Since her activity as been restricted, she hasn't been eating as much. Which is good because we've had to reduce her food by 1/3 to avoid gaining weight. Apparently, we need to get her to eat a little more! She's 91.5 pounds now. Still a big girl, but we don't want her to lose too much weight!
So, here are some pictures of Sassy. The first ones are after the first scoping of her knees. You can see the little patches of hair shaved off. Her hair is beautiful, so I was a little sad. Little did I know that was just the start! Please excuse the "junk" shoved around in our laundry room, we've had to get everything out of Sassy's way, so things are pushed around! I've also put some pictures on here of the night before the surgery. You'll notice that she's sitting with her bad leg tucked under her - classic sign apparently. Thanks for checking on us!
