Uh Oh... Oops?

June 13, 2008

Today is Day 23 Post-Op.

I have been taking Sophie on walks around the loop of our street 1 - 2x a day. She has been doing very well. No limp, no fatigue. Three days ago we were rounding the corner for the home stretch and there were two black dogs walking in our direction. Sophie has always been a bit dog intolerant in close quarters, and at 14 months old became downright volatile. We nipped her attitude problem in the bud (feeling her oats at 14 months) and she became very well mannered and even friendly with other well mannered dogs (those who tried to dominate her got put in their place quickly).

Back to the maybe "oops"... So we round the corner and two black dogs are coming our way. Sophie lit up, rearing on her back legs and acting like a lunatic. I looped my arm under her belly to lift up her back legs and held her by the collar until the dogs passed. No sense in dragging her along past the dogs and risking tweaking the knee, and I couldn't correct her because I had a flat collar on and didn't want to yank her and do something to the knee, either. After the dogs passed, she walked to the house with a normal gait, but adrenalin can do some amazing things...

The following day she started to have a bit of a misstep and was limping again. She was favoring the unaffected leg and my boyfriend told me that she was 3-legging it when she first got out of the crate when he came home yesterday. When I came home I noticed the change in her gait right away. We went for a walk that night and her gait was better, at times back to normal, most of the time still favoring the good leg ever so slightly, but definitely better.

For this past week she has also been doing a strange thing... almost acting senile, but she is way too young to be! This happens when she is laying around, seemingly taking a nap. She does this when people are in the room and when she is totally alone. She growls. She just lays there and growls at nothing. Is this a sign of pain? She has always been SO stoic that I have a hard time blaming it on pain, especially when she has been doing so well. The only other thing I can think of, is that our young male is such a pain in her butt that she is constantly just giving out her warning to leave her alone. They used to play when she was well, but obviously now they can't. Duke has been doing a wonderful job of being a good boy and leaving her alone. This is no small feat for a 2 year old male bulldog who is on the go 24/7, wanting to play. He has had a few moments when he can't control himself and wants to play SO bad that he play bows and nuzzles/nose-punches her, but she wants nothing to do with him and growls at him for him to leave her alone, a couple times she lit up on him because he was being too much of a PITA (he absorbs all of her corrections all the time without rebuttal, but he doesn't retain information very well ). Could it be that she is just a cranky bitch and growling at Duke even when he's not near her? I don't know...

I asked on the Orthodogs group about her growling. One person suggested she might just be "protective" of her injury. In a way it makes sense. She's probably gotten used to getting her space and being treated like a queen bee post-op.

The top of Sophie's incision is puffy, like there is an air pocket at the top of her incision. It is only visible when she is standing. When she is laying down and the knee is bent, it is not visible. We have an appointment with Dr. Conrad on the 18th. Since he is a traveling surgeon, we have to wait until he comes to town to see him. That's the price you pay for going with a non-local surgeon.

An updated picture of her incision:



Sophie "helping" me cook Friendship Bread. Her bed was in the living room but she kept trying to check on me and see where I was, so I put her bed down in the kitchen and she kept me company while I baked. :)