Success!

It has been quite a while since the last update. I am very happy to say that Sophie has made a complete recovery. For the first winter after her surgery she was a bit lame some days, it seemed the cold weather (although it was not cold in the house) made her stiff or aggravated arthritis likely present in the knee. All summer and now into the fall her knee has been wonderful. She still does not seem to be symptomatic in her hips. Her unaffected knee has held up and we seem to have dodged the bullet of the good knee failing.

As you can see in the photos, she is unrestricted in her movement.




She is 6.5 years old in these photos and seems to prematurely show her age. She has definitely slowed down a little bit, but still gets crazy and playful when she feels excited. When outside she will still chase a ball for as long as I let her.


Here are a couple of videos of Sophie's gait in March 2009, nearly 1 year post-op:




We had a wonderful small summer vacation and spent a week on the beautiful Lake Sacandaga. Here are some photos:

Swimming

Swam Sophie today... The vest helps for either just holding her to tread water or guiding her around the pool. She also doesn't know how to swim, so the vest helps with that, too!

She's not really "Getting" it yet. If I'm holding her to tread water she just kicks with her front feet and her back feet are tucked up. What a dummy. The whole point of swimming her is to use the back leg!

One Month Post-Op

June 18, 2008

We had our 4 week checkup with Dr. Conrad.

Good news!! She is doing so well, he said seeing her really made his day. Dr. Conrad told me that most of the swelling is gone in the knee, and that the short walks we've been taking are good. His exact words were that she looks (and acts) as though she is 6 weeks post-op, not 4! YES! So barring any unforeseen tragedies, we won't be seeing Dr. Conrad again. It is onward and upward from here! He said that we can start our swim therapy. On-leash for one more month, then we can let her off-leash for walking around the yard. No going crazy, no "contact sports" (aka, no bulldog playtime yet).

Dr. Pike, a younger vet at the clinic came into our room while we were waiting for Dr. Conrad. Dr. Pike is a resident vet at the clinic, Dr. Conrad is a specialist who travels to the clinic regularly for clients like myself. It was nice that he came in to check on us and see how Sophie was doing. Unfortunately, we got to talking about the work Sophie used to do. In my opinion, he was unprofessional as he started to go on about how he thought that Schutzhund was a bad thing-- teaching dogs to bite arms and what-not. I maintained my cool and told him that it wasn't a personal protection kind of training, it was a sport and dogs aren't biting an arm, they're biting the sleeve which looks nothing like a human arm. It's like a big 'ol tug toy. I asked him if he had ever seen Schutzhund before. He says "yes," I ask him if he's ever seen it in person or just on video.. His answer? "No... just video." YEAH, I thought so! If he had ever seen a Schutzhund in person he would know that the dogs are having the times of their lives.

If anything, I trust a well-trained Schutzhund dog more than any other house pet. They have more control and obedience than those dogs that are running around and barking at everything because they are insecure and unstable.


Anyway, back to the topic...

Sophie is doing well. I got the all-clear from Dr. Conrad to start letting her go up and down the stairs on her own. We're going to keep it slow and I'm making sure that she is going down the stairs SLOWLY, as opposed to her idea of making the stairs the luge. I don't think I've ever used the pinch on Sophie-- she really hasn't ever needed it. However, we're on pinch for every walk now. She's just getting too excited when she sees another dog and risking the integrity of her knees. She met an American Bulldog puppy on a walk a couple days ago. SUPER sweet little girl, but she's gonna be HUGE! I think she was almost as tall as Sophie, and she's only 5 months old! Then again, Sophie is a midget. =P I ran into a good friend of mine at the vet's who was there to see Dr. Conrad with her two dogs, too. Jack, her SchH II GSD was there for a checkup because of his arthritic elbow, and Tara was her Out Of the Pits rescue who unfortunately is joining the ranks of our bum-knee dogs. Tara and Sophie had a good time saying hello to each other. Tara is the model citizen, such a great breed ambassador for the APBT's out there. It was funny seeing our two bull-breeds socializing politely, I think some of the older women there with their foofy dogs thought we were crazy. =D

This is another angle of Sophie sleeping in the game chair. She's crazy about this chair because she can curl up like a little bean in it. She was sleeping with her body in the "seat" bit, and her legs elevated and leaning against the "back" part of the chair. Does that make any sense? LOL



Sophie, what's up? Can you play yet?


PSHEW! Never Mind! Your breath STINKS!

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. :)

Day 15 Post-Op

June 5, 2008

Alright, Week 3! She has some serious atrophy going on in the affected leg. :(

She is still constantly on-leash in the house, but is allowed to move around the living room while we're watching her. I am still carrying her down the two flights of stairs twice a day for potty breaks and as soon as she does her business, we go back inside. No walks yet. I have been reading the materials posted on the Orthodogs group about post-op/rehab and there is conflicting information. Some say we are at a point where we can go on slow 10 minute walks twice a day, other info says 20 minutes, while yet other information instructs NO walking other than for elimination for 4 weeks!

Sophie is walking slowly on her leg with no limp right now. If she tries to move too quickly, she will "skip a beat" in her gait or go up on 3 legs until I slow her down. I wonder if I should take her cue and let her use the leg more or continue to hold her back. I don't want her to lose much more muscle tone if I can prevent it. That muscle helps keep the leg strong and stable.

Her hair is growing back!
Incision site:

Day 10 Post-Op

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Not too much has been happening, so I anticipate I won't be giving daily reports as often anymore.

We're in the double digits now! I guess you can call us CCL Teeny Boppers. =P

As you can see in the photo to the left, 10 days post-op and 22 days post-rupture, her thigh muscles are already pretty atrophied. The x-ray on the day of surgery showed that her affected leg was already a bit atrophied, but now it's starting to get visually skinny. She uses it and puts some weight on it, although crate rest and limited activity is obviously taking its toll. I can't wait to get the go-ahead from our doctor to begin hydrotherapy so that we may begin to rebuild muscle tone.

I took the picture while giving her a rub-down pre- and post-PROM (passive range of motion). I am still having difficulty getting a smooth range of motion out of that leg. It's like she eases up and lets me do the bicycle motion with her leg (manipulating her hip, knee, and hock joints at various times), I extend her leg all the way, begin to flex her knee and hock, but when it comes to tucking the leg in to her belly to complete the movement, she yanks her leg in. It seems like something is uncomfortable or "catching" in the knee that prevents the knee from moving fluidly. I hope it is purely a matter of being too "fresh" in the knee still and more PROM work will help to stimulate the synovial fluids in her knee and allow for improvement.

I also do PROM on the individual joints of her leg so that I may monitor and improve the range of motion in the individual joints. Currently her hip and knee have good range of motion, but her hock (ankle) is not as free as the good leg. She can not flex the hock to as acute an angle as the healthy leg.

This may seem strange since the knee is what was operated on, so let me explain...

This is the surgery performed on Sophie's knee
http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/cruciatelrt.htm
(I hope that I am not infringing on any copyrights by posting their picture here, so let me just say that this image is NOT mine and I am just displaying it in this blog to illustrate a point. The link above is the owner and original location of the image.)


This is how the tibia "thrusts" forward when the hock is flexed when the cruciate ligament is ruptured. This is the tibial compression test. What I am speculating is that while the knee is stable from the surgery, it is still causing Sophie some discomfort when the hock is flexed as the tibia tries to "thrust" forward.

Then again, I am by no means anywhere near an authority on canine orthopedics and I am just speculating as to the reasons for her impaired range of motion in the hock.

I would also like to add, that while Sophie is out with us in the living room hanging out on the floor, she is ALWAYS on leash. This is so, so important for these post-op dogs. Keep them on-leash, even if it is just attached to their collar and you are not holding it!

And last but not least, today's photos of her incision:

Day 8 Post-Op

WooHoo!! We're embarking on week TWO!

Sophie had all 13 of her staples taken out today. The vet looked at the incision site where I was having worries and said that it looks like it has healed well, just that the skin has "lipped" and so the exposed edge of the incision is what was scabbing. Now that there are no staples pulling the skin together, the edge of the incision that "lipped" is exposed and raw. I am sure that it must sting or be uncomfortable in some other way, plus I bet it is itchy as hell! So, while Sophie has been an angel about not bothering her staples, she has started to lick the incision! On goes he e-collar. She looks thrilled, no?

I put a bandaid with some neosporin on the exposed tissue. The rest of the incision looks beautiful!


The exposed "lip." It looks wet because of the neosporin.