Bogie's story

Owner: Jennifer E-mail: jc@cmi-ins.com Date posted: January 20, 2001 Mister B "sunning" himself on our putting green. Look at that poor furry foot! (Two weeks post-TPLO) My dog Bogie, a.k.a. "Mr. B", is an eight year old Black Lab/Samoyed mix. He has been diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia and had recently been limping around more than usual. I am unable to give him Rimadyl because of a past terrible reaction (vomiting enormous amounts of blood) so my vet gave him a steroid shot. Bogie felt much better and a week later we celebrated by going to the park. He chased a squirrel and began shrieking in pain, lifting his left rear leg. I called the vet and he said wait a couple of days to see if it improved. It did not, and he returned to the vet for another steroid shot. Still no improvement. The vet then x-rayed and examined again and realized he had a torn cruciate. I saw the specialist today, who recommended TPLO surgery for Bogie. He warned me of the high risk of his other leg tearing. This has been devastating, as Mr. B is my whole world. He has been with me close to 24 hours a day, every day since he was a pup. Never kenneled. I have gotten my condo ready for this. I built a ramp with the help of a guy at Home Depot (who thinks I am crazy). I also laid sod on my terrace for him to go potty since the courtyard outside is way too far to go. OPERATION DAY: Finally three weeks after the squirrel chase, Mr. B has TPLO surgery. They put a bandage/cast-like contraption on his leg. This worried me, as I could not easily tell if there was swelling. And since he can't take Rimadyl, I assume he would have more than the average pup. The only good thing is, I don't have to worry about him licking the incision. And it makes me feel like the leg is more stable. It is hard for him to maneuver getting up and down with that big ol' thing though. He is very agitated if I go in his presence, therefore I have locked him alone in my bedroom. Poor guy. DAY 2 POST OP: He has remained sacked out in my bathroom for 24 hours straight, aside from a few trips to potty and LOTS of water breaks. He stands there and just stares pathetically at me every once in a while. The morphine patch is due to run out today sometime, but hopefully things will continue to run smoothly. Oh, and pooping is not a fun sight to watch. He has a routine that consists of circling round and round until he finally goes. Try that with a huge cast and three unsteady legs. Yet he still insists!!! I cringe at the sight of that back leg twisting in circles. Yikes. DAY 6 POST OP: Well, Mr. B got his cast off yesterday. His knee is surprisingly looking very good. Not much swelling, and not much bruising. He is not using it at all yet. That is fine with me, I think I will be very scared to witness his use of that leg. I got the OK from the surgeon to begin rehab, so I am going to start tomorrow if they can fit me into the schedule. His "good" leg is starting to make a clicking sound, which is what occurred with the bad leg prior to the final tear. I am watching it fearfully. Mr. B is beginning the "stir-crazy" stage of this. He is pacing a bit and sometimes I get frustrated and firmly say "lay down" and he looks at me so sad -- he drops his head and looks so depressed. I'm not sure rehab will be exactly a "fun" experience, but at least it will break up the monotony of the day ... (car ride, leave the house, pass the time, maybe tire him out?) DAY 9 POST OP: Well, Mr. B did great at his first physical therapy session. The therapist was very knowledgeable and kind. She was impressed with his rate of healing thus far. Not much swelling and his incision is almost healed. Stitches are removed this Thursday, and then we will begin hydrotherapy, which she says is the most beneficial of all. So far Mr. B doesn't use the leg, other than the occasional toe touch. I'm hoping he will start using it ASAP, just in case of the worst case scenario -- the other leg going. DAY 12 POST OP: Mr. B was so good at his second P.T. Session today. In fact, now he has remembered that HE HAS A LEG, and is starting to touch it down every step. Poor guy hasn't used it since that ill fated squirrel chase. DAY 14 POST OP: The vet removed his stitches today and said the incision looked totally healed and to go forward with hydrotherapy! Yea! Mister B "hiding" under the dining room table. Judging from the cast color (he had 3), this is right after the staph infection, probably 3.5 - 4 weeks post-TPLO. DAY 15 POST OP: Well, Mr.B was doing great yesterday, but today he is quite agitated. He is not using the leg at all. I think he may be sore from physical therapy on Tuesday. The therapist really worked his muscles good with the electrostimulator. I'm hoping that is all that is wrong?? He looks like he may be in pain, so I called the surgeon. He said he wouldn't be concerned with him not using the leg at just over 2 weeks post op. I put a frozen bag of broccoli on his knee for a few minutes for swelling and will do so later today again. LATER THAT NIGHT: We have had a setback. Mr.B continued to worsen and became very hot. He had a temp of 105. My regular vet (thank god he gave me his home number) told me to give him a buffered aspirin and soak him in wet towels. This brought the fever down to 103. I gave him a sedative. I think he either has a staph infection or problem with the plate?? The site is swollen and hot. I love how these things happen on the weekend. Hopefully my regular vet will be able to provide adequate care, being he isn't the TPLO vet. DAY 19 POST OP: After a terrifying weekend, I finally get to see the TPLO surgeon. He seems very concerned. He said this isn't consistent with anything he's seen. He kept Mr. B in the hospital and is going to x-ray, and pull some fluid out for culture to figure out what is wrong. He said he may need to stay in the hospital for a few days. I am heartbroken and distraught. LATER THAT AFTERNOON: The doctor called me this afternoon and said there were a lot of pus pockets and that he needed to aggressively clean out the area. He put in a drainage tube and re-bandaged the leg. They currently have Mr. B on IV antibiotics and will keep him hospitalized at least until tomorrow. They'll change the bandage and re-assess his condition in the morning. He is perplexed. I asked if it was a seroma. He said it was a bit more serious than that. He was happy to see that the x-rays showed no sign of structural damage. That was his fear. The biopsy of the fluid culture will take 48 hours and will likely not lead him any closer to a cause of this. I can't help but wonder what caused this. His incision was never bothered and healed beautifully and swelling was always minimal. Why at day 14 did things start to go so wrong? DAY 20 POST OP: I am happy to report that Mr. B is home with his Mommy. The verdict is still out on what caused this. They sent me home with amoxicillin and baytril. I am supposed to go back on in two days for bandage/drain change and checkup. He may have the bandage/cast back on for awhile as well -- yuck. It always gets in the way and makes his leg contort in all kinds of ugly ways. But I am happy happy happy because I have him home with me and he appears to be painfree. I think draining all of the fluid relieved him of pain. DAY 21 POST OP: Well, the surgeon called me this morning to tell me that the lab results showed a staph infection growing. He is still uncertain how this happened so far out in recovery. He thinks either something entered through the incision prior to it being completely healed, or worst case from the plate, possibly requiring removal. I'm praying for his recovery from this through the use of antibiotics and not plate removal. I have no idea what would come of such a thing, as that's the only thing keeping his leg together! Mister B taking care of business in our makeshift yard, about two weeks post-TPLO January 12: I just got back from the clinic. They removed the bandage and examined the leg. Apparently, the swelling is receeding and the leg is no longer hot. They decided to keep the drain in and put a new cast on until Monday. Then they'll remove it for good and stitch him up if everything continues to be ok. Luckily, they only opened up about 1 1/2 inches of the incision. They said they were going to put him on cephalexin and hope that it works. They said they wanted to reserve the more potent antibiotics for down the road if needed. According to them, this should work and they wouldn't want resistance to build up to the high powered drugs. Seems somewhat logical, yet I hope it is aggressive enough. This isn't to be taken too lightly. January 15: The intern said the area is looking great and they are optimistic that the antibiotics are working!!! MrB seems to be feeling great! All in all things are looking positive. I continue to pray for his full recovery from this. Thursday is the 4 week mark, so if we can get through this without plate problems we're half way to bone healing! January 17: Mr.B got his cast off for good today!!! The leg is looking pretty good. 2-3 more weeks of antibiotics and hopefully that will be it. The intern told me to make sure he starts using the leg in the next few days and if he isn't to call them. She encouraged me to start the physical therapy sessions back up in a couple days. He toe-touched all the way from the car to my condo, so that is a good sign. Now I just have to keep him calm and away from the area that had the drain. It's not quite healed.