We are NOT going to make it!

Shelby is going to be the death of me! Or, if not the death of me, definitely the cause of at least an ulcer.

I don't think the sedatives they gave us are enough and I have expressed my concern about this to the office but they keep giving me alternatives instead of Oking a higher dose or prescribing something more. The problem is that Shelby won't keep the e-collar on when we are not home and when we do let her out of the kennel she still has so much energy and wants to run and play. The problem with her not keeping her e-collar on is that I was worried that she would mess with the bandage over her stiches and yesterday all of my fears came true. Not only did she get the e-collar off again, but she ate the string that ties it on, making it useless, AND she pulled the bandage off her stiches. So now she is at home with only the measly sedative they prescribed and nothing keeping her from picking at her stiches! AHH! I just want to make it to Monday when she gets the stitches out!

Even after she gets the stiches out on Monday we are not out of the clear. The doctor said that the first 4 weeks are the most crucial, but that total recovery time should really be 8 weeks....we can't even make it through the first week!

It's a good thing she is so cute....

Sliced and Diced

Our sweet girl Shelby had surgery yesterday.

She has always had problems with her hind legs and in recent months it just seems to have gotten worse and worse, to the point she couldn't bear weight at all on her right rear leg. We took her in for a consult and were told what we already knew, that she would need surgery. So yesterday she had a femoral plateau leveling osteotomy along with some other stuff that I can't remember the name of. Her main diagnosis was a medial luxating patella, but they had concerns about her femur being curved that were confirmed when they got into surgery which lead to the leveling.

It seems, as odd as it may sound, that the easy part is over. The hard part will be the at least 8 weeks of recovery time. Dr. Keller (who looks EXACTLY like my uncle and is so sweet) said that for the first 4 weeks she needs to "be a rug"...yea. I go today to pick her up at around 3 and I am sooo nervous and scared for the next chapter. If she doesn't stay still and calm for at least these next 4 weeks she could cause the screws and plate in her lower femur to break out of the bone which I'm sure will cause a lot of pain, and another surgery.

Please keep your fingers crossed and send up a prayer for us, we are going to need all the help we can get!