Cooper's Journey

Yesterday was the big day for Cooper getting his stitches out! It went pretty good. He was able to get in and out of my vehicle without assistance . The girls at the vet were great , they had to soak a few of the stitches to get them, and they cleaned up and lightly scrubbed away alot of the dried blood. There is one little flap that did not close on the top of the skin, it’s closed underneath, they considered putting a stich in there, but decided not to. It is in front , where the two incision lines meet. Hoping that closes over in the next few days. I have decided to keep him wearing his bandages for the next week , just to prevent infection and to keep him from chewing and licking. He wants to lick it all so bad! They said his incision is healing great.

Behaviour wise he is back to himself, he got in my daughters bed a few nights ago, first time since surgery. To my horror , he jumped up on the trampoline two nights ago, I try to tell him he has got to go easy on the one front paw he has left. He is doing the bigger stairs again, 9 stairs, he is very cautious going down, and coming back up is easy for him. He only used three paws coming up before the surgery. And last night , after the stitches were out, he was. Back to playing , ear chewing , and played with a toy for a bit. He still sleeps a lot, don’t get up when I do most days, but he was like that before surgery too. A couple of mornings ago, I had to take the kids to swimming lessons, and he would not get out of bed to go outside. I actually had to bring the cone to him and put it on in bed. I still will use the cone for a few days when I go out, I hate to do it , but don’t want to come home to a bad ssurprised cant believe he came home two weeks ago, and all we have gone thru. Summer is flying by a little to fast. I’m hoping I can start leaving him home for longer periods of time, so I can take the kids out to do some fun things and enjoy there summer. They have been great in loving him and being gentle. My son loved to wrestle him before the surgery, and he knows to be more gentle now. They are always telling Cooper that he is their best friend and how cute he with three legs.

Cooper tore his bandage off two days ago when I went out, and got at his stitches, it was red and saggy when I got home. So I redid his bandage and hoped it would go back to normal. And tried to not worry. Well I just changed his bandage again, and it looks good!! What a relief. I finally got a picture of his incision. It looks to be healing good. He is off his pain meds now, and still on antibiotics. He  seems to be getting around pretty good, sleeping a nice bit. All in all, no worries right now. He has been sleeping in my bed the last two nights, even after me trying to encourage him to use his bed on the floor. Stitches come out this Friday. And when I go out now, he is wearing his cone so this doesn’t happen again

Well, a week has gone by since Cooper has been home. These last couple of days have been ok, each day a little better than the one before. My husband went back to work Wednesday, I was a little apprehensive about that, but I haven’t had any major problems. I had to do my first bandage change yesterday, with the help of a friend it was ok. There was a small piece of bandage stuck in the incision that I tried to get, it it pulled the skin so I left it. I will try again tomorrow. I am celebrating every pee, every drink still. Yesterday he meet me at the door when I came home, first time in ages. I have been leaving him by himself for a couple of hours the last two days. Cooper was happy to have a visitor yesterday. He is off the metacam now, and I think the tramadol runs out today . I am still keeping the bandages on, when changing it yesterday he went right for the stitches, trying to lick. He is a little more alert every day.

I have not got a picture of his incision yet, its always just changing his bandage as quick as possible.

This has been hard, especially day 4 & 5 , but I have been holding it together. I thought I would be a mess, especially seeing him right after surgery for the first time, but I think I have been handling it good. The first tears since surgery was today, and that was more remembering the loss of the dog that came before him.

So today was slightly better than yesterday, I mean only the tiniest bit. Cooper went for the one hour drive to the vet this morning, he was able to get out for a pee first! YEah! the vet said they couldn’t see anything wrong with his private parts, except for a fly bite.  He may have pulled a muscle or something . That’s what we were most worried about. His incision is looking good, a small seroma, nothing to worry. They gave him a few more days of tramadol and of the antibiotic. So this all helped relieve some stress. They just said he is in pain from his surgery and needs time to heal.

after a few hours of sleep, he made his way outside and did his business and had a drink, so again , positive steps. He hasn’t moved since. He is not eating, except to take his pills. He has been crying, but a little less than yesterday. He didn’t move for about 6 hours.  This is hard, and I agree with what people have said about the first few days giving a false hope about how good they are doing. There have definitely been times today and yesterday I regret doing the surgery. To see him not moving and crying and hurting is horrible. But I have to believe it will get better in the days to come

Today was by far the worse day, we seem to be on a decline. Cooper hurt himself last night, he made a jump for food in my daughters hand , and cried so bad. Most horrible sound. Tis morning he cried and dribbled on the floor when he got up, has not gone pee the rest of the day. We seen him have one small drink. He has been crying a lot today when he moves, he had a visitor and did not move from the couch . We also noticed some swelling in his groin area, so I am pretty sure he is heading back to the vet in the morning for a check..

Dad was suppose to go back to work in the morning, he is staying home an extra day. I am so not comfortable being home alone with Coop with all this crying.

Hoping to see him come around tomorrow. This is heart breaking today.

Cooper has been doing well. We  were able to get him to relax a lot yesterday and today. The first night there was not much resting, he was too happy to be home.We have been doing a few bandage changes, there seemed to be a lot of drainage. He is getting around well, turns out I did not have to worry about the stairs. We put his cone on last night at 230 , he was licking , and he had a hard time getting comfortable after that. I think he was frustrated, so he jumped upon the bed. He seemed a little nervous about getting down, but he did it. The only thing that concerns me, is he is not peeing much. He only went once yesterday, 830 at night, and hasn’t gone at all today.

we just did a fresh bandage change, he wasn’t leaking fluid as we were changing it as he has been previously. Anyone have any input about keeping the bandage on vs not wearing one? Not sure what is best

cooper has also been using his head for support/balance as you can see in the pic below

Cooper had his surgery yesterday, and came home from the vet today. He just got home an hour ago. He came in the house jumped up on me, ran up the three stairs to the living room, three more to the kitchen, and ran in to drink out of the toilet, come still on. Well I was shocked. I was expecting drugged up, and barely moving. Not at all what I got. He ate a piece of steak, 20 min later he went out to pee and poop, and then came in and ate his kibble food. So he has ate, drank , and went to the bathroom! All in the first hour. He jumped up on the couch and tried to chase the cat. I only hope we can get him to slow down so he doesn’t hurt himself.

The vet said he was up walking last night , went for a pee. I guess he had a little trouble with this, they said he fell over. But he has it figured out today, he centred his front paw.

Well, Cooper is having the best day of his life playing on the slip n slide with the kids . It is hot today, and they are trying to keep cool. He also learned to jump up on the trampoline with the kids, which makes me a bit nervous as I don’t want him getting hurt. However, it’s not like I can stop him. Enjoying life with 4 legs for a few more days.   He is stealing hats and rolling around with the kids

 

Cooper got a new bed today, normally he sleeps on the furniture or the floor . I am hoping to get him use to sleeping in his new bed, and maybe get him another  one for some of his favorite places so he can be super comfortable after surgery.I imagine he won’t be to happy if he can’t get on the couch and bed like he is use to.
His amputation is scheduled for next Thursday. Part of me wants it to just happen because I am sick of worrying about his recovery. His dad will be home to bring him in and to help me take care of him after his surgery for about 4 days, then I am on my own for 4 weeks and I am scared. I know that you can’t predict how he will do, only time will tell. He is 67 lbs , so I can’t lift him. I don’t know what to do about the stairs, we will not be able to avoid stairs in my house. There are two or three stairs to get to the different rooms, as well as to get outside. And the only cool room (the basement) is down 8 or 9 stairs!


I am trying to prepare the kids for what cooper is going to go thru. We have looked at some videos and pictures of tripawds. I want them to see that he will still be able to play and that the it may look scary at first but with time the fur will regrow and it will be ok. The thought of cooper having three legs was scary, but they said they will still love him .

 

this was a few days ago, I thought I had posted but had saved the post as a draft. Lol. Still getting use to this blog stuff

I got Cooper , my beautiful golden retriever in October 2013. He was 3 months old.  I quickly realized within the next day or two that he had an injured paw. The pad on his foot was broke open and you could notice that he did not have full mobility in the wrist part of his paw. The vet said it was crushed , but we would see how he grew into it. As winter came and went , Cooper’s pad of his foot healed in the one spot and broke open in his toe. The cold weather and ice made it break open and bleed every time he went outdoors. We tried booties  to protect the wound, he tore them off. With spring coming I expected the wound to close and heal. Instead his toe became swollen and he licked the paw a lot. We took him to the vet , who said he had an infection. He does not use his paw much, he comes up the stairs with his bad paw held close to his chest, and when running and playing the bad leg sometimes flaps to the side. He also said we were possibly looking at amputation of the toe or leg. I honestly didn’t know if this was something I could do. I felt devastated that my beautiful boy could possibly lose a leg. I didn’t know if he could have a good quality of life.  After a lot of research i am trying to convince myself that he can have a wonderful life, free of the pain he has had in that leg since he was three months old.

 

Yesterday I took Cooper back to the vet for X-rays after he took his antibiotics for 3 weeks. The X-ray confirmed his foot was beyond repair, so his amputation of the front leg is scheduled in two weeks.