FitzpatrickLand!

Today was a great day in the land of Romeo.

I was worried about how much his incision was still oozing – we’re at one week post surgery and his drain is still in and he is soaking his bandaging each day. The bigger worry though was the possible problem with his back leg.

Yesterday it became even more noticeable that Romeo wasn’t using his back left leg the same way he was using the right leg. He was slower to put weight on the left when he got off the couch and his gait just seems weird.

So we scheduled a trip to the vet for a recheck. Trent got Romeo in the car himself and I met them at the clinic. (If I haven’t mentioned it, I love my husband more than I can explain for taking the week off work to help with Romeo’s recovery.)

Apparently Romeo walked with spring in his step to head to the car when it was time to leave home. Well, actually first he headed for where my car is usually parked and then looked confused since it was at work with me.

After not wanting to get out of the car at the vet and finally being convinced to join us, Romeo got to show off his moves for the clinic staff. Last time they saw him, he was relying on people to help him walk anywhere and he was uncomfortable and cranky.

Today he showed them that he can hop across the parking lot and explore the lawn and even pee without anyone’s help. It was very impressive.

We actually did his whole exam outside since Romeo had much better traction on the grass than he would have on the linoleum inside.

So we learned that his left leg isn’t painful and is most likely strange since that’s how a three legged Romeo is compensating for a missing front leg. There is still a chance something is up, but for now we’re good.

As for the ooze, we unbandaged Romeo and the vet checked out his incision. We got a thumbs up. Everything still looks good – no infection – but Monday the drain needs to come out. So our job is to help him drain more. We’ll try unbandaging him now and then and making him stand up; this usually makes all sort of fun stuff come out. This will be done outside. I’m fine with cleaning up messes in the house, but there is a limit.

While we were all looking and poking and prodding, Romeo seemed chilly. Even though the sun was out, it definitely wasn’t warm today. Poor Romeo has no hair on a large chunk of his side, so without his bandage I’m sure he was cold. Even with all of his hair, this dog is a wimp about the cold.

When we were done and Romeo was rebandaged, we headed back to the car. He got a good trot going, the fastest I have seen so far from Mr Hopalong. I was sad to have missed a video of it since it was pretty amazing.

On top of the good news from the vet, Trent reported that Romeo was even more himself today. Romeo spent some time sitting up on the couch, looking out the window, one of his normal pastimes.

I’m so relieved our big guy is headed the right direction!

We have a winner! Incontinence pads are now my favorite bandaging material. They’re thick and cushy and have great absorption.

I picked up a pack of 42 at WalMart for about $10. The other pads I bought didn’t come close to the padding that these gave. I only used six on today’s bandage, so a week of bandaging material for $10 – I’m happy.

In yesterday’s bandage, most of his ooze went into just one of the pads, but the others gave him nice protection from his clumsiness and caught any “runoff”.

The other great thing about these is that Romeo doesn’t smell like a dog with an oozy bandage. Anyone who has smelled a ripe bandage knows the unpleasantness of being around one. Extra points for odor control.

Next time I have an oozy dog to bandage, I know what I’ll be stocking up on. Well, unless it’s Julio; one pad is about as big as his entire body. Julio can have a cotton ball.

The bandaging process is still getting easier each day. Romeo doesn’t mind it and Trent is great as my lovely assistant.

Romeo is still oozing a lot, which may or may not be normal. He’s a huge dog and he had a lot of stuff removed from his body, leaving lots of dead space that can fill up with fluid. Romeo’s drains are still doing their job and the fluid is making its way out, which is good. Since he has been home, I may not have been bandaging him tightly enough which could be why he’s still so drippy.

We’re on the way to the vet tomorrow to check this out and to see if we can figure out what’s going on with Romeo’s back leg. Starting yesterday it became more noticeable that Romeo is walking strangely on it.

Not being used to how a Great Dane with only three legs moves could make everything about Romeo’s walk seem strange. But it seems like something else is going on. He doesn’t put weight on his back left foot as readily and it just seems to be at an odd angle. Maybe it’s all from him compensating for the missing front leg. But it has me worried.

Hoping to learn more tomorrow.

Romeo had a mostly mellow day today. Trent said that Romeo spent even more of today sleeping. I think yesterday’s backyard adventures and this morning’s wake up call were exhausting.

The unexpected excitement of this morning interrupted everyone’s sleep. At 6am our next door neighbor’s house was raided by the SWAT team. We were awakened by the flashbang used when the police entered the house. The light, the loud boom, and the leaping Great Dane who landed on me brought an end to my morning of sleeping in. At least Romeo didn’t seem bothered by the police who were next door for most of the morning.

We all took a nap after the initial commotion and then began the morning routine.

Today’s bandaging wasn’t as gracefully completed as yesterday’s but we managed. Today’s bandage was blue, the last of the colors I bought. Starting tomorrow Romeo will have to repeat a color. And with only six rolls of vet wrap in reserve it’s time to head to Wilco for more.

After removing the old bandage, I got to have a close look at Romeo’s incision and finally count his staples. How many did you guess? I was way off. I know he’s a big dog and he has a big incision, but I wouldn’t have guessed that he had 83 staples!?! Those are going to take a while to remove.

His incision still looks amazing and just because I’m so happy with it, I’m posting another incision pic at the end of this post. Don’t scroll all the way down if you want to skip it :)

Today’s milestones:

• As mentioned above, the flying leap onto the bed.
• Romeo held himself up for a full 55 seconds while he peed. He didn’t do his previous trick of slowly lowering into practically a sitting position while peeing. This dog can pee forever.
• He finally pooed! After eating normally since coming home and not pooping since he’s been home, this was a big accomplishment. And he managed not to fall over while squatting.
• He is starting to get some of his personality back. This evening he demanded to be covered with a blanket before he would settle.
• Julio started to lick one of Romeo’s eyes this evening. Along with ear cleaning, this is a normal ritual for them but Julio hadn’t done it since Romeo got back from the vet’s.

So overall, I’m thrilled with how well Romeo is doing and can’t wait to see what he does next.

As promised/forewarned, here is Romeo’s incision 4 days after surgery:

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:)

Yesterday’s milestone happened early in the day. Romeo had been sleeping on the dog bed on the floor next to our bed. He decided he was ready for a change of scenery and got up by himself took the few hops to the bed, jumped up and laid on the bed. (Just to clarify, our mattress and box spring are on the ground so the bed is at Romeo’s chest height.)

A few things about this were impressive. First, this was the first time since he had been home that he had gotten to a standing position without our encouragement. And second, usually when he gets up on the bed he has been landing on his face. But this time he seemed to know where his legs were going and settled down in a controlled manner.

I thought today’s milestone was going to be when Romeo got off one of the dog beds by himself and walked to the back door all by himself. I wasn’t even standing next to him. It was very impressive.

I helped him out the back door and down the step, held him up while he peed and gave him a fresh bowl of water. I assumed that after drinking, he’d be ready to go back inside to sleep.

I was wrong and I got to see his next accomplishment. Without me even standing near him, Romeo walked to the far end of our back yard, meandered around, ate a little grass, laid in the sun and seemed to be enjoying himself.

He did have some stumbles but tends to catch himself with his chin instead of his healing “shoulder” which is nice for his incision but not for his chin. This dog needs a chin guard. Thankfully the dirt is at least a little cushy.

For almost ten minutes, Romeo hung around and wandered the backyard, all without any help from me. Here’s some proof:

He’s getting the hang of this :)

While poking around on tripawds.com, Trent and I found a harness they recommend for helping dogs up stairs, into cars, etc.

It was originally designed for search and rescue dogs, but is great for helping amputees when they aren’t steady.

We ordered ours online Wednesday, the night before Romeo’s surgery. The confirmation email I received was so nice. It didn’t just say the usual “here’s your confirmation number.” It gave us other tips and tricks to help manage the challenges of surgery recovery and shared links to other resources for three legged dogs. I was impressed.

I was even more impressed when the harness arrived on Saturday morning, less than twelve hours after we brought Romeo home. We got the red one since Romeo looks very dapper in red.

For now Romeo is wearing it over his bandages and we have been unclipping the straps when he’s not walking around so it won’t rub on his incision.

The handle is nice and makes it much easier to walk him alone. The bag/sling is nicer when you want two people to be able to help him since you each have your own handle. But now that he is getting a bit more comfortable, it’s easier for one person to manage him.

This morning I discovered that the harness has reflective strips and that the camera’s flash shows them off nicely.

Today is my day to babysit our big dog. Yesterday I was out and about, leaving Trent to take care of Romeo by himself.

In the morning I helped set up at Heartland’s auction Wine & Whiskers and in the evening I got to go to this great event.

Trent managed by himself and I hope my day goes as smoothly.

Trent helped with the bandage change this morning. I think we are figuring this out. Today this was accomplished with much less flailing from Romeo and much less stress on our backs. And it even looks ok!

Red for today. What will tomorrow be?

I’ll spare you today’s picture of his incision. But it still looks very good.

My plan for the day – lots of laundry. You go through a lot of blankets with an oozy and slightly incontinent big dog. I’m not sure what’s causing the incontinence at this point, but he’s just a little leaky. Tucking a piddle pad under him when he settles is working well so far.

Romeo was very alert when Trent was getting ready to leave this morning. He even hopped up from the dog bed and took a few steps so he could get closer to be bedroom door so he could see what was up. When I stood by him, he hopped more and made it into the living room but just as far as we have rugs on the floor. Hardwood floors aren’t his friend.

Once Trent left, Romeo turned around and hopped back to bed. He did a face-plant landing on the dog beds but managed to resettle with a little help and is now exhausted.

After one of this morning’s potty walks…

Today is our first full day at home with our patient. Last night all we managed to do was feed him dinner, take him outside twice and watch him sleep. Today is the real test.

Last night Romeo woke up around 1:00am and 4:30am. He seemed antsy both times and we took him outside for a potty break. He wasn’t super interested but did drink water. At the 4:30 wake up call, he got his next round of pain meds and we all napped again until 7:30. (As a side note, Trent and I are not cut out to have our sleep interrupted – raising children would not be pleasant.)

Another round of potty walks and an attempt at breakfast later, I headed out to run errands. It was time to stock up on vet wrap. Conveniently, Wilco has vet wrap on sale for the whole month and has a huge supply.

When I got back home it was time to attempt the first bandage change. When I took the old bandage off, I got my first view of his incision and the drain. It looked great and Romeo didn’t care that I messed with it to clean off some dried goo.

For all of my animal friends – especially Annie – the picture of his incision is at the bottom of this post. Do not scroll down all the way if you don’t want to see my FrankenDog. Don’t worry, I’ll give you plenty of warning.

I did forget to count the staples this time, so you still have time to get in on the bet.

The rebandaging process was going to be tricky since I needed Romeo standing for enough time for me to wrap and wrap and wrap around his chest.

To save time I premade his “bandage” out of an old towel and an assortment of pads.

The incontinence pads seemed to be the winners since they were the biggest and thickest, but I used a mix of all three kinds I bought.

Trent tried to get Romeo upright for me so I could wrap him. With some canned food and many breaks between wraps, we finally got the bandage attached to the dog.

My bandaging skills leave much to be desired, but I think it is at least functional.

Purple yesterday. Green today. What will tomorrow bring?

An old towel, ten pads, two rolls of vet wrap and a square foot of cast padding later, we were done. After this undertaking, Romeo was exhausted.

Halfway through the afternoon and his bandage is still going strong, so I’m pretty happy.

That’s it for now.

Ok, so if you want to see my FrankenDoggy…

…please…

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If not,…

…you…

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…you.

Before picking Romeo up yesterday I took care of the last few things to hopefully get the house ready for our oozy boy.

Being prepared for the fact that a big dog would have big oozing, I did what I could to protect the house. Romeo isn’t allowed on our nice couch, so I wasn’t worried about it. But the dog couch didn’t deserve to be soaked in yuck, so it got nice layers of blankets.

Dante testing out the newly decorated dog couch

Not knowing if we’d have to confine him, we brought Romeo’s crate downstairs so it would be ready for use just in case.

Boris and Nugget testing out Romeo's crate

After hearing how many pads the vet used in making Romeo’s bandage and knowing it needed to be changed every day, I headed out to the store last night to stock up on maxi pads. I wasn’t sure which brand was known for being the best to use for Great Dane surgery recovery, so I got a variety. I even found incontinence pads. They seemed extra cushy.

While I was at the store, I also picked up ice cream since both Trent and I were craving dessert. Checking out at the store with ice cream and lots of feminine products definitely sends a message, just not usually one saying “our dog just had major surgery, we need bandaging materials, we’re stressed out and ice cream helps us cope.”

I used the self check out.