I Am A Cranky Old Man
The dogs and I participated in the Furry Scurry today… it’s a 2-mile charity walk for the Denver Dumb Friends’ League. I was concerned about Lucy’s stamina since we were only taking walks for the week prior to the event, but she was a trooper. She even walked without her boot. Was she tired after the walk? Hell yes.
We visited Dr. Stubbs again today and he removed the bandage. He also said Lucy was okay for short walks around the neighborhood and a little activity, but certainly she needed more recuperation time. She’s done well so far on our walks.. we’re working our way up to two miles for the Denver Dumb Friends’ League Furry Scurry charity walk event.
I took Lucy to her veterinary surgeon today and he said that since there’s about 2° range of motion in her leg, she likely fractured the fused part of her leg. He says that the section of bone should knit back together shortly though, and he didn’t even replace the splint. She’s only wearing a soft bandage at the moment and walking on her injured leg.
We’re scheduled to go back on Thursday morning for another follow-up.
It’s now Wednesday afternoon and I have not heard anything back from Lucy’s surgeon.
Lucy is starting to put a little bit of weight on her leg now so I guess she just sprained or strained something over the weekend. I have to “guess” since the dumbass vet hasn’t called me yet.
Lucy’s bandage was removed about a week ago and we’ve been taking progressively longer walks all week. She even played at the dog park one day at lunch. As a reward to her for putting up with two years of surgeries, bandages and limited activity — also rewarding Fabi for understanding our need to keep Lucy healing — we took a road trip this weekend.
I drove the girls down to southern Colorado to check out some potential camping spots for later in the summer. We hit Cuchara, near the defunct ski resort in the San Isabel National Forest. As I expected, it was still a bit too muddy to drive all the way up to the Bear Lake campground, but the girls had fun playing in the river and snow. After a couple of hours we drove back north through Westcliffe and eventually to our friends’ house north of Cotopaxi. Both of my dogs love the property and spent the rest of the night and much of the next morning exploring the rocks and trees and hillsides.
Sunday morning Robert and I drove the dogs up to a park where the Badger Creek grows larger with the help of several springs. It meanders through a small valley before beginning a 20-mile-long drop down to the Arkansas river. There are boulders and pools and waterfalls. It’s a wonderful area, albeit relatively unknown. Fabi and Lucy ran and climbed and swam . It was nice watching both dogs acting naturally… no casts or bandages or boots on Lucy’s leg. She did very well.
On the way back to Denver we did a little more exploring east of Westcliffe. I took a road through the forest along Hardscrabble creek and stopped to let the dogs play in the water one more time. Lucy ran around for a bit then headed back to the truck, hopping on three legs. She was unwilling to place any weight on her front right leg (the same leg we’ve been treating these last two years). I checked her out: no thorns, no cuts, no abnormal swelling, no obvious fractures. I hoped that she had just strained her leg too much after so much inactivity and that a good night’s rest would help her feel better. When we made it home she still wouldn’t put any weight on the leg and I could tell by her actions and body language that it was causing her some pain. I had some rimadyl remaining from her surgery so I gave her a tablet before bed. She snuggled up next to me on the pillow to sleep, and that only happens when she doesn’t feel well.
The next morning Lucy was still hopping around and didn’t seem any better. She went out in the backyard to lie in the sun as she normally does. When I checked on her a little later she had been licking and nibbling at the top of her scar from the last surgery to a point where it was bleeding, which told me that there was something wrong. I phoned the animal hospital and loaded up the dogs. After her exam and x-rays, the emergency vet said he didn’t see any change in the x-rays compared to those taken last week. This was good news. He did give her some pain meds and a new bandage with a splint to help recover. He also said he would have our normal vet/surgeon call us when he came back on Tuesday.
I was in the front yard this afternoon talking with my next-door neighbor. My dogs were both outside in my yard or his, being dogs: laying or rolling in the grass, sniffing things. Fabi wandered down a few yards and found a patch of grass that smelled *very* good and she started rolling in that patch. No poop, no pee, just a roll in the grass. She was further away than I preferred so I called her back and she obeyed. I also noticed two sets of beady little eyes glaring at Fabi, and then at me, from the porch near where my dog had been rolling.
One set of eyes, attached to a typical Gen Y “wannabe” female, walked off the porch and stood, hands on hips, and yelled, “You need to keep your dogs leashed up! They’ve run and barked at me several times and I am frightened for my safety!”
I was dumbfounded. I am always outside with the dogs when they are in the front yard. I’ve never seen them chase or bark at anyone to the point where the person/people were scared, frightened or otherwise annoyed. “Several times” had me even more confused. But I didn’t argue the point, not much anyway. They occasionally bark at passerby as most dogs with territorial instincts are wont to do. Then they lower their heads and beg to be petted, often licking and sniffing. I’ve not seen anyone frightened by this behavior.
“Okay, sorry about that, ” I yelled back, but I wasn’t yelling in the same nasty bitch tone she used. I had to yell since she was three houses down and apparently was not going to have a mature conversation with me within ten feet. I added, “I’m sorry it had to happen ‘several times’ before you could be bothered to bring it to my attention. I’ll put them in the house right now.”
I called my dogs to follow me to home. As I was herding them to the door, the other set of beady eyes (her husband) came walking down the sidewalk. He echoed her bitchy tone, “It’s illegal for your dogs to be off-leash in the city of Denver. You don’t have the right to yell at my wife telling her she should have told you sooner.”*
I responded to him in a calm tone. “If it had really been ‘several times’ I’m sure she would have brought it to my attention before now. And I’m only yelling because she’s three yards away. Oh by the way, nice to meet you. My name is Brad.” I had not yet met either of these neighbors, so I assumed they were new to the block. They certainly were unremarkable in appearance, so they might have lived there a while. Never met them, though.
He appeared to get angry at this point. “I am doing you a courtesy by not calling the authorities right now. You have an obligation to…”
I interrupted him: “Look, do you want me to put my dogs away or not? You couldn’t just accept my apology and let me put the dogs in the house, you came down here to continue your little power-mongering argument with me. You’ve got the high ground, I was in the wrong, I was complying with your wife’s request. Continuing to talk to me in an effort to assert some little bit of righteousness is just delaying me getting my dogs under control and out of your sight. You would have thought that in the last three-and-a-half years one of my other weaselly yuppie neighbors would have let me know of the extreme danger my dogs posed to our block.”
His beady little eyes were darting back and forth, his nostrils flaring. “My wife and I are worried about the safety of our young children around your dogs. I don’t have to justify myself to you.”
I walked away. These are the type of people who are in debt up to their eyeballs so they can live the perfect little urban life: two kids, middle-management careers, european sedan and SUV, up-and-coming (aka, overly expensive) neighborhood. I won’t lie, I despise these type of people. I won’t put up with them. They’re right, they’re always right, and evidence and/or common sense will never convince them otherwise.
As a final parting shot, I said back over my shoulder, “Too bad you don’t need a license to have kids…”
I’m already waiting for the next time they whole family unit is strolling down the street. I have my comments ready and waiting:
YOU KIDS GET OFF OF MY YARD!
We visited the surgeon twice last week: once on Monday for a simple bandage change and again on Thursday to actually speak to the doctor (and have another bandage change). Good news! The bandage is coming off on Tuesday! The infection has cleared up and the blood and urine tests indicate there were no side effects from the super antibiotic; the x-rays look very good; and the large cut on the bottom of the paw has healed nicely. The only issue was the incision site where the plate was removed is still pink and granulated and had apparently rubbed against the inside of the bandage, otherwise it would have been removed already.
We also received the go-ahead to start taking walks again. I had to “okie-improvise” a protective pad on the bottom of the bandage with some duct tape to keep the sidewalks from ripping then bandage material to shreds.
We’re getting close to the finish line now.
[She wears an IV bag on her bandage on wet days like today — it snowed overnight.]
Lucy is still plugging along. The super-antibiotic regimen has been completed for a couple of weeks and today the splint was removed from her bandage. We still have at least two more weeks of bandages, though.
Lucy’s surgeon originally indicated that he wanted to extend her super-antibiotic treatments to fourteen days to make sure we have eradicated the infection but he said things looked good enough that today was the last injection. He also said that the incision site looks like it is healing “very well” and that the drainage sites had dried up and were also healing. We’re scheduled to go back next Monday for another check and bandage change.
I’m sure Lucy is very happy to be done with these injections, and so am I.
Lucy has completed three days of treatment for her Staph pseudointermedius infection and so far everything is going very well. She had another urinalysis and renal panel today and both show no signs of complications from the Amikacin (namely, kidney failure). She appears bright, alert and very responsive. Let’s hope this trend continues. We have at least four more treatments left.