Need surgery recovery tips

[Deanna]

Hi,

Our 1-year-old Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix is having his luxating patella repaired tomorrow. This is a VERY high energy dog. The vet is keeping him for 24 hours, but I'm really worried about what we're going to do with him beyond that.

I know the vet will give us some direction, but I'm trying to figure out if he will need to keep him in his kennel (where he sleeps) or if keeping him confined to the laundry room (small, but a lot bigger than the kennel would work). He sobs if we lock him out of the house for any reason, but we MUST let his leg heal properly. I'm told if he overdoes it while recovering he will have to have the surgery all over again.

Any tips would be very much appreciated! I've been told to freeze peanut butter and/or chicken broth to give him something to do... but that won't last too long!

thanks,
Deanna

[pittiegirl]

Ask the vet but I'm sure he'll have to stay in the crate - in the laundry room he'll be able to jump and you do not want that.

Keep his mind busy, every meal should be frozen into a Kong or stuffed into a treat ball or something similar. You can give big raw meaty bones from the grocery store like femur or knuckle bones to keep him busy too. After he cleans out the femur bones fill them with canned food or something similar, freeze and give back to him.

A DAP diffuser may help him relax. If absolutely necessary (and it may be with a aussie/bc cross) Benadryl may work for short term sedation. It doesn't have that effect on every dog though so you may want to try it beforehand. 2 mg per pound of body weight. Rescue Remedy works for some dogs as well.

Best wishes to you I'll post back if I have any more ideas.

[Doberman's]

Hi and welcome to dogforum.org:)

I would bet that he will not be feeling like doing much of anything and you are going to have to keep him somewhat confined, but he also needs to be able to move around some.

Listen to what the vet says, he should be albe to tell you exactly what to expect.

I hope he is feeling better soon. Please keep us updated on his recovery. :)

[skunkstripe]

Does he like to shred toys? I get them for little or nothing at yard sales (go at 4pm on a Sunday and all those stuffed toys that people wanted $5 for are suddenly 25 cents or free). Let him shred to his heart's content.

[pittiegirl]

Oh good one! Here's some other stuff I thought of:

I wasn't thinking earlier but he will probably have a cast so unless his crate is very large he may not be able to stretch out in it comfortably. A better way to do it may be to tie him to a sofa leg or something. Don't give him much room to move around.

I *think* the inactive period for this surgery is six weeks. The first one may be pretty easy, he probably won't feel good. Give pain meds as needed but remember that a little pain helps them to stay quieter.

He'll have a large shaved spot so you may need some special skin care products - the skin can get irritated shaving it that close.

You'll probably need a sling of some sort for taking him out to do his business.

Hope everything goes well!

[Deanna]

Thanks for all the great ideas. Smokey had the surgery today and the vet says he did great. He DOES enjoy destroying stuff. My son & I are heading to the dollar store for some cheap entertainment :-).

We'll see what the vet says tomorrow (they are keeping him tonight).

Thanks again,
Deanna

[skunkstripe]

Well let us know how it goes...

[Deanna]

Ughhh... we learned today that Benadryl makes Smokey HYPER, not sleepy at all! Of course, we learned this around 6pm right after the vet's office closed. I plan to call tomorrow and get something stronger.

He sobbed for hours stopping only to devour peanut butter from a kong and woof down some chicken boullion ice cubes. He had pain medicine and I don't think he was hurting - just SO sad to be stuck in the crate. I made my kids take turns sitting by him and he was much calmer with a 'friend' nearby.

He is strong as EVER, dragging us when we took him out to potty. He wants to run and it's a huge struggle to force him to move slowly. 1 day down, 13 more days of 'constrained activity' remaining.

Deanna

[3 goldens]

Only 2 weeks of restrained time? I have never heard of any time under 4 weeks, especially for larger dogs. My golden retriever, KayCee, who will be 7 next month had one knee done at 16 months and a little over a year later, she totally blew her other knee.

The first surgery I had to keep her restrained for 4 weeks. I kept her tied on short leash to sofa leg during the day, dresser leg in the bedroom at night. My vet told me that he has to "redo" more big dogs than smaller ones because of the weight and they get active to soon.

Her other knee was really mess and he had to repair the ACL, deepen the groove the knee cap rides in, cut the tibia crest and torque the tibia and put in permanent pins. She was in a splint for a week. This time I had to keep her inactive for 6 weeks. The first couple of weeks it was outside on short leash to do business, then right back in the house to be tied again. Then it was very, very short walks for a few days--like to the drive way of the house next door

She has very sensitive skin and had severe razor burn. The tape burn when splint was removed was even worse. An ace had been wrapped around the splint/ her leg, but was taped to skin at the top. I used aloe vera gel on her skin and it worked wonders. Also, since she couldn't roll around on floor, etc, I massaged her spine and leg muscles several times a day.

Today she can run and play with the best of them. I started her on Glucosamine/MSM after her first knee surgery and added SynoviG3 after her 2ed surgery. I also give her an EsterC and a fish oil each day that is suppose to be good for joints--know the EsterC is good for immune system and the Fish oil is good for skin and coat, heart and circulation. This is KayCee after 2ed surgery.