Day 26.

It's getting hard to contain Hana now. She is constantly crying, jealous of Harvey because he gets to run around and play and be with us on the couch, etc. The bones don't satisfy her as much anymore and the toys and treats only keep her busy for so long. She has been waking us up constantly with crying and scratching on the crate door in the middle of the night, not to pee but to be out of the crate. The x-pen is no longer appealing to her, she wants out of it. It's heart breaking, I hate hearing her cry. She is normally a really quiet dog at home and now she's a sad, anxious pup.

I can't wait for this be over.

PRESENTS!!!!

Hana got a package today!! FULL of goodies!! Thank you so much Mary!!! It came all the way from New York! Mary is a member of the www.japanesechin.org website that we are a part of. I told Hana that now she has a fan club all over the country and world! I took a picture of the goods!! As soon as I put the treats on the coffee table not only Hana and Harvey were immediately interested, but our cat Outlaw ran into the room and tried getting into the bags! I took a picture of him doing that but since he's black you can't really see much!

Pictures! :




And Outlaw going after the treats!!

Day 19.

I couldn't bear to see Hana in that little crate any longer, even though I know she is supposed to be very restricted in order to heal. She kept crying and looked so bored, and I really don't want these next few weeks to turn her in to a sad, antisocial puppy. So I put together the X-pen we used last time and made it as small as it will go (4x4 feet). That size is what they recommend for average size dogs, therefore it's really too big to use for little 4 lb Hana but OH WELL! She deserves a little room to move around, at least for a little while. I put a bunch of different kinds of bones in there and a little stuffed animal, along with a blanket from my bed so it smells like me. Oh and her water bowl. I am out of puppy pads (!!!!!) so I need to leave very shortly to go pick some up. She either peed or puked on two of the pillows she sleeps on, so those are in the wash. Again. Right now she is really enjoying the "bulls eye" bullystick thing I got her and Harvey is chomping on a pig ear. Harvey had already figured out not only how to scale the wall and jump into her x-pen, but how to bite the sides and DRAG it, ugh.

Day 16.

The doctor said Hana's incision looked great! So that's really good. He also said to keep her extremely limited and restricted to the crate for at least 4 more weeks, so that kinda stinks. I made an appointment for a check up in 4 weeks. At least she is done wearing the cone head, she probably hated it so much.

I just went to the store and picked up whatever small and (semi) healthy bones I could find to keep her busy. I found a salmon rawhidey type bone, a few mini bully sticks and some other things. I was extremely happy that they had a decent selection of tiny treats and bones, most places don't have things small enough for Hana's little mouth. I got Harvey a bully stick wrapped in rawhide, so hopefully that will take him a while to demolish. He is more of a chewer than Hana though.

Here's a little picture. I let her out of her crate for a little bit to eat her bone next to me. It's so long that I had to hold it for her because she couldn't get a grip on it while laying down, haha!



As I write this, Hana is already not interested in her bully stick and focusing enviously on what Harvey is eating. If she weren't back in her crate I guarantee you she'd be trying to figure out a way to run up to him and steal it directly out of his mouth like she does with other bones. Ha!

Day 14.

Hana gets her stitches out tomorrow! Hana gets her stitches out tomorrow! Hana gets her stitches out tomorrow! Can you tell I'm excited and happy for her? She is sooo sick of being in that crate but at least she will have those stitches out!

Day 12 again.

I just got home and took Hana to the pad to use the bathroom and she slipped somehow and landed on her bad leg! I think she tried to put too much weight on or something, I don't know. She cried and cried and screamed. I hope she didn't do damage, oh goodness. Now she's in her crate trying out all kinds of uncomfortable positions trying to lay down. Poor, poor thing. Ugh!!!

Day 12.

I haven't updated in a few days because nothing eventful or different has happened. Hana is getting pretty restless, constantly wanting out of her crate. I don't blame her, it must be so super boring in there. When I try to hold her in my lap she only wants on the floor, which she can't do because she'll run around and play. She still holds her leg out to the side a lot which I'm going to ask the Dr. about on Friday when we go to have her stitches removed. We are all finished with her pain medicine (I'm a little bummed about this because it knocks her out and she sleeps a lot on them, haha). She's still on her Clavamox for another couple of days and then we're done with that too! I tried setting up the x-pen that we used for her recovery last time but when I put her in it she tried jumping against the side and pacing around in circles, unsure of what to do but still wanting out. That's no good since she's supposed to be still so I had to squash that idea. I'll ask the Dr. about that too though on Friday.

She has been keeping us up all night lately, every few hours waking up and banging her cone head around, being restless. We have been completely exhausted and cranky because of this, so last night I put her in the living room with the cat to sleep (in her crate of course). I felt awful doing it since she is used to being in the same room as us but we need to get our rest too! I might be doing this more often now that she won't be on her sleepy pan meds because I really need rest.

She still doesn't have her normal appetite back. She does not seem to want her dry food and I'm out of wet food. She still likes the Wellness jerky treats, though. If she doesn't eat her dry food tonight for dinner I'll pick up a couple more cans of the wet food.

Thank you again to all the people who have donated toward her surgery, and who continue to donate. We are still getting donations in the mail from people and we can't thank everyone enough. It really, really helps.

Day 9

Yesterday and today were pretty good. Much better than my last entry. I got some MUCH needed rest and since it's the weekend, I have Matt here to help me take care of and watch Hana during the day.

Hana has been feeling much better and only want to be on my lap or out of her crate! I am happy she's feeling more herself again but sad because I cannot let her out of her crate. I put her new pajamas on her today and took some pictures to show them off. They're so darling! I also gave her and Harvey their pupcakes that we got the other week while attending a friend's bday party for her Old English Sheepdog, Walter. She sent us home with little treats for our dogs and I've been waiting for the perfect time to give it to them. Enjoy!

Day 7

So it's day 7. Today has not been a very good day. Hana has been crying a lot, wanting out of the crate. I've been letting her sit on my lap and sleep on her pillow if she's good and calm, otherwise she's locked in her crate all day. She has also been crying in pain quite a bit. She just woke up from a deep sleep crying in pain like she did prior to the surgery. If this happens tomorrow I'm going to call the doctor and make sure this is normal. Her pain meds don't seem to knock her out like they did at first either, which makes me wonder if she's building some kind of a tolerance? It really just kills me to see her crying in pain since I can't reassure her that this will all be worth it.

Since today was pretty rotten and I'm drained, I don't really have it in me to write anything else. I'll leave you with two pictures that I took of Hana on my lap.




Oh, and Happy Holidays! Matt had never tried Matzo so I bought a box, along with some Passover chocolate bars that I loved while growing up. Here is Matt's first matzo, haha.

Day 6.

Today was pretty good. Hana ate her EVO for the first time since the surgery. I soaked it in water to make it a little softer for her. I'm getting kind of sick of hand feeding her the canned food, it is gross to get on my hands and stinks to high heaven.

She has been getting aggressive/possessive again when Harvey comes near her while in the crate. I hate it, but she's probably just not herself and just being cranky. I took her out to pee on the pad today and she scrambled around. I decided to let her walk around for a few minutes just to get some exercise (the vet said we could take her on walks only to potty, so i figure a little walking around in the living room would be comparable to a short walk to pee). Before I knew it she tried to jump onto the couch!! Obviously she didn't make it and slipped down on her bad leg!! I FREAKED out and inspected her, she seemed alright. I am never letting her do that again. Crate and puppy pad ONLY from now on, no walks around the living room! I feel like a bad dog mother, but it really did happen in a split second!! She didn't cry at all and didn't even seem to notice, so I hope to god that she didn't do any damage. I could kick myself.

She still hates the Clavamox and I can't wait until I don't need to give it to her anymore. I am thankful for the pain meds though because even though she's not crying, she still has to be in pain and it helps her sleep. She likes the taste of it (thank goodness) and it usually knocks her out for a while. The label says to give every 6 hours or as needed and I've been giving it to her every 8-12 hours or so.

Last night was tough with her crying in pain. I'm not sure why that happened, other than it just being sore still. She was in her crate when that happened, so I know she didn't try to use it in a bad way. I guess I'll never know. I just hope it doesn't happen again.

No pictures today, I'll take some tomorrow. Goodnight!

Tired.

It's technically day 6 since it's 1:37am right now. I accidentally took a nap earlier so I stayed up a little bit too late tonight watching tv and being lazy. I'm glad I did though, because a little while ago Hana sat up and cried in pain! This is the first time she cried and it made me so sad. I gave her buprenorphine a few hours ago but some didn't make it into her mouth. I figured she would be okay since she is so tiny but now I'm wondering if I should give her more so she doesn't wake up in even more pain later. Poor thing, my heart sunk and my stomach flipped when I heard her cry. I'm sad now.

Day 5.

Today was a fairly quiet day. Hana slept a lot, ate a little bit more canned food, TOOK A POOP (thank goodness!!), and slept some more. Yesterday we received a package in the mail from Stephanie and her pups, one of the wonderful ladies I talk to on the Japanese Chin forum I'm a member of. They sent Hana the most adorable pajamas ever so that she can lounge around in them while recovering- too cute!!! I am going to put them on her and take a picture as soon as her leg is less swollen and sore. It was so nice of them though and it really lifted our spirits. Thanks again, guys! :) Here is a picture of me trying to show how cute the pajamas are.



Hana has been acting a little possessive while in her crate. When Harvey comes near and she doesn't want him around she will make a mean noise and kind of lunge toward him a bit. I know she would never hurt him or bite (even if she did her teeth are the size of a pin head, ha) but it's worrying me on how this recovery will affect her temperament. After her spaying and then her first knee surgery she was very scared of people and new dogs. She wouldn't let anyone besides Matt and me pick her up. We took her to training classes recently and have been working on this and it's been helping a bit. Now that she had this surgery again I'm scared she will be even worse than before. I hope that doesn't happen. I put her on the couch on her sick pillow to sleep next to me and when Harvey came over she didn't act like that, so I think it's only when she's in her crate or when she has a treat or food. I'll be keeping him away from her while she's in there since stress is not ever good while recovering.

When I put her on her puppy pad to do her business, I noticed she is still not attempting to put any weight on her leg at all. I know it's only been 5 days, I'm just curious when she'll start to try. We are under strict orders not to take her for walks or anything so I bet it will be a while.

I want to thank everyone who has donated toward Hana's surgery. It's really, really helping a lot and we are extremely grateful. I've been overwhelmed at the response and very touched. So thank you, again.

Here are some pictures from today. I put Hana on her potty pad and she was so sleepy that she tried to take a nap on it!



She is filthy from the canned food being messy, her hating the Clavamox which causes me to miss her mouth sometimes while giving it to her, she has yellow hair from not being able to squat all the way while peeing, etc. I can't wait until her stitches come out and I can bathe her (carefully, of course).

Day 4

Things have been pretty good yesterday and today. Hana is still sleepy which is helping her remain calm and not really mind that she's in a crate all day. She still hasn't pooped (since Friday! Jeez!) so I went to the grocery store and bought some canned pumpkin. I read all over the internet that it should help make her finally go to the bathroom, I just hope she willingly eats it.

We did a couple of stupid things yesterday. Hana is on Clavamox, which is an anti-biotic,  every 12 hours and I'm supposed to keep it refrigerated. Last night I must have been really sleepy because I left it on the counter all night! The last thing we need is another expense so I freaked out and searched the internet trying to find out anything I could about if I'd need to buy a new one or if it was safe to give her it still. The information I found was conflicting to say the least, so I put a call in to the vet. I waited and waited for a call back and since she was already overdue on the dose I decided to make an educated guess and just go ahead and give it to her. After all, the color and smell hadn't changed at all. I kid you not, no more than 1 minute after I gave her the room temperature medicine the freaking hospital called me. They said that I should get a new batch because this one might not be potent anymore. Great! They'd call me back when they called in the prescription to my vet. Wonderful... then about 5 minutes later a different lady called me from the hospital saying she just spoke to Hana's surgeon and he said it would be fine to give it to her, just keep it refrigerated from now on. Score!!  That was a close one.

Oh, I also found out that we accidentally over-medicated Hana a little bit last night too. She was on a Fentanyl patch for pain which we were supposed to remove last night. After removal, it can stay in their system for up to 24 hours, and then after that we are to give her buprenorphine, an oral pain medication, as needed.  The buprenorphine was already measured out in lots of syringes for us by the animal hospital. It was Matt's turn to give her the anti-biotic and he accidentally used the syringe with the buprenorphine in it already, instead of the empty syringes that we have. So she was not only on Fentanyl, but buprenorphine too. I could not figure out why Hana was sooooo sleepy and out of it yesterday and when we realized that, it made a lot of sense. She's fine though and doing well so I don't think it adversely affected her, other than sleepiness. Whoops.

She still won't eat her food so I went out and bought Wellness' 95% Salmon and Wellness Core Turkey, Chicken Liver & Turkey Liver Formula in a can. I hope she eats this so she can at least get some nourishment! If she won't willingly eat the pumpkin I hope I can slip some in there without her realizing, though she is very smart and I'm sure will catch it. 

We took our other dog, Harvey, to this huge dog park yesterday to let him burn off some energy since he's been pretty cooped up while we're watching Hana. He enjoyed himself thoroughly. He jumped over the baby gate in our living room 5 times in a row to try to come into the bedroom where Hana and I were, which was really cute. Right now he's laying on the couch, next to her crate. Aww...

Day 2.

Last night was hard. We had to put Hana's elizabethan collar (I keep calling it her cone head) on her while she was in her crate, since we were going to bed and obviously couldn't keep an eye on her. She couldn't get comfortable for a long time and she kept hitting the cone head on the sides of the crate. Then after she'd get comfortable for 15 minutes, she'd start whimpering because she needed to pee. Or was thirsty. She slept for a few hours, then cried to go pee again. It happened a few times. I'm usually a really sound sleeper but every time she made any kind of noise I woke up immediately and ran over to comfort her. I guess I'm a little more maternal than I thought. 

When we finally woke up and checked on her, she happily sat up, ready to get taken to the pee pad. She did her business and I took off her cone head, putting her back in the crate. This morning was the first time I saw her tail wag and she seemed to be in much better spirits. I think it was probably the anesthesia making her so out of it yesterday because today she seems much more alert and happy.

She still hasn't wanted any of her dog food (Innova EVO Small Bites) and she refused the chicken. She ate some of the Wellness treats, but not many. She hasn't pooped since Thursday, which is beginning to worry me. I read that feeding her a little pumpkin may help her to go the bathroom, so if she still hasn't gone by tomorrow I am going to buy some and give it to her.

Right now she is sound asleep in-between my legs. Harvey is interested in her and is getting a little sick of laying around because his sister is sick. The cat is super curious and wants to lick her badly (they used to groom each other all the time, they're best friends). He even went inside her crate and took a little nap while she's been on my lap- cute.

Tonight I am going to see Morrissey so my husband will be watching Hana. I know I'll be thinking of her the whole time, I hope it goes smoothly for them!

Day 1 - Dinner

Since Hana had no interest in eating her own food, I decided to try to cook some chicken and rice. I really don't enjoy cooking since I'm not particularly good at it. I didn't even know how to cook chicken and rice, so after asking my husband how to do everything I finally had a little bowl ready to feed her. She wouldn't eat it from the bowl, so I hand fed her. She really enjoyed and ate a lot of the chicken, but spit out the rice. It probably tasted bad since I don't know if I cooked it all the way, but Harvey seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. My husband took some pictures of me feeding her while I was on the phone with Walgreens, enjoy.

Day 1.

So my sweet little munchkin of a dog, Hana, had a pretty major surgery yesterday for a severely luxated patella. She actually went through a very similar surgery almost exactly a year ago and it failed for whatever reason. I decided to make a blog to document her recovery after I realized that there isn't really that much about the recovery period on the web that pet owners can look at and reference. As soon as I found out she needed her first surgery for a luxating patella, I immediately hit up the internet. I wanted to know what to expect, what the incision should look like, how I could help her go to the bathroom when she couldn't walk, if it was normal that she hadn't pooped for 3 days etc. etc. etc. I found some information that was helpful, but there didn't seem to be alot. This second time around, I turned to the internet again and I found a lot of the same information as last time. If this blog helps just one pet owner seeking information and solace when their dog is going through this painful procedure, I'll be happy.

Day 1 Post-Op. 

I picked up Hana at 10:30 am from the Animal Emergency & Referral Center. While in the waiting room I was so nervous, hoping that she would be feeling okay and ready to go home. When they brought her out to me, my heart just sank. She was panting and her eyes were glazed over. She just looked SO SAD. Her hair was all mangy and she was whimpering and crying from the pain as I placed her in her carrier. I asked them if this was normal, worried about her being in pain, and they said yes. She has a Fentanyl pain patch that she wears until Sunday, and then I switch her over to oral pain medication. She is also on an antibiotic that I had to start giving her today. They said that she didn't eat, drink or pee the whole time she was there, but she did poop once.

On the ride home she fell asleep in her carrier, thank goodness. If she's sleeping then she's not in pain, I kept thinking. I kept looking over at her and at one point when we were going over a lot of pot holes she woke up. I felt just awful for her and started singing. I sang to her the rest of the way home. I think it helped.

We get inside the apartment and our other dog, Harvey, was very excited to see us. I had to shoo him away (which is quite difficult since he's still a puppy) and get Hana's crate set up. I had a soft towel in there, her favorite toy, a water bowl and a handful of food. I gave her the antibiotic, put her in her crate and she cried a bit, finally settling down and going to sleep. I sure hope she gets used to the crate because the surgeon said she needs to stay in it for 6-10 weeks, only allowed to walk around when using the potty. It's going to kill me on those days that she's feeling slightly better and wants to walk around and play, but it will be worth it in the end for a fully healed knee.

I have a feeling the next couple of days are going to be similar to today. I'm going to keep a very quiet household, Hana will be in the crate or sleeping on a pillow next to me at all times. I think getting her to go to the bathroom will be the most difficult, since whenever she puts weight on her bad leg or tries to squat she cries in pain. She had the longest pee ever a little while ago, I was pretty impressed. 

She isn't really interested in eating any of her food, or even one of her favorite treats in the world- peanut butter. I tried enticing her with cheese and it was a no go. The only thing she wants to eat right now are her Wellness Pure Turkey & Salmon Jerky Treats. They are pretty healthy so I don't mind if that's all she eats for now. I'm going to try cooking her some chicken and rice and hope she eats some of that too.