Just dropping in quickly to give a Paris update. This BTW is the first time I've been able to sit down and review the news, another mass shooting as you all know in Texas - so what's new ? Read my lips, this latest event will not inspire new gun control laws in the United States. I mentioned we and many of our neighbors think Tijuana, Baja California and Mexico are dangerous - so is the United States.
Paris had two elbow dysplasia arthroscopies and two ulma ostectomies on her front legs. This was a genetic condition she had which is common in Basset Hounds. The purpose of the operation was not to straighten her legs out, but a preventative measure to forestall disabling arthritis, which could eventually cripple the dog and as many of you know is horrible to treat.
Both of her front legs are in splints, she is wearing a harness which we use to pick her up, so far she is only taking little tiny baby steps then falls flat like a penguin. We have to hand feed her and make sure she takes water and she is on about five different medications. She is not in pain, one of the meds takes care of that (it is also addictive) - but she whimpers when she needs to tinkle. So far, no accidents in the house. The Doc gave us tranquilizers to use, but we are holding off on those, we may need them in a few weeks - but with tranquilizers sometimes the dog becomes irritated and one person told us hostile and you do have to increase the dose - so hopefully we won't have to use them.
She has been pretty good with everything, with the exception of not going poo, so we might have to take her in for an enema. She is not eating huge amounts; I've been making Basamati rice, baked chicken and Mike bought her special prime rib steaks. She loves baked sweet potatoes. The trick will be to get her to eat her Buffalo kibbles which should help her bowels. She cries for her Wolf bison biscuits, but I have to break them into quarters for her.
When Freida was sick, we discovered the good use of liverwurst, because we could wrap pills up into the liverwurst making little liverwurst balls and she would eat them - same with Paris. Today I developed "snowballs" which is Philadelphia cream cheese rolled in rice with tidbits of meat and chicken inside. She loved them. Next step will be to add kibbles to the snowballs.
The ramps Mike made were a bust - too steep - so we have to hoist her down the steps, but the guard rails he put in are great. She did take a sun bath, Bob the Daca cat visits regularly (plus he gets all the leftover chicken and steak), and she sleeps a lot. We put her up on the sofa twice, but we have to be next to her so she doesn't fall. During the day she either sleeps in her bed upstairs or the one downstairs. At night, she sleeps with us. We're going to have to get a pen enclosure this week for the living room which will be large enough for her huge bagel bed to fit in and roomy so she doesn't feel completely confined. And she loves to have her face wiped with the awapui towels. She hates the Elizabethan collar, tomorrow her soft collar we ordered should be in the mail. Periodically I take the collar off, but really have to watch her because she goes after the bandages and tries to pull them off.
The whole healing process will take twelve weeks, with the splints coming off week at eight weeks then taking it easy for another four weeks - along with weekly checkups, x-rays, bandage changes and pin removals. Unsure of when she will start eating and drinking on her own, or for that matter actually walking on the stilts.
I'll be adding pictures, and returning to the blog when everyone is used to the new schedule around here, which completely centers around Paris.
Oh and P.S. be careful if you decide to copy and paste anything from the Santa Cruz radical guys, you can link but not copy and paste because there is some kind of code which will screw up your blog, I just discovered this late late last night. So at any rate, I had to remove the copy and paste but kept the link.
Take care everyone....and no I guess we're not going to be decorating for Christmas, maybe we'll dress Paris and Bob the Daca cat up as reindeer. Exhausted here.
*********
No comments:
Post a Comment