Chanel's Surgery D+8

Thursday March 22 was Chanel's surgery D+8. Chanel has been way too smart for her own good. She has figured out ways to get to her incision area to pick at:

(1) She moves around inside her crate so that the soft e-collar will flip (see the picture below).
(2) She voluntarily goes into the crate...so that she can hide and pick at it all she wants!!
(3) She chews OVER the e-collar...since it's soft, she can actually chew over it and pick at the incision!!

Flipped soft e-collar

80% of her incision was healing beautifully, but the area where the pins were placed must be irritating so she keeps wanting to gnaw it, to the point where it looked almost open!! We tried wrapping the area with gauze and self-adhering wraps at nights, but they seemed to come off easily. We also tried putting on a hard e-collar (aka the cone of shame!!), but Chanel either refused to wear it or struggled fiercely to take it off when we managed to put it on her.

Another problem was that she has not eaten her normal food or drunk plain water at all for the entire week. She would eat some boiled chicken breast meats and Weruva's natural dog food along with chicken broth, but nothing else. Especially the fact that she refused to drink water really concerned us. So I had to talk to Dr. Keats; for her eating/drinking problems and the suture. He prescribed Reglan and Pepcid and I made an appointment to have her suture looked at for Friday.

New problem: administering a liquid medication to Chanel...tablets are a lot easier because we can just stick it in a piece of Greenies Pill Pockets (a wonder product!!) and She loves the taste.  

Chanel's Surgery D+1

Chanel was discharged on Thursday around 12:30PM.

Her entire left leg was shaved and had a little fentanyl patch (25mcg/hr) on the hip.

She will have the patch until Monday morning and then will start on oral tramadol 12.5mg.  We have to remember to fill the prescription before the weekend is over!

We also got a CD of Chanel's radiographs.  Chanel's hip dysplasia on the right side is very obvious on the x-ray.  :(

Before the surgery

After the surgery

Chanel's Surgery D-0

Chanel finally had one of the surgeries done this morning!

I took her out to walk and then dropped her off at VCA Veterinary Referral Associates in Gaithersburg, MD at 8 AM this morning. She knows when she goes to the hospital...she starts shivering sometimes even before we leave home, just like Cookie did! This poor little thing shivers so much that you would think there is an earthquake or something just by looking at her. :(

I received a call from Dr. Keats, Chanel's orthopedic surgeon at VCA/VRA around noon. The surgery was over and went well, and Chanel had just woken up from anesthesia and been transferred to the Critical Care Unit (CCU). The surgery included deepening of the femoral groove (where the kneecap is supposed to sit), transposing the tibial crest, and reconstructing the surrounding soft tissues. She has a narcotic pain patch (fentanyl) on her and is given an anti-inflammatory as well. She's hospitalized overnight and will be discharged tomorrow morning.

But Dr. Keats gave me another bad news. :(((

He discovered that Chanel also has hip dysplasia on both sides! Unlike her patella luxations, her right side is worse than the left. Her femur head (ball) is pretty much out of the socket of the pelvis. Dr. Keats said that he was surprised Chanel did not have any apparent signs and symptoms and that he would not consider getting a surgery (yet another one...!) done unless she becomes symptomatic. Chanel is truly a trooper!

Joanne and I just visited her, now in the ward.  She was very groggy from the fentanyl drip and the patch...

Chanel in the ward

Chanel's Surgery D-1

The picture is from last year.. the day our Chanel got her cast finally off on her left hind leg, on March 9th, 2011.  The leg looked so DEAD we thought she'll never really be able to use it at all, despite what the vet said, that she will recover her leg!  It was hard to believe.. it was so thin, frail, skin was all bumpy and dead, no hair, she couldn't put her leg down..


But voilà! Our Chanel lets nothing down.. she bounced up, aced her physical therapy and as good as new!


Her surgery to repair patella luxation on the very same leg is already just a day away.. in less than 23 hours she can no longer eat, will be dropped off at the hospital and won't be picked up until the day after :(  But this surgery isn't going to be as rough as her fractured leg last year..  and her recovery time will be quicker.


Thank you to all, who's donated and gave support for her so far!!  She will still have another surgery after this one, as she needs to have surgery done for both hind legs for luxated patellas.  This year will not be easy again, but once they're relocated to proper place, she will no longer feel pain/discomfort and enjoy the life she so deserves!