Sheba came home today!
Ruth went and picked her up around noon. Our vet’s office is specialists during the day and emergency at night. the poor emergency vet, not realizing Sheba is tolerant to sedatives, was concerned with the doses the surgeon was ordering. While she was heavily sedated, Sheba remained wired all night. Everyone decided it’d be better for her to come home. Good thing we’ve got human medical experience and aren’t afraid of scary incisions and round-the-clock meds!
Our neighbor was kind enough to drive up to Fremont with my aunt (I was working). He lost his furbaby to osteosarcoma a while back and didn’t want poor Sheebs to ride in the back seat alone. Once settled in, Sheba slept next to our neighbor the whole way home. A bit fussy when moved from car to house, she’s been sleeping all afternoon, aside from meds and a bit of heavy drinking (WATER, of course!). She has refused dinner, the surgeon said that’s to be expected, but we’ve really got to push food tomorrow because the antifungal has to be taken on a full stomach. Aside from regular meds, our surgeon prescribed cefpodoxime (an antibiotic) and itraconazole (an antifungal). When the fungal ID and susceptibility comes in we’ll switch antifungals if warranted. The surgeon highlighted “gastrointestinal upset – call if it occurs”….WTF, Sheebs just recovered from stress colitis, lets just upset her guts some more?! Poor babe. I’m hoping she figures out how to poop real quick!
My poor naked baby is cold, she’s never cold! Darn doc even shaved her tail!
Yay! Surgery? … check. Recovery? Time to get on with it Sheba! Thats a nice looking surgery site there grrrrlfriend. But man, that doc was mean shaving your tail. Hope your recovery is easy peasy and you discover your “new normal” asap!
Sheba’s mom–its great that you have medical experience! Recovery can be quite the roller coaster ride but just remember–there WILL be light at the end of the tunnel. And thats NOT to say that Sheba will necessarily have any downs, just no surprise if she does. Are you in Fremont CA? We are in Oakland. Anyways, sending Sheba lots of healing strength from the Oaktown Pack.
xoxo,
Martha, Codie Rae, and the Oaktown Pack
Martha,
I’ve twice dropped out of nursing school for medical reasons, I also have first responder training from volunteer work and being a county employee. My aunt cared for her sister during end stage lupus and an eventual kidney transplant. Add one a gazillion surgeries recovered from in our house and Sheba’s two knee ops, we feel cautiously prepared.
Our surgeon is in Fremont, but we live in San Jose. My aunt says they could have kept shaving and given her a poodle tail! We survived 3 months of sleeping on the floor with her after TPLO, the surgeon says it shouldn’t be THAT bad because recover is much better after amputation since there are no plates or screws to dislodge.
The (not so) funny part is we kinda flipped a coin when it came to doing the May knee surgery. I need to have my ACL reconstructed but opted to take summer school so Sheba could have her TPLO done first. the idea was that by the time the TPLO was healed, I’d be done with summer school and would have my own knee surgery! I’m glad be did it the way we did, I’m not sure how much worse off she’d be if we’d waited til August. At least I know my knee isn’t trying to eat me alive!
Recovery is easier than from the cruciate repair, at least in my experience. You might see a crash around days 3 – 5 when the hospital meds wear off, but you will likely see real recovery about day 10 when the staples come out. For us, the cruciate repair was a much longer recovery period, although perhaps less intense. Sounds like you are well prepared, however. I hope you all had a good night!
Between fireworks and meds wearing off it was a pretty restless night. She keeps looking for her leg and seems upset that she can’t lay on that side. No staples, just a lot of stitches but it must be uncomfortable to lay on because she’ll only do it for a few seconds at a time. Stitches don’t come out til the 15th :-/
Hi there. I hope Sheba is doing well. We are day 4 post amputation for a suspected fungal infection due to lytic lesion confirmed on 3 different X-rays. But bone biopsy did not reveal an organism so we can’t rule out cancer even though no tumors diagnosed. We are also not in a typical area for fungal infection. How did you know it was fungal? Did you have a biopsy? You said you’re waiting for more pathology? Thinking of your family and Sheba. Our Bacca sends his tripawd best.
I’m sorry re. my last reply. I’m new to this site and just found your intro page. I see the fine needle biopsy got it. Please keep us posted on what the fungal info comes back like. Best to you and Sheba.
Hey Bacca and Hooman(s)!
Been an edgy day, Sheeb is finally zonked. We had discontinued trazodone because of the hospital meds and had to slowly work back up. Just in time for hoomans to eat lunch!
The fine needle aspirate said yes it’s fungus, but couldn’t identify a specific fungus. That had to wait for bone samples from the amputation. Fingers and paws crossed but the surgeon warned us that we may never get an ID.
I’m headed over to check out your posts. But please let us know how things go for Bacca. Not a lot of fungus dogs around here. How was your lytic lesion discovered? We went in for TPLO and surgeon was shocked to find erosion.
Cynthia