Tonight, Dixie had her 2nd X-ray follow up since her surgery. I am happy to report she is still stone free! Our plan is to continue to bring her for check-ups every 6 weeks or so, so that we can catch any stones early on. So far, so good!
So every year I forget that during the winter the snow does not grind down Jackson’s nails and so they grow too long. And by the time spring rolls aroud and the snow melts, he invariably cracks one on the bare ground and it gets infected. We go through this almost every every year, and you would think I would learn my lesson, but so far, I haven’t. This year has been no exception, he landed on a soccer ball and cracked one of his monsterously long nails all the way up the nail. It got infected and we went to the vet the other night. It was bad enough that he needed to go under for them to remove the injured nail.
When Jackson came out of anesthesia, I was reminded of the famous David After Dentist video. I’m quite sure that he would have asked “is this real life?” if he could speak. When I first saw him, his head was on a vet tech’s lap. I started speaking to him and he couldn’t figure out how to move his head the other way to look me. He seemed to be able to move his body in only one direction. Eventually he figured out how to move his head, but coordinating even 2 of his limbs proved difficult. Although he was laying down, he managed to get his legs twisted together and smack his head on the floor. His poor little tongue was caught between his teeth, but thankfully he didn’t actually bite his tongue. It took awhile for him to gain contol of each one of his limbs and then to be able to coordinate the movement of all of them at once. And for the first time, I understood where the dad was coming from in that famous video. Prior to this incident, when I watched it, I felt sorry for the kid and was somewhat in disbelief that the dad was laughing and videotaping it. And then. I’ll admit, I was cracking up while Jackson was coming to. Yeah, that’s right, the whole thing was my fault and then to top it off, I had the nerve to laugh at his misfortune. Just call me Pet-Mom of the Year.
It’s been a long, long couple of days without toys.
Dixie went to the vet tonight for follow up x-rays. She is presently stone free! We got the results from her last surgery and the stones were the same type as before, calcium oxalate stones. We have switched her to the wet food option and we are hoping that this will help. The wet food insures that she will take in more water than she would normally. This means her urine is more diluted which hopefully discourages the oxalates from sticking together. So fingers crossed, this trend continues. We made an appointment for 6 weeks out this time, and we will see. Beginning about 24 hours after the re-suturing surgery, Dixie has like been a brand new dog. She seems to feel better than she has in a long, long time and we are thrilled.
As it turns out, Dixie’s internal stitches did not hold and surgery was required. The vet had to open her back up, debride the incision and re-stitch everything. He told us he used a lot of knots this time which will cause swelling. She is pretty sore, but in good spirits. In 2 weeks she goes back for an x-ray, a month after the bladder stone surgery. This will give us a good idea as to how quickly her body produces stones. From there we will come up with a battle plan.
Dixie went to the vet tonight to have her staples removed and I expected to be able to report how well she is doing and that she was given a clean bill of health. Unfortunately, they think that the internal stitches may not be holding, which means: more surgery. This poor dog! I would ask if it could get worse, except that I know it could. She goes in Friday and we will know more then.
On a better note, the vet now believes that he may have missed the stone the first time around. He went back to all the x-rays and thinks that it may have been there the whole time, just in a difficult spot to see on the x-ray. This is actually good news because this means that her body may not be making the stones as fast as previously thought. If that is true, we may be able to manage these stones after all.
All research indicates that wet food is a better choice in the case of calcium oxalate stones because it consists of 80% water. The more water she drinks, the more diluted her urine stays, and the less chance the oxalates have of binding together. We have switched her to the wet U/D, and so far, she loves it.
All we can do is take this one step at time and see where it takes us. We are hoping that brings us to a happy, healthy dog with a long future ahead of her.