Sassy's Tripawd Journey

Sassy walked to the kennel today.  She wanted to play but wouldn’t let her.  She kinda jumped at my sister in law’s Bassett hound, Marley through the fence.  It seemed to go ok.  I didn’t want her to walk back up to the house and I don’t think Sassy wanted to walk back up because she just laid in the yard.  I went and got the car and drove her back up to the house.  She loves car rides.  The Fentanyl patches came off tonight at 6:30 pm.  Gave her the rest of her drugs, Rimadyl, an antibiotic and 1 Tramadol.    Her appetite was low today.  She didn’t eat her breakfast and had to hand feed her yogurt at night.

The bottom picture is a bumper pad from a baby crib measured to fit around Sassy and I have a friend who makes leashes braided with marine webbing in them.  She took the bumper pad for us and sewed webbing onto it and made handles which helped support & lift her up when she needed it for going up & down steps.   It was a life saver.  Easier to use than a towel or a sheet.

Yeah, very exciting day for us Tripawd parents.  Sassy pooped.  I know seems kinda stupid to be excited about something like that but when you have a baby that goes through a major surgery & is on major pain killers its exciting.  Balanced herself really well without falling.     Sassy could be a little stubborn these days after surgery not wanting to come inside but I guess the cooler air felt good on the incision and her leg.  She just wanted to sit outside.

Sassy did really well.  Held her balance really well and went out to the yard and walked a little.  The sun was shining and she got a little tired so she laid out in the yard for an hour at a time before I could get her to move.  I know a lot of that was the drugs she was on.  I was really proud of how well she was getting around.  Still keeping her locked away from our other dog so he wouldn’t injure her.   She did sleep a little less and moved between rooms a little more.

Today was the big day after several surgeries that Sassy never really healed from or even got the stitches out from her biopsies we did her amputation.  I had many different feelings about doing this because we didn’t have a definate diagnosis of cancer.  All the what if questions, what if its not? what if it is and I don’t do anything about it.  I really didn’t want her to lose her leg but when it came right down to it I did the right thing for her.  I did forget to add we were fortunate if you could call it that the leg she was having problems with already had hip displaysia and it was severe.  All other limbs were good and strong.   We had done x-rays of her lungs at the first appointment with Dr Boyer and nothing showed in her lung which was positive.

Sassy was taken to the vets by my mom.  She had to be there by 7:45 am.   I had asked for copies of all her x-rays & pathology reports.  Well, after mom dropped Sassy off she read me one of the reports of the 2nd biopsy that report said no Osteoscaroma found.   What should I do?? Go through with the surgery or go get Sassy?   I just made the decision to go aheade and proceed.  I decided that if it was cancer and I didn’t proceed then her life would be shortened.  If it wasn’t she could still adjust to life being a Tripawd because she already had problems with that leg.

I called on my break around 1:30 pm to find out how my baby bear was doing.  I was told she was doing really well and we could come get her by 6pm since that is what time they closed.   We had the option of taking Sassy to the emergency clinic or taking care of her ourselves since our vet did not have overnight care.  I chose to bring her home.   When we went to get her I was totally shocked at the leg.  Of course I had seen pictures its still not the same as seeing your baby the 1st time like that.  I admit I did cry.  But it was only for a moment.  I had to be strong for her.  Dr Boyer explained the pain meds that Sassy would be on.  She had 2 fentanyl patches attached to her neck  and how we were to keep them covered and do not touch them because they would absorb through the skin.  Sassy was sent home with rimadyl, tramadol and the 2 patches that were to be removed in 4 days.

Well, of course with the patches being attached at her neck everytime she moved her head the bandage would come off.  So being a crafty person, I rewrapped it and made the bandage go around her neck & under her front leg to help hold it in place.  Which worked until Sunday when we could take the patch off.

Dr Boyer & staff were really surprised at how well this 138 pound Rottie walked the day of her surgery.  She got right up and hopped out to their grassy area but nope she wasn’t going there she wanted to go home.  She was trying to hop right out of their parking lot.

When we went to pick Sassy up, she walked out of the office to the car and got in.  She slept so hard that we couldn’t wake her up and had to carry her into the house.  It took several of us.  I was ready to camp out with her in the SUV.

I did not take any pictures of the day of her surgery.  I wanted her to rest.

I did forget to add we had the leg sent out for a pathology done.

Well our journey starts around Sept 7th 2012 when Sassy had a surgery to remove warts from around her ear.  Approx 2 days later she started limping and I waited thinking it was just an injury from when she had surgery. So I scheduled an appointment when it did not get better Oct 10th 2012.    On the 10th we did x-rays.  They indicated possible Osteosscaroma.  I wanted a second opinion so went to another vet, got the same answer and told we needed to do a biopsy to determine.

Two weeks later Oct 24ths we scheduled a biopsy.  A week later approx we got the results not conclusive.  So we opted for another biopsy.  November 5th 2012 the 2nd biopsy was done.  That one came back not able to tell but that she had Osteoporosis.  Still decided to amputate.  So on November the 14th 2012 Sassy started her journey as a tripawd.