"Mindy" Recovery video part 2.

amazing what she looks like after just 6 days..

Turned the corner!

Didn't get around to adding all the notes from Mindy's first diary entry, so here's a shortened version along with what she is like on her second diary entry, hope it makes sense?
Pills she is on, are Onsior (pain killers, along with Diazapan, if I felt necessary, I only used them the once and only one tab, that scared me to see her worse on her legs and felt that although it was a muscle relaxant, I felt she could do more damage having it, falling over etc.) She is also on Synulox twice a day, which finished this morning and Seraquin.
Ian bought her a roasted chicken from Asda to help get her eating again and to help with all the pill popping she was having to do!
So on the Thursday we noticed she did her first stretch bow and shook her neck and shoulders, whilst in the sitting position she could bend her head down a little way to lick her front paws, she couldn't reach her "girly bits" to keep them clean and I thought I could smell wee, she turned around in circles slowly to make her bed, rolled on her back I think more to scratch her stitches than anything....Didn't poo until Friday morning from having picked her up on the Wednesday, but we did struggle to get her to eat anything to start with and she would only wee ever 12 hours...On her harness she seems to walk like a camel, both legs the same side moving forward. Oh yes and she barked with her tail up, couldn't eat from her bowl on the floor, so raised it for her.....would place her left foot 60% of the time, still forgetting to sort her toes out..weaker is still back left leg.
My vet at Rock View Vets, Roche, saw her on Friday and was amazed to see how well she looked and better still Mindy didn't eat her, just wagged her tail and accepted her liver treat, I asked about the wee smell and she couldn't smell anything but suggested a wee sample be collected and she would check she hadn't got anything, so I left armed with all the bits for collecting some, but I soon realised that collecting a wee sample wasn't going to be easy as she was only doing it once every 12 hours and a dish would be too big, so I walked around with a soup spoon!!! in the mean time she started mark weeing so I knew nothing was wrong and gave up on the idea of collecting any!!

Sunday was next time to take notes....She now happily turns around around to make her bed, digs up her bedding with her front feet, 85% places the leg, only the once saw her toes turned under when she squatted to wee, proper girly wee now and when she poo'd, she poo's more with the arched back and not so low to the ground, she stretches when she first comes out the crate, she's sleeping in that now by the side of our bed rather than us sleeping on the floor with her, she whinged first, but is fine now and slept through until 5 on Saturday morning, she has to have her morning pills half an hour before her breakfast but only tomorrow for them and then it's just the Seraquin for a few months....She is allowed free run on lounge without her harness on but as we have two sofa's in there I haven't been brave enough to wander off, as I don't want her jumping on or off of them just yet, although I'm sure she would!
Thanks to Elaine for suggesting baby gate to keep other dogs out the way, when I do let her out in the lounge, Sennen and Buzz are such "bull in china shop dogs" they are both trying hard to be calm around her but I panic, so rather than panic Hilary lent us her spare one, thanks Hilary, Hilary does a great job and fosters Springer Spaniels in Cornwall, we took Mindy over to their place on Saturday just to get Mindy out the house, she was a little on the nervous side with the Springers, but they gave her space she needed (actually I think they were to scared !! only kidding Hilary) we had tea and cake outside on the lawn, Mindy on her harness, she found a ball under the table and started to try and run a round with it, she then threw it at me to throw for her, so I rolled it toward her and she thought that was great....We did attempt to carry her on another dogwalk with the others, but Ian had to go back she was too wriggly, nice to see all legs going for it, but she wouldn't settle in Ian's arms, but he met up with us 30 mins later to do the last 5 mins to home with her, which worked out great...She has started to walk backwards out the way of us too and now shakes from head to toe, we are still massaging and doing ttouch on her as much as we can and some other physio exercises, I have done another video of her walking, which I'll post later...

Dawn Weaver was right when she said to me "when you see the pain in her eyes go, you will start to be able to move forward" So thank you Dawn...Still haven't been able to watch the video I had done of our distance workshop, Dawn had replied on the Wednesday and I hadn't had time to read through all the comments when this happened and maybe I never will read them.....

Thanks to Sue for taking Sennen and I out for a lovely walk down to Porth Jolly, thanks for looking after us all during this time and for driving me up to pick Mindy up, made life so much easier.....

Thanks also to all those keeping in touch via emails, texts, facebook and in person, I don't quite know how I'd be without you all...

Photo's as promised!

Mindy with her posh harness made by Ruffwear
She really hates her photo being taken....

Yeah ha, she's using her bad leg to scratch her self!

one of Mindy's x-rays, unfortunately i didn't take any of her spine, as at the time we were under the impression she had broken her hip! and I think L2/3 are out of the shot...but not sure!

Mindy's Road to Recovery 7th july.

The vet, Peter Attenburrow suggested we kept a video diary along with things we have noticed not daily but every 3 days, so today was day 1, Monday was her operation after having a myelogram to find the problem she then had a minihemilamenectomy on her L2/3, she went in with very limited use of her back legs and hell of lot of pain and when we, Sue a dear friend and I collected her from Exeter, Peter walked her on this harness (ruffwear) down the hall to me, as you can imagine the tears, from us all....

She slept well coming home and changed sides a few times and ended up sleeping with her head on Sues lap as she was driving......Last night was stressful, we had decided to crate her so we could all sleep, she had other ideas and we panicked about the cry's that she was in pain so Ian slept in the lunge on the floor with her in his sleeping bag....Spoilt....

So this will know for the next few weeks become Mindy's blog, sorry family and friends who aren't into dogs, you will have to just not bother popping back until later in the year....

It's my way of dealing with it and the vet wants to see the video's...

We don't have to crate her, if we can supervise her, she is allowed 3 x 5-10 min walk on the posh harness from Ruffwear, added to the vet bill!!, also she can go out for wee time too, but I think I may keep that the same time as her walk, she has physio at least 3 times a day and when the stitches are out she can go to the water tread mill...He wants to see her in a month, to do some tests to see how she getting on....

And so our new life together begins.....

She will be spayed after this season which is due now, I couldnt think of breeding from her in case it puts too much strain on her back, not that I would have done it now anyway...well I would off if this hadnt happened.....so if any one wants "the book of the bitch" I have one spare! I know there will be a few dissapointed people, but hey there are plenty of pups out there....

It just wasnt meant to be..................

Mindy's Monday s update

photo was taken on Sunday whilst she was enjoyed a pain free snooze in the garden with Ian....

Well...
We had a quiet night last night, she went until 11pm before needing another injection, I'm getting good, poor Mindy turns herself inside out to get away from Ian, who was rather worried at hurting her whilst holding her as you can imagine, but we got the job done and I didn't "prick" myself this time!! and then she slept through until 7am, by my side on the airbed on the lounge floor, well there was no way I was going to crate her if this was to be her last night with us.
we walked around the garden before we left Ian carrying her, she showed so much interest int eh birds and flies and we popped her on the floor where she had a long wee (well it had been 24 hours since her last wee, yes 24 hours, but I am told that is normalish because of the drugs they are on) they was an improvement of the movement she had in her back left leg which the day before she couldn't place at all, meaning that if it was out at an odd angle, she would right it her self, well that didn't happen yesterday but this morning she would place it on occasions, her tail wagging was brilliant...bless her...

Anyway we got to Exeter for our 11 am appointment with Peter Attenbourgh. He wasn't worried about her pelvis x-rays, but was worried about Mindy, he showed lots of care with her as he handled her and said he needed to put a dye into her Spinal nerve and see were the narrowing was...so that's what he did, we went to Darts Farm shop (thanks to Janet for suggesting it, a place where we could let the dogs out for a wee etc, without causing a scene and we could go and get a coffee turn right out of Exeter on the Exmouth road.)
We had just finished walking the dogs and had had a coffee, when Peter phoned and spoke to Ian and explained to him what the problem was, basically a herniated or slipped disc, that the only option was to operate and remove the debris from the disc or for her to be put to sleep, we had already spoken to Peter about how we felt re..quality of life and neither Ian or I wanted her with a set of wheels on, w e where fine about her having 3 legs as long as she had movement in her other legs, it just wouldn't be the Mindy with wheels, we know here she couldn't chase birds or go hunting these things are her top fun things, closely followed by agility with me!
So they operated whist she was still under, I cant remember the correct terminology for the procedure, but will ask them to spell it out tomorrow morning, anyway by the time we drove into the drive they phoned to say she was out and awake, well actually what they said she was out and up on her feet, fighting the sedative and she had tried to escape the crate when the vet nurse opened it to check on her, so she took her out and cuddled her on her lap till she feel asleep, she had been given a steroid injection to stop the swelling around the area.......

They will ring us tomorrow to tell us how she is doing and let us know when she can be collected...

So thanks again for all your thoughts and messages and again sorry if I havent got around to answering you all, but hopefully you will have caught up with it all...........

No sure what heading...

when time stood still...how can things change everything in a blink of an eye.....
Mindy has seriously hurt her self. We wont know the course of action or outcome until Monday, we have been sent to the specialist in Exeter, along with her x-rays.

how did she do it?
Well Mindy is like Zebedee or Tigger from the cartoons, she is always bouncing around, spring upwards, either to try and get our attention or excitement for her food or training etc. This time we had trained on Thursday morning, some seesaws and weave entries, I put her along with Harry back into the house whilst I took big dogs out for their walk at the same time as picking up their weekly pork and lamb bones and bringing home to chop up, I left big dogs in the car whilst I took bones to chopping board and went into house to get bags to put them in and then freeze (I always freeze my bones before they then get defrosted and eaten a week later, kills off bugs etc) I started chopping with Harry and Mindy the other side of the door and she was bouncing up and down looking out the glass in the door, when she screamed, I rushed to the door opened it to find her on her side screaming, so off we went to vets, since then it's been a blur, but basically she couldn't move her back legs and was paddling around with her front, I thought broken back, slipped disc etc etc....after x-rays she came home with IV in so we could administrate pain killers, so she didn't have to stay in the vets, anyway she ended going back in after only a slight improvement, so had been given stronger pain killers and sedatives until they got the level right for her and in the mean time sort the specialist out, the pictures look good along her spine all even gaps etc as far as we can see, but she still cant stand, but she has two what look like breaks in her pelvis, one looks more serious than the other.......
They wanted to keep her in until Monday, but after sorting out her fluids and pain treatment we are sorted in having her at home with us, but then she pulled the IV out when we went to give her last lot of meds, so now I've learnt how to do via the phone from the vets, how to inject into her scruff, when I got it in my head that if I didn't she would be in pain, she screamed as I was too "Pussy" doing it, so now I know "Just do it", so fingers crossed we get on okay doing that until Monday, she may look like a pin cushion by then...

Monday the plan will be to take her to Exeter for her 11 am appointment with Peter Attenborough (spelling) and they will inject a dye into her spinal cord and see what going on, along with them looking at the x-rays or doing their own and see what is happen, then we can go from there. We have been told she is by no ways out of the woods, we are just thankful we have her at home...
So please folks keep send us lots of happy calming vibes for now and until Monday at 11...
Thanks everyone again for all your Face book messages and texts, we may not get around to answering them all, but I cant tell you enough how comforting it has been to have you all here for us..
THANK YOU XXXX

Forced weekend at home!

whilst packing up the caravan for a weekend away, I moved some agility equipment and my back said "No way", so spent the next what seemed like hours, crawling back up to the house on all fours!
Much to Sennen's delight who thought it was a new game of shaping "jumping on my back trick"
So a weekend at home, is meaning lots of pills, not being able to stand, sit or lie down for very long, hopefully be better by next weekend......feel a lot better this evening....Ian gets to watch his grand prix, although he is very good and wears his ear phones, so not to send me totally bonkers. I did manage to go with him for a little walk in the woods with the dogs and they dutifully came back completely muddy, so poor Ian had to do the washing and me the blasting with the dryer, all 5 of them, as you can see the "puffs" are keeping warm inside Ian's jumper and under a fleece...spoilt??

Oh and I forgot Harry's birthday on the 11th June, so took a photo of him in my duvet before we went to sleep, well it was his birthday, but all my facebook friends would have seen it........

Hate it when your minds willing, but your body isn't.......hope it's just short term.