Rocky lost his leg
Rocky had a wonderful night. Slept right thru without the whimpering or whines of the night before. He woke up happy and had breakfast and back to sleep. I think he is making up for being awake for 24 straight hours. Next task is getting him to poop. He wants to just can’t figure out how. We will see if he is more comfortable trying today. Thank you to everyone who has posted to this blog. The support is wonderful and makes me feel more confident about my choices and the future
We picked Rocky up yesterday about 5pm. It took both of us to get him in the house, he weighs 125lbs. The evening went well until it was bed time. Rocky napped until then, then he couldn’t sleep. It was a very long night and morning. Two calls to the vet and I think we have him better medicated. He now on tramadol, gabapentin and a fentanyl patch. I hope we get a little more sleep tonight.
Rocky has amazed me with his strength. Two major surgeries in 3 weeks and he still the loving boy he has always been. He is doing really well getting up and moving. We are using the sling just for balance right now.
This is my first time blogging so be patient with me. Rocky is my very sweet 5 y.o. large Lab mix. He is a big baby and loves everybody and all other animal. We adopted him from the local shelter when he was 8 weeks old. He is well known in our neighborhood because he carries his own water bottle on our walks. For the last 18 months our walks have been limited by an unexplained limp. Lots of exams,x rays and meds and still nothing. Our vet finally sent us to a neurologist and he thought it might be a disc or pinched nerve. We had an MRI on October 24th, 2016. It showed a bulging disc and spinal stenosis around his left sciatic nerve. We thought great, surgery and he will do fine. We brought him home on the 26th and things looked good. Rocky did well for a few days then his recovery stalled and then went backwards. We saw the surgeon and he agreed and we started another pain med and hoped it was just a slow healing nerve. By November 12th it was obvious that something was wrong. On the night of the 13th Rocky would not walk even with his sling. He had another MRI on the 15th and our hearts were broken. His spinal surgery was just fine so they looked further and found a bone tumor in the head of his left femor. It had split the bone and was the cause or the pain. Options that were given were euthanasia or amputation. Well I love my big boy, so amputation it is. He went straight to surgery from the MRI. Wears now waiting to pick him up and start a new life with him. We don’t know what type of tumor it is yet. We are just praying for a good biopsy.
I am starting this blog to get as much info as we can about caring for a tripaw. I know we will be looking for a harness for this big guy. He is very tall and has a very deep chest any suggestion s where to look for larger items would be appreciated. I look forward to talking with all of you.
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