Comments on: Gimpy Dog …

By: LivingSmall » Humpty Dumpty

LivingSmall » Humpty Dumpty — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:52:36 +0000

[...] Yesterday I took poor Gimpy Dog over to Billings to the veterinary orthopedist. Even typing that makes me feel slightly ashamed of myself — we live in a nation in which an enormous percentage of our population doesn’t even have human health care, and I’m spending how much money on orthopedic surgery for my dog? So anyhow, I was really hesitant about this whole thing — not just because of the money, but because the effect of the first surgery, which was supposed to increase his mobility had exactly the opposite effect — he fell apart entirely. But this guy is a specialist, and does a lot of orthopedic work on animals, and I figured he could give me a reasoned idea about what we were facing. [...]

By: LivingSmall » A Foot of New Snow in the Doggy Infirmary …

LivingSmall » A Foot of New Snow in the Doggy Infirmary … — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:25:11 +0000

[...] It’s been quite a weekend here at LivingSmall. First, the gimpy dog has not recovered very well — turns out that his achilles tendon is falling apart, and his “good” leg isn’t really good enough to support his weight — it’s full of arthritis in the hock. So I think he’s having more surgery on Thursday to repair the achilles tendon, and then we’re going to have to order him some braces to support the poor arthritic hocks. With any luck, this will at least get him back on his feet and allow him to get around the yard and maybe go for short walks to the dog park etc. I’m sort of torn about all this — I’m not convinced that doing this much surgery on a dog is entirely fair to the poor little guy. He doesn’t understand why we keep hurting him, and I worry that there isn’t enough good leg to effect a proper recovery of the bad one, but there isn’t a lot of choice at this point. He can’t walk without a splint, and that tendon isn’t going to heal itself, so I guess we’ll give it a try. (Thank goodness I’m getting money back from Uncle Sam this year — I know there’s a war we should be paying for, but my contribution to gettting the economy going again is in the form of veterinary bills). But in the meantime — he chewed his foot out of the splint, and it promptly swelled up to at least twice it’s normal size, so the last 24 hours have been consumed with re-wrapping the splinted leg, then cutting him out of it when he starts mysteriously crying and chewing at it at midnight. It’s very loosely wrapped this morning as we wait for the vet’s office to open and he’s making little harrumphing sounds in the basket underneath the table so I don’t forget that he is not a happy camper. [...]

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:48:19 +0000

He’s a real pro at the pouty face — but he’s doing pretty well considering — and the incision is starting to look like it’s healing up — for a couple of days there it was really icky and red and puffy –

By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:05:43 +0000

Oh, poor guy… he’s even doing the pouty face in the picture! I’ve heard that the canine ACL surgery usually has very good results, so I guess it’ll all be worth it. It’s just no fun to see your dog in pain when they don’t understand why.