Monday, August 31, 2009

Paddywack

Yesterday, we picked up our latest foster, FF Peppermint, otherwise known as Paddywack. He is an 80 pound black boy, about Dax's size. He is big, sweet, funny, silly, goofball. He is terrible in the car. He just tried to get in the front seat of the car a good bit of the trip. In the house, he is okay with the cats. Just a little, pushy interested, but he'll be fine. He is always on the furniture, which is fine with us. He loves the couch and slept with us last night. He is still learning to work the couch, and has fallen off twice :) He is unhurt. He actually just slept right there on the floor where he fell! He has gotten in Tim's lap a few times and mine as well. This dog is a ton of fun, stubborn, but fun! He's learning some manners and figuring out how things work off the track. Here are a few pictures of Paddywack.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Dax update #3, this weekend, and a photo

Last night, Dax and I did not sleep. Some how Tim slept through the pacing. Dax's wrap had come off, and I don't know if he was just freaked out by the stitches, they itched, or hurt when they touched stuff or what, but he would not stop pacing. No panting, just pacing. I ended up wrapping it after I let him go potty, and that settled him some. Ugh, what a long night.

Stitches were removed this morning. That was relatively uneventful. We did get to see our vet this time. She took them out and said his tail looked good. Hopefull, we are on our way to recovery!

We get foster #11 tomorrow. We are not sure who it will be yet, as some one is coming to look at the two possibilities as I type, but someone is coming tomorrow. We are meeting Lesley at the Howerton's. They are fostering a brother to their dog Rita, and we get whoever the other person does not chose.

Lastly, a photo. A little while back, we had a photo made of Dax and his 3 brothers for the GPA-LA/MS 2010 Calendar. It was quite a shoot. Sorry I missed blogging about it. A lot was going on at the time. Anywho, the shoot was chaotic, but went well and we all got some good shots. All I was worried about was a picture of all 4, and that's what I got. So, without further ado, the "Lago' boys! From left to right: Dax (Lago Dave), Andrew (Lago Andrew), Fox (Lago Fox) and Bud (Lago Bud).

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Dax Update #2

Dax is handling life with a shorter tail pretty well. On Monday afternoon, I took him in to have his bandage changed. They took him to the back and changed it. I returned the e-collar, as we never put it on him. The vet who did the surgery complimented us on the condition of his bandage. It looked just as it did when they put it on. We made sure he left it alone by muzzling him with his poo-guard muzzle whenever he was unsupervised. He really has not even noticed it.

Then tonight happened. We had to go help our neighbor set-up her new computer. When Tim came back to grab something from the house, he let the dogs out. He said that as Dax went out the back door, he whimpered and then the wrap fell of. He did not hit it on anything, it pretty much just slid off. He watched him outside, then brought him back in, muzzled him and came back to tell me what happened. Tim then went back to the house to watch him until I came home. I came home and we decided to wrap it again, as Dax began to be interested in it, wanting to lick it and such. I did get to take a look at his tail. The stitches look okay. They only shaved about 2 inches. It is a little crusty, but everything was dry.

Now he is a little fidgety, like he was when he was in pain. I don't think he is in any pain. I think he is just re-aware of his wound and more cautious of it now. I think Tim is going to take him in first thing tomorrow morning and make the vet wrap it again, since they did not use the same tape this time and it obviously did not work as it should have. We kept the other wrap on for 7 days with no issues at all. This one, with a different kind of tape, barely lasted 24 hours.

Now he lays down for a minute and then paces some. I think I am about to give him a Benedryl just to relax him some. Hopefully he calms down soon...

Friday, August 21, 2009

Dax update

We were able to stop Dax's pain meds by Wednesday. He probably did not need them Tuesday night, but we gave him one last pill just to be safe. Since Wednesday he has become more and more his usual, goofy, silly self. He is pretty much back to normal now. His tail is still wrapped. After a little confusion over instructions, we were told to not take the wrap off. We have to bring him in on Monday so they can change it and look at it. The Vet who did his surgery thinks Dax chewed on his tail and that's how it got so bad, except for the fact he was muzzled any time we were not around once we started wrapping the tail. I could go on, but I am frustrated by the whole thing in that respect. Anyway, that's why we think they want us to keep it wrapped. Whatever. It's still wrapped. I just worry about keeping it dry, as it is rainy today. We will do our best.

So, Monday I will be able to update again, since we will have seen what we are dealing with then. Hopefully, it will be all good.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Dax is home

Dax's surgery happened a little before 3 p.m. CST. The vet's office called just around 3:45 p.m. to say all had gone well and he could still come home about 4:30 p.m. I left work and went to pick him up.

He was remarkably not groggy when they brought him to me. He seemed glad to see a familiar face. We went home.

I got him home and he seems okay. He's still pacing and panting some, but I think it's more nervousness now than pain. He doesn't get anymore meds until tomorrow. They did a full blood panel, gave him fluids (he was a little dehydrated), and gave him some antibiotics and pain meds during and after the surgery. They had given him a heavy sedative and a local anesthetic. I expected him to be more loopy than he is. I think he will lay down once we let him in the bedroom in a bit.

We gave him a small dinner, which he ate with no issue. He is peeing a lot, due to all the fluids he was given. The tail is wrapped nicely. Overall, I think everything is definitely better than yesterday and surely will continue to improve. I'll be sure to post his progress on here. I do have some pics of when we got home to share now.

Oh, and thanks again to everyone who has been concerned about our boy and wishing him well! We really appreciate it!

Dax's Surgery

Dax's surgery is scheduled for 2 p.m. I dropped him off around 9:30 a.m. They will call when he is done. We asked them to only take off about 6-8 inches. Just to make sure we got all the infection. I'll update once the surgery is over.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Dax's Tail

As usual, it has been way too long since my last post, but I have an excuse for at least some of the delay... Dax's tail.

So, like 2 weeks or so ago Dax got a case of "happy tail". As far as I can tell, he hit it on the brick wall outside in the back. I washed it with water and put some neosporin on it and we moved on. It seemed just fine. Life went on.

Well, Thursday before last, Tim came home early to what looked like a crime scene. Dax has knocked his tail open. We rinsed it and wrapped it. The next day, he got the wrap off while we were away and did it again. We re-wrapped it. At this point, it seemed a little tender, but we didn't think much of it, knowing he had hit it on something.

Saturday comes. We wrap it up before we head to New Orleans. My Mom came over to feed the hounds and Dax got the bandage off. Mom muzzles him and tries to re-wrap it with mild success and much attitude from him. It's obviously starting to hurt more. We give him some baby aspirin when we get home and wrap it again.

The next few days are just on and off wrapping, letting it dry out, and so on. Last Wednesday, we take him to the vet. We tell her what's going on and everything we had done. She said we were doing basically what she would have suggested, but it looks infected and obviously hurts him. She gives him some antibiotic and pain pills and tells us to try to let it dry out.

Over the next two days (Thursday and Friday) we talk to different people, including the vet again and start doing some wet to dry wraps where you mix up 8 parts water to 1 part vinegar and soak a gauze pad in the solution, put it on with a dry pad on the outside and wrap it up for a few hours. You also do a 10 minute "soak" where you put a washcloth in the solution and put it on the wound for that time period. These things lead to a change in the tail, but we aren't sure if it's better or worse.

Saturday morning we decide we need to see the vet again, so we do. She is mixed about it being better or worse. It is drier and not draining, but there was a fluid build-up above the wound. We also indicated the pain is still pretty good and she prescribed him more pain meds.

Saturday night was a disaster. Before bed, we gave Dax some Benedryl to calm him a little, as the vet said we could, and we did an Epsom Salts soak, also as suggested by the vet. This went okay. We decide to leave the wound open to let it dry some over night. This was fine until about 2 a.m. when Dax began to pace the room. He paced for about an hour. Tim took him out to see if he had to potty, and he did poo and pee. He came back in and still paced. I tried bringing him into the living room, we tried more dog beds in our bedroom, nothing worked. Finally, close to 4 a.m. we decide to try a wet to dry wrap again, as it seems to calm him some. That worked and within 30 minutes, he was asleep and slept until 8:30 a.m.

Once we got up, he went out, ate, got his meds and then just paced. When he finally laid down, we did another Epsom Salts soak, which was okay until the last 2 minutes when he started getting fussy about it. After that, he just paced and paced and paced and panted and whined (which he has done more and more and more). He finally laid down again after I gave him another dose of Benedryl. He licked it a little at that point and that was when the matted mess that was his tail was moved about to expose raw flesh. It's not pretty. I e-mailed the vet, and I think we are at the point where we will be amputating part of his tail. He is just in too much pain and the infection is not subsiding. The vet brought this up as a potential occurrence when we first brought him in, and we think we are there. We have sought the advice of all our greyhound "family" and everyone agrees it's the right thing to do now.

So, now we wait on the vet to contact us so we can set up a time to do the docking. I will miss his long tail, but I want him to feel better and in the end, it's just cosmetic. We are also going to have the vet do a culture of the wound to see what is going on with it really, partially just to be sure he is okay otherwise.

I apologize for not posting anything while this was going on, but no offense to anyone, but we were getting enough advice and this was a decision we needed to make and I didn't want too many people involved. Now that we are making a move, I am ready to talk about it. I just want my big blue boy to feel better and if this is what it takes, so be in.

I have some pictures of his tail, but I don't want to post them. They are kind of graphic.

I'll post again once we have a date and time. For now, I think he is finally a little settled again. There is no whining at the moment and I think he is napping. It's time to feed and for him to get more meds, Fingers crossed for a good evening.

Take care of your tails.