Post by catherine on May 21, 2009 0:24:37 GMT -5
Thank you, Joann. I appreciate that very much.
Well, here's today's update. The puppy, Maggie, came home this afternoon. She was in surgery for roughly 3 hours, for essentially two separate surgeries. Everything went very well. She's resting quietly in the living room with us, sipping on chicken stock and raw Katie milk with homeopathics added into each. You can see in her eyes that she's thinking that getting run over was ALMOST worth all this! Almost. And THEN...we had to take her outside for a potty break. Decidedly NOT fun! But the Vet wants her moving around and going out to do her business...regularly. It reminds me how they want people up and walking within hours of knee surgery these days. Ouch!
Well, this Vet is decidedly old school, quite insistent on me doing things HIS way with HIS patient. And just who's dog is it, and who is footing the bill again, I might ask...to the tune of $1880? He began by saying that Maggie "wasn't out of the woods yet". He basically said that he was letting her go home sooner than he normally would, to save us money...but he was concerned about how we care for her there. He wants her to stay inside, except for when we carry her out for potty breaks, for 10 days...check. He wants her dosed with his antibiotics and painkillers...check. He wants her back in 2 weeks to take out the metal staples...check (though I can probably do that myself). He'll take the rod out of her femur in about 3 months...check. However, he insists that she be fed a good quality dry dog food, like Science Diet or something, "because she needs a full compliment of minerals to regrow her bones"...no duh...and he doesn't like my idea of my feeding her homemade chicken stock and raw milk, go figure?! lol. I didn't even get into the whole raw meat debate with him!
It also turns out that he thinks Maggie has a touch of Demodidic Mange.. Though they couldn't find a single mite on her, she does have a few thin spots in her fur around her eyes, and her mother had mange as a young dog, I gather. I asked him how he knew it was one type of mange over the other...and he told me "30 years of being a Vet!". I told him I wasn't questioning his judgment, just curious about the differences between the two types. Wow...prickly! He said something about she didn't have it around her ear margins, and it had seemed to come on around sexual maturity. Ok, fine, whatever. It seems like a very secondary issue, to me. I would prefer not to compromise Maggie's immune system any more than it already is, for something comparatively superficial. I did some research online about Mange, and found a couple of really interesting natural remedies using either powdered Sulfur mixed with shampoo or a Hydrogen Peroxide and Borax solution rubbed in or sprayed on and left on the dog . Apparently the Sulfur or Borax act as insecticides and the shampoo or H2O2 act as the carrier agents. Apparently both are quite effective. Anyway, the Vet wants me to put some major chemical concoction on her neck so that she'll be mange free and shiny coated when she's all healed up, and would brook NO argument about my using a more natural approach. "What's the point of getting her all healed up if she's still mangy", he demanded! Eh?! Is life only worth while when you LOOK good?! I don't know...somehow...I must have...um... overlooked picking up his mange fixer concoction, YA, that's it! It's just the Darnedst Thing! Hey, I can treat her face myself...it's a long way from her hind legs, afterall.
So, we brought Maggie home cushioned with towels on a small sheet of plywood like the Queen of Sheba. Her mother and siblings greeted her like she was returned from the dead! They all reverently touched noses with her and then barked their heads off as they frisked around the yard and then came back to gently touch noses with her again. It was really very sweet. I might add that NONE of our little pack has gone NEAR the road all day, not for the hated trash truck, nor the looked for school bus, or even the nasty old UPS truck! They didn't even trot down our drive to see us off or greet us upon our return! Halleluia! Maybe the silver lining to this entire disaster is that our car chasing pack of LGDs (they came to us that way...in the hopes that we were at the end of a quiet enough road for them to forget their awful habit) may have finally learned their painful and oh so expensive lesson!!!
Now, to see how easily she passes the night. It may be a bumpy ride! She isn't due her next pain medicine until noon tomorrow, but she started whimpering about an hour ago. I gave her some more water with all her homeopathics in it, including but not limited to Hypericum for pain, and she's calmed down and gone to sleep. I tell you, my husband swears by my homeopathic concoctions, ever since he had to have his foot reconstructed. I was able to keep his pain at bay, except when he was in the hospital under doctor control...and there he needed morphine! They sent him home with more of the same, but he didn't need to take it. I'm hoping I can do the same for Maggie, though rest easy knowing that I've no intentions of letting her suffer if I can help it. I'll let you know how she's doing in the morning. Thanks again guys, for all your support. Please send any spare pennies to the SAVE DUMB DOGS fund, or to CAR CHASERS ANONYMOUS! We'll be setting up branches in your area, soon!
Well, here's today's update. The puppy, Maggie, came home this afternoon. She was in surgery for roughly 3 hours, for essentially two separate surgeries. Everything went very well. She's resting quietly in the living room with us, sipping on chicken stock and raw Katie milk with homeopathics added into each. You can see in her eyes that she's thinking that getting run over was ALMOST worth all this! Almost. And THEN...we had to take her outside for a potty break. Decidedly NOT fun! But the Vet wants her moving around and going out to do her business...regularly. It reminds me how they want people up and walking within hours of knee surgery these days. Ouch!
Well, this Vet is decidedly old school, quite insistent on me doing things HIS way with HIS patient. And just who's dog is it, and who is footing the bill again, I might ask...to the tune of $1880? He began by saying that Maggie "wasn't out of the woods yet". He basically said that he was letting her go home sooner than he normally would, to save us money...but he was concerned about how we care for her there. He wants her to stay inside, except for when we carry her out for potty breaks, for 10 days...check. He wants her dosed with his antibiotics and painkillers...check. He wants her back in 2 weeks to take out the metal staples...check (though I can probably do that myself). He'll take the rod out of her femur in about 3 months...check. However, he insists that she be fed a good quality dry dog food, like Science Diet or something, "because she needs a full compliment of minerals to regrow her bones"...no duh...and he doesn't like my idea of my feeding her homemade chicken stock and raw milk, go figure?! lol. I didn't even get into the whole raw meat debate with him!
It also turns out that he thinks Maggie has a touch of Demodidic Mange.. Though they couldn't find a single mite on her, she does have a few thin spots in her fur around her eyes, and her mother had mange as a young dog, I gather. I asked him how he knew it was one type of mange over the other...and he told me "30 years of being a Vet!". I told him I wasn't questioning his judgment, just curious about the differences between the two types. Wow...prickly! He said something about she didn't have it around her ear margins, and it had seemed to come on around sexual maturity. Ok, fine, whatever. It seems like a very secondary issue, to me. I would prefer not to compromise Maggie's immune system any more than it already is, for something comparatively superficial. I did some research online about Mange, and found a couple of really interesting natural remedies using either powdered Sulfur mixed with shampoo or a Hydrogen Peroxide and Borax solution rubbed in or sprayed on and left on the dog . Apparently the Sulfur or Borax act as insecticides and the shampoo or H2O2 act as the carrier agents. Apparently both are quite effective. Anyway, the Vet wants me to put some major chemical concoction on her neck so that she'll be mange free and shiny coated when she's all healed up, and would brook NO argument about my using a more natural approach. "What's the point of getting her all healed up if she's still mangy", he demanded! Eh?! Is life only worth while when you LOOK good?! I don't know...somehow...I must have...um... overlooked picking up his mange fixer concoction, YA, that's it! It's just the Darnedst Thing! Hey, I can treat her face myself...it's a long way from her hind legs, afterall.
So, we brought Maggie home cushioned with towels on a small sheet of plywood like the Queen of Sheba. Her mother and siblings greeted her like she was returned from the dead! They all reverently touched noses with her and then barked their heads off as they frisked around the yard and then came back to gently touch noses with her again. It was really very sweet. I might add that NONE of our little pack has gone NEAR the road all day, not for the hated trash truck, nor the looked for school bus, or even the nasty old UPS truck! They didn't even trot down our drive to see us off or greet us upon our return! Halleluia! Maybe the silver lining to this entire disaster is that our car chasing pack of LGDs (they came to us that way...in the hopes that we were at the end of a quiet enough road for them to forget their awful habit) may have finally learned their painful and oh so expensive lesson!!!
Now, to see how easily she passes the night. It may be a bumpy ride! She isn't due her next pain medicine until noon tomorrow, but she started whimpering about an hour ago. I gave her some more water with all her homeopathics in it, including but not limited to Hypericum for pain, and she's calmed down and gone to sleep. I tell you, my husband swears by my homeopathic concoctions, ever since he had to have his foot reconstructed. I was able to keep his pain at bay, except when he was in the hospital under doctor control...and there he needed morphine! They sent him home with more of the same, but he didn't need to take it. I'm hoping I can do the same for Maggie, though rest easy knowing that I've no intentions of letting her suffer if I can help it. I'll let you know how she's doing in the morning. Thanks again guys, for all your support. Please send any spare pennies to the SAVE DUMB DOGS fund, or to CAR CHASERS ANONYMOUS! We'll be setting up branches in your area, soon!