Tonight  I am so excited!  Rush puppy stood up on her back legs long enough to eat the treat.  She hasnt done that since before her first surgery.  She also did “sit up” on her own - again,  not since before her first surgery.  She has been doing “arms” for Greg but I have yet to ask her.

Last resort for the little Miss that would not leave the wound alone! 

Greg has informed me that Rush did “big arms” this weekend while I was in New Mexico.  Its a trick I taught so that she can jump into my arms.  She has not been able to do it since she has her hip replaced - although she had begun to do “little arms”, when is when I am kneeling down and she will jump into my arms.  I am hoping that she continues to improve.  She has one little sore left from her side injury and the hair has begun to fill in.  She has a patch on her back from the hip - although from that I am no longer able to see which hip was worked on.  We will keeping working our recovery 

I give up!  I cannot believe that this dog just cant help herself no matter what.  She ending up splitting two of her stitches and then she managed to lick the entire thing OPEN - WIDE OPEN!  It looks like hell, and she will not leave it alone.  We have her in a tee shirt non stop, with band aids covering.  I even have to wrap the tee shirt in duct tape (yes thats what I said) just so she will not wet the tee shirt and keep agrivating it.  Tonight its a mess.  I need to let it air but the child will not allow it.  I have tried the cone, wont help she gets out of it…  I dont know what to do.

I cant believe it - by morning Rush has ripped through one of her stitches, ripped the skin that was being held.  Too old to restitch, so I just covered it and hoped for the best.  Today  I took another look and we had ripped stitch number 2.   This time I took bandages and added some ointment and put them on to hold the skin more or less together.    In the after noon I looked at the rest of the stitches. They were looking tight - it was day 10 ready for them to cfome out and so I removed them.  The rest of them looked nice and tight… made sure Rush had her tee shirt on and went with it.  An hour later she has the remaining seal opened  back up - great.  So, vet wrap, bandages, ointment- and a tee shirt.  We will see.

Wait, no…. bust a stitch.  I just noticed tonight that Rush a broken one of her stitches in the center of her cut and because it is bothering her it is opening up.  Hubby is raiding the boys room to see if he has any shirts that we can use to cover her side while she heals.  I dont know if I should take her back to the vet tomorrow or not… hell, I didnt have anything in the calendar so I suppose I should.  I dont know if vets have the same rule as doctors with stitching things up after days of being open :(  We shall see.

She did good.  The veterinarian was pleased at how the site looked, Rush didnt mess with itat all and it healed nicely.  She did have to have an additional two stitches at the top where the top of the tube was because it was too big to just let it heal on its own.  Rush was very brave - she just put her head under my arm and didnt move until it was all done.  What a good baby.

I dont know what to say  :(  My poor baby dog just cant catch a break.  Today she was out to feed horses and either caught her side on a wire fence or Epic bit her… either way we spent the afternoon at the vet getting her stitched up and a drain put in.  10 days on limited actiivty - drain comes out in 5, remaining stitches come out in 5.  Heat packs two times a day with ointment to keep the drain free moving.  :(  My poor girl.

Oh man!  Rush has been feeling really good the last couple days.  I think she should be ready to move up her training even more!  I love this dog… she is just so different than my other kids. When I hug and kiss on her she just leans into me and asks for more.   I think that I will buy her a cool down coat as well (once I have paid off my other two).  :)  lol

I am very pleased with Rushs progress.  I have not been able to work with her as much as I would like, but we have been able to raise the jumps in our grid and extend the amount of time we work.  She has not shown any soreness in practice.  She does seem to get sore in the snow, so I try to limit what she does when there is snow on the ground.  She is such a happy puppy and when she is pain free her personality comes shining through.  I really like this dog, she just has so much and she is so different than my other dogs.  Funny how they are all so different. 

My little Rush was able to start rehab to day.  I am doing it myself because Rush is most comfortable with me that anyone else.  She also doesnt like car trips.  So, to keep her comfortable I will be doing her rehab at home.

We worked on cavalettis at 8″ - she did a nice even trot through them.  We did pinwheel work at 8″ (she did great).  We woked open weave-o-matics, she just dropped her head and paddled right through all the poles.  Which I found interesting because she had not done weave-o-matics in the past (we worked channels), what great style.  We did stretches and balancing exercises ,as well as perching.  She was focused and worked for a toy the whole time.  :)Success.

Rush had a recheck appointment today (this morning at 7:50)  :)  They rechecked and re exrayed. Said everything looks good.  He would like for her to remain on crate rest another 2 weeks.  Then she is released to her rehab (with me) and into her regular agility routine slowly until May?  I cant remember if he said March or May because I was thinking about how I would bring her back into shape and not listening! 

My little girl

Click any photo to enlarge

Day after surgery… just a little woosey.

These are of the original cup\

Epidural  

New cup - no screws

Rush went in for her second surgery on the same hip.  She never healed correctly and none of the x-rays showed any issue, so they decided to go in.  Their guess was that the cup had come lose and the wiggle caused her pain.

When they went in, they found that the cup was only being held by one screw.  She never grew any bone in the crevaces like she should have - they dont know why.  So, they removed that cup and put in a new one.  The new one however did not stick either.  They chose to go with a “new technology” cup which was self drilling.  No screw was required it simply screws itself right into the bone.  It is a 26mm (old one was 23 mm) (mm or cm???  sorry cant remember).  But the technology for this is brand new so I am very excited.

The hopes for her is that she will be 99% when they are done. The doctor is being really cautious this time and wants 4 weeks of complete crate rest - no leash walking even.  Uhg!!!  But if she can play painfree when we are done - its worth all the pain of the rest!!! 

Rush with sissy Katelyn

We have pretty much used all our money and all our resources.  We were unsuccessful with making progress in rehab which unfortunately is what I expected.  It has almost been 1 year since her hip replacement.  As a matter of fact I will make the last payment on Friday - and Tuesday will be the second surgery. 

Since the surgery her progress of recovery has not been good.  We have run through all the rehab/rest/drugs/prayer and have seen no relief for her.  Poor baby was only 1 year old for the first surgery and she will be going back into surgery on Tuesday.  They think that maybe the cup that the hip is sitting in has come loose… they wont know until they go in.  IF that is what it is then they will make one of a couple fixes.  They feel that she should recover from the second surgery within a months time and they expect 99% - 100% normal if all goes well.

I got Rush in hopes of another wonderful agility dog like my Ice and although Rush has the heart for the work she has never had the health to do it.  She has been in alot of pain and I can only pray that she will soon be through that and on her way to be the dog she wants to be (wild and crazy little girl that she once was) 

The doctors that I spoke with feel very strongly that this will fix Rush up and make her as close to 100% as possible.  I am hoping at the very least to take away her pain, and at the most… let her play agility!!!  What a miracle that will feel like it this works.  I will keep you posted on her progress next week.

Well, the rehab is not helping.  We keep trying different things, but nothing seems to ease the pain in that hip. We are going back to Dr. Swainson to see what now.  I already know the answer, I dont want to do this again.  Moms know though dont they.

Well, the medication for the front end seemed to help.  I havent seen any limping from her in about a week.  We did a rehab last Monday and one again today.  The rehab doc showed me some simple exercises and prescribed another medication to go with the other two that the other vet had given.  She said if we hit this hard, get her comfortable and then maybe she would start to use that leg and gain strength.  We have been doing walks and stretches… today she went back in.   I had to report that I saw no change in her at all.  We did more lazer and this time put her in the underwater treadmill just for a few minutes, not full of water, to get her used to it.  She hates it!  hates the visit!  Hates being messed with.  So another week of meds and stretches and walks and we will see next Monday if there is any difference.  However, I kind of feel like all this is just not worth it…  :(   I mean if I could have a dog that was healthy again after I would be all for it, but it seems like the things that rehab is doing is what I had been doing (only for free) and she got worse…

so we will do it… and see 

I took Rush to the vet because she has started limping on the front leg and she seemed really depressed.  I had already scheduled her rehab to start on Monday, but I wasnt sure if I should.  What if she had Lyme disease or something.  I did take her in, but again the vet could not find anything.  He put her on some medication to help with the pain and hopefully take the pain/limp out of the front end.  We did not do blood work because what I thought it was would be $250 - $400.00 worth of blood work that the vet did not really think was the problem. Chances were that lack of use of the back leg was maybe straining the front.

So, we are on a wait and see. 

Well, we continue to struggle with the leg.  The specialist says I need to rest her and he would like for me to do rehab. However, the rehab is $300.00 and 45 minutes one way away.  So with my current financial and time restraints, rehab is going to have to wait.  I will do it once my schedule eases up which depends on my kids.  :)  They are doing on-line schooling and still require help from me alot.

Anyway, I take her for walks each day - she hates not being able to play, but any kind of play hurts her. 

Keep you posted.