Bark! The Blog

These videos were taken earlier this week.  I wanted to have a reference to check on her progress as she recovers from the surgery.  As you can see, her limp isn’t that bad, which is why it took us so long to decide to go with the surgery.  We have been limiting her activity to short 10 - 15 minute walks around the block and she usually seems to walk and run around 70 - 80%.  Occasionally, I’ll treat her to a 15 minute romp in the park and after more running and jumping around, her limp will look much worse (like 50-60%).  The vet says that after the TPLO surgery, she should be back to operating around 85 - 95% and without pain.  I sure hope so…

Kaz at walking speed.

Continue reading →

The preparation for Kaz’s TPLO surgery has been the hardest part.   Endless hours have been spent worrying about her injury, researching it, and discussing alternatives.  In the end, we have decided that a TPLO surgery is the best solution to repair Kaz’s torn cruciate ligament.  Hopefully our time spent preparing for this surgery will be beneficial to a successful recovery.

Mental Preparation

The mental preparation has been rough.  Starting four months ago when we first noticed her limp, it has been a constant battle with my brain to determine the best solution for her.

It began with denial, “It’s just a slight limp, it’ll go away on it’s own.” When the limp didn’t improve after a few weeks I thought, “She probably just pulled a muscle.”  We took her to the vet and after a horribly confusing conversation where I still didn’t understand the severity of her injury; “She just needs a lot of rest and the prescription anti-inflammatory to heal her partially torn ligament.”  It wasn’t until I researched the injury on my own and talked to a second vet that I finally accepted that Kaz had torn her cruciate ligament and was going to need surgery to ever fully recover from the injury.

Continue reading →

Kaz usually likes to spend her days curled up on the couch, demanding belly rubs. But occasionally, she gets a little feisty and needs to do some serious wilderness romping and dog clobbering. Recently, one of those “rare occasions” caused her to tear her cranial cruciate ligament (the dog version of our ACL). This injury is going to require a $4,000 TPLO surgery where they will cut and rotate her tibial bone to repair the torn ligament.

Continue reading →

Logan and Buddy

Some of us have anxiously been awaiting the arrival of The Brummer’s new goldendoodle puppy.  Well, the wait is finally over.  Here’s a note from Lisa:

• He’s finally here and the boys decided that he is a “Buddy”.   He’s really a good dog (so far) and starting to adjust to his new family.   Nothing like starting over with potty training!  He doesn’t like his crate and it was a very noisy night/morning.   Hopefully tonight will be easier.
  Love
  Lisa

Riley and Buddy (and cast)