About noon on Tuesday, Teo dropped in on his final ski run.  I have no doubt that doggie heaven is filled with snowballs and elk poop flavored treats.

Turns out all the recent issues are tied to a megaesophagus and some time saturday night or sunday he aspirated into his lungs.  You can imagine the raging pneumonia infection that got going.  After 48 hours of high level antibiotics, he fever was still going up, he had stop engaging with me during visits and he still couldn’t stand – let alone go anywhere under his own power.

I had to make the hard call, I think it was only fair to him because of the multitude of issues.

Thank you to the tri-pawd community for you help and support.

The last 96 hours have been a little challenging.  My first thought was he caught his wrist in a squirrel hole in the backyard.   Starting Friday he was increasingly stubborn, growly and un-motivated to perform the basic function of pooping.  Sat and Sunday were weird but I figured his wrist hurt so I found myself carrying Teo to the poop spot and back to the house.

Saw the vet today and it appears that he is suffering form a chronic shoulder hyper-extension.  He has developed pretty impressive shoulder muscles on the remaining arm – causing him some pain that is not managed by the Novox.  As he tries to shift more weight to his rear, it means he needs to extend his front limb – causing more pain. Rest. Ice, Meds….. and hope things heal up a little.

We went from being slow and pokey on Friday to 5 steps and a collapsing rest — 5 more steps and an collapsing rest in the span of less than 4 days. Needless to say, making it to the poop zone is challenging at best.

If any vets online have ideas – please message me.  Our vet ran bloodwork, MRI and 2 separate vets did an ortho exam.  He is on 75mg Novox 2x/day and now 50mg Tramadol 2x/day.

Chris.

Teo up to his ears in deep powder.  It’s remarkable the vertical hop height he can achieve.

Our first trailrun of the spring.  Still a little snowy but worth the effort.

Spring crust cruising for the ball.  The squeak was frozen so he didn’t get the result he was expecting.

It’s a bumper sticker I saw on a ski bum car last week.  While it relates to skiing big lines and looking good doing it, I think it’s a great reminder of the struggle the dogs and their owners here go through.

It’s been almost 3 months since Teo’s surgery.  The best way to describe his attitude is: It ain’t no big deal.  He plays hard with his friends, takes world class naps and seems to have mastered the bounding hop thru snow.  My friends all think he runs faster post surgery.

I’ll get some new video up soon.

Teo celebrated his 1 month mark yesterday; he has adapted so well to his new life.  His coat is filling in very well, the seroma is gone and he has more energy than he knows what to do with.

He’s been training hard to get ready for a ski trip later in the spring.  Jumping, chasing, snow bounding and sit-ups are all part of the physical therapy routine to prepare.  The interesting thing is that he is better at hopping/bounding in deep snow than with 4 legs; he used to engage the 4 low drive and plod through the snow…. now he looks like a fox chasing a mouse under the snow.

Teo got the green light to go big from the vet today.  He does have a moderate seroma under the incision site however we are going to give it a week or 4 to absorb and mitigate itself.  He got his stitches out and got the all good to run, play ball, rip sick snow lines and generally go as big as he wants.

Given that he has been on light duty since early December, his endurance will need some building but we are on the road to normal life.  Will he get to go on the “Yurt ski Trip”??? we’ll see what happens.

Young Teo is rearing to go…… on walks, play ball, sit in the snow….. anything we will let him do!  His mom has taken him on some adventures to the park and he’s had some play dates with his quad friends.  Everyone seems to sniff his scar and then take it easy with him.

His tummy seems to have finally settled a bit now that we are off the Novox and he’s excited to get his stitches out on Tuesday.  I’ve cleaned out the t shirt closet to re-purpose a few and Teo was able to avoid the “cone of shame” all but one day very early after surgery.  He’s done a few stairs with heavy supervision and a little help to visit me at work.

Truck’n along down easy street seems to be the theme this week.  He’s very excited to have 2 older friends over for a 4 day sleep over and the cat is getting chased around the house again, much to her secret pleasure.

Time to grow some fur back and move on with life!

Today was a big day for the family.

Teo had grown increasingly stubborn with his eating habits during my 48 hour work shift.  I was able to pop in and help mom with critical operations like finally getting a poo out and removing fentynal patches.  But upon arrival home this morning, Teo was basically snubbing his nose at food and treats.

A little Tripawd site research revealed tuna and other stinky products as a must try and I think I hit a home run with tuna….. We’ll see in 48 hours if I’m being overly confident about that statement.

We removed his bandage (6 days post surgery) and all looked great in there – a neat stitch line, no puss or swelling and no redness/swelling.

And then we made a bold move, we violated Drs. orders and we took a leash-less walk and played ball!  All went well, Teo LOVED it and we confirmed that it’s up to the pawrents to throttle life back so Teo doesn’t rip stitches or worse.

As I write, kitty bad paw is eating the leftovers of Teo’s tuna/kibble dinner.  Eat it or lose it is having real consequences!

Thank you for the all the love the Tripawd community has sent, I can confidently say we are over the hump and life gets better by the hour.

The great appetite Teo had that first day home was a little misleading; everything that went down the pie hole came right back up during the night, repeatedly! So we made a trip back to the vet for some anti-emetics to calm the nausea and another med to get his bowels moving.

So, now we are keeping food down and lounging around in a general malaise, I swear the world he sees must be all pink elephants and butterflies.  This morning during a quick walk we came across some fresh moose tracks and he stopped dead in his hop.  In his opioid fueled world I think he was scared the moose would jump out an get him.

Soon enough the fentanyl patches will come off and he should be a little more with it.  At least the swelling seems to be going down and he is sleeping through the night.

We picked up Teo from the vet.  I guess he had a rough first night, some general discomfort despite the pain pump catheter and he had some bleeding from the stitches.  Not unexpected given the scale of the surgery.  The vet was so great and even came in at 2am to check on him, to find he had pee’d his crate.  The next morning he walked outside but didn’t get rid of anything.  They keep him the second night to monitor the bleeding/swelling and keep the pain pump in.

So we picked him up today, he was soooooo excited to see us.  A car ride home with lots of treats (he didn’t eat a lick the whole vet time) and he pee’d outside and ate lunch upon arrival home.  He has bi-lateral fentanyl patches for pain and some Novox.

We were prepared for the incision but it’s all covered up with a compression wrap.  And as prepared as we were for all this, it’s still funny how goofy he looks with no front leg.  We looked at lots of photos, there is even another tripawd in town but it’s so weird to see him missing it.

To sum it up, he’s eaten, pee’d and poo’d since arriving home so all is well.  The swelling will reduce in time and the primary task is keeping him calm till the wound heals.  I think Teo has some crate and “cone of shame” time ahead of him because we are looking at a killer powder day in the hills tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh91OJFNnrY