Appointment with Matthew

After a small amount of agonizing I decided to book an appointment for Kenz with Matthew just to see where he felt things were at. I'll start with the good news - he to thought her shoulder problem had improved substantially and had good range of motion - a small victory after all we have been through.

Her right hind - he could feel a substantial build up of scar tissue where she tore her gracilus muscle. However, he again said that would not be to much of a problem or concern.

Her left hind - not to bad he said she still had a fair bit of muscle wastage but the knee felt reasonably stable. He told me to make sure I stretch her hip out 2-3 times (holding for 20-30 seconds) before I walk her.

The bad news is there is quite a lot going on in her spine to the extent she is developing a number of substantial changes. She is developing quite a roached back and Matthew isn't so keen on her going back to agility but feels obedience may be ok. He told me to make sure I massage it to keep things as loose as I can.

At this stage his recommendation is to try and avoid to much free activity (or fence running) and stick with 20-30 min leash walks until she has been back to see John in another 3 weeks. So we keep with more of the same and keep waiting and seeing.

Conversation with Emma and other bits and pieces....

So we are now at the end of 11 weeks post surgery and still not really sure where things will be. John again reiterated in an email yesterday that things weren't as stable as he hoped and we may still be faced with the prospect of needing a revision surgery in a months time if the situation wasn't improving.

As was agreed earlier in the week I rang Emma this afternoon and had a fairly lengthy chat on the situation. She gave me a few ideas if it was her dog and I feel entirely comfortable with what we discussed. She agreed I had probably been super conservative to this point and that I really need to try and push through where things are at. Either the situation will get worse in which case surgery is likely to be pretty inevitable else the situation will be much improved with the increased muscle and no further issues will result.

So with that her view was to increase off-lead time away from home but don't encourage her to go quite all out (if I can help it), not stress about what she gets up to at home, to work to building her leash walks if I can and to try and get her to the point in a couple of weeks time before going back to John where we try a couple of 30 min leash walks and see how she does.

As to other happenings over the last few days - 

I have had a few emails with Matthew and he mentioned the possibility of acupuncture and at this stage I am not sure but do think an appointment with him is on the cards before going back to see John as well.

I guess the picture isn't super clear at this point but think at this stage its a case of pushing her a bit, seeing how she does and it will hopefully make the picture a little clearer one way or the other.

Kenz Monthly Specialist Follow Up

So Kenz had her 10 week/monthly follow up with John this morning. Poor little girl I must be starving her as she has dropped to 12.5kg. Might be time to start feeding her up again.

Any way the good news - John felt the patella was more stable then it was a month ago however the bad news it is still slipping out the groove a little bit. She has regained some muscle mass but still has more to rebuild and the hope is that when she has rebuilt the remainder it will be more stable and nothing further will need doing.

At this stage I am to keep increasing her walks and pushing her and doing more sit to stand type exercises.

John also checked her RH and shoulder and said everything felt fine there.

No training for at least the next month and she is back to see him in 4 weeks time.

Worst case scenario is still further more aggressive surgery involving a TTT (Tibial tuberosity transposition). Effectively putting us back to square one with more rest and further rehab. So hoping we can avoid that.

As for how the remainder of the day panned out - hmmm I half expected it but by mid afternoon I observed some weird (possibly patella slipping but not entirely sure since I was side on and it just looked different) going on with her surgery leg. Grrrrrrrrrrr so much for John not intending on breaking her any further.

So sent a message to Emma and as things stand she is back to 15 min max walks for the next couple of days and I'll ring Emma on Friday and have a chat about what to do with her at that stage. This saga just keeps continuing :(. 

10 Weeks Down

So today is the end of 10 weeks post surgery for miss Kenz. Life is starting to get back to normal. The increased freedom over the last few days seems to have touch wood not resulted in any set backs and she seems to be doing well. She is back to racing along the fence in small doses and other than avoiding the stair case by choice she is doing fine around the house.

We have been a little rebellious in that she has had a couple of off-lead walks to the extent of her being happy to just trot along up in Brownhill creek along the track.

As to the where to from here - John wants to see her back in the next week or so to assess her muscle rebuilding so she is back to see him next Tuesday.

Emma has said we can try one 25 min walk over the next week (instead of the usual 15-20 min) and also add in 5 minutes of training every third day for the next 2 weeks and so long as there is no increase in 3 leggedness after the 2 weeks we can move to 10 minutes every second day.

I also have to start finding more hills for her to leash walk up/down and across.

So we have progress :).

I thought I'd also post a video of her walking out the front tonight - so far so good she seems to be moving without to many issues.

Kenz Physio Appointment

So Kenz had her appointment with Emma this afternoon. The good news is that the patella stability was apparently slightly improved but she also didn't push it to much. Apparently the crepitus Emma felt three weeks ago she didn't feel this time. She did however feel that there is still some lateral movement of the patella though. Emma thinks Kenz has about a 20-30% improvement in muscle since her appointment 3 weeks ago. Like last time Kenz had some soreness higher up in the surgery leg but also had some significant soreness in the joints leading out from the spine on both sides.

At this stage we are to continue on as we are with gradually building leash walks. She is allowed to start being loose around the house more often and it was suggested I gradually build up to leaving her loose when I am not around.

She did make the comment that if the surgery had been completely hassle free at this point Kenz should be free to do as she pleases but can understand my hesitation in leaving her unsupervised for a full day.

Lots of sounding a little more hopeful that things may one day be back to normal and we may yet get back to doing what we love to do.

Kenz Another Rocky Evening

So the walks have been continuing and she is lapping up every moment of it. Things had been going mostly ok until yesterday afternoon. For whatever reason every time Kenz got up there was an unquestionably, sore and very sorry border collie who was on 3 legs and really battling.

Today was an improvement. She spent the day mostly in the car tagging along to her older sisters tracking trial and having cuddles on Karron's lap. Such a sooky little girl.

Fingers crossed the latest is just general muscular soreness and nothing much to worry about rather than being related to the patella as such.

Kenz Post Surgery Week 9

Tomorrow marks the end of 9 weeks since Kenz's surgery. This week has been slightly improved over last week in that we have had less 3-legged lameness episodes and a run of a few consecutive days where she hasn't been to bad at all. She has been happy with her 2 or sometimes 3 x 20 min walks, feral at home and otherwise not looking to bad.

She is due to see Emma again next week and things seemed to be ok. Tonight the picture is looking a little less rosie. For some reason she is mega sore and carrying the leg again.

Hoping she is better again tomorrow. At least she won't be spending the day in her crate as she would normally be on a Thursday and will instead be spending it laying in front of the heater, underneath my computer desk supervising my never ending thesis revisions. What a hard life she lives!!

This weeks photo is of her posing with her new Ruffwear Lunker toy which arrived this week courtesy of a Waggle FB competition which we won.

Kenz - Yet another 3 legged incident

Grrrrrr this time she was playing i-squeak in my bedroom. Nothing overly energetic. I turned around to see what Ness wanted and turned back to find the squeaking had stopped and Kenz was standing there looking pitiful and placing bugger all weight on her leg. This is insane!!!! She wouldn't walk, just stood there silently. I rolled her onto her side, gave her a massage and she was still reluctant to move.

After about 5 minutes or so she decided to get up and went underneath the bed to snooze.

I am so over lame dog. Well and truely frustrated with the entire situation.

Kenz Post Surgery Week 8

So we are through 8 weeks post surgery and while its still not smooth sailing it seems to be ok. She is still having random 3 legged episodes more frequently then she did pre-surgery. She is using the leg well most of the time though when she is walking.

After Sunday's interesting episode I contacted Emma to find out if I should still increase her walks and she said no just leave it at 5-10 min till Friday.

Monday night she was obviously uncomfortable in that she wouldn't sit or if she did would sit really slowly and started biting her leg. I ended up giving her a pain killer and that seemed to settle things back down.

She is now tolerating her 2-3 x 10 min walks a day (although they are more like 15 min walks) and is wanting more so thats a promising sign.

So long as things remain as they are we are able to start with 15 min walks tomorrow and hopefully there are no more set backs.

Kenz Post Surgery Day 52

Yesterday saw us head up to Monarto for a club tracking training session. We headed off with Karron and Kenz got to have cuddles and a few short off-lead sniffs around the area while we were waiting for tracks to be ready to run. She was using the leg ok and seems better off-lead then on.

John got back to me about what I noticed on Thursday and has said to hang in there for the next 3-4 weeks and see if things improve. If not he will reassess the situation when she has rebuilt some muscle and we will see what we need to do at that stage.

 After tracking had finished we headed up to the river to visit my parents. Kenz had plenty of time roaming around and enjoyed the relative freedom I gave her. No more leash restrictions so long as she wasn't racing around like a lunatic. She was moving nicely and without to many issues - in fact my parents thought I was having them on when said she had been really bad only a few days earlier.

Well that was until lunchtime today and she had been resting in the kitchen on the floor and got up and had a stretch and obviously slipped the patella and ended up back on three legs and an all to familiar picture. In no great hurry to put the leg back down until I came over and massaged it - sigh so much for surgery having fixed the problem.

She is worse now then she was pre-surgery and I am heart broken. We did however manage a 10 min leash walk around the block on a short lead and harness tonight when we got home. I am so unsure as to what the future holds for her its not funny and I am very teary over the current situation.

Any way I thought I'd take advantage of nice break in the weather and take a few photos of her getting some fresh air and having a potter round the garden up at the property.