One step at a time

Snoopy’s staples FINALLY come out tomorrow.  I’m pretty excited, and if she knew, I would bet you any money she’d be more excited than me.

She’s doing really well, but now she’s walking a little slower and there seems to be a little bit more of a skip in her step.  Not the good kind.  But she’s been beating herself up lately too.  4 days ago is when she ripped out a couple of her staples, and that didn’t seem to teach her a lesson, because she keeps jumping for bugs.  There goes 2 more staples.  THEN Murphy tried to “help” and lick her cut.  Bad idea Murph.  That caused a little fight and *POOF* there went the stitching at the one end.  So needless to say, we are VERY excited to have this stuff out.  Woo!

I’m so happy for her though, because she’s able to sit again for the first time in a month!  Yay! 

I’ve found one of those stair helper harnesses.  I’m so happy!  The one’s on here were out of my price range, but on Doctors Foster & Smith I found one for only 18.99!  Woopie! Now I just have to wait for it to get delivered.  MAIL!  Where are you!?!

Snoop’s been acting more playful though.  She’s always carrying some sort of toy in her mouth.  Its adorable.  She wants me to throw it, too.  I’ll wait till the staples are out for that one too…

More to come!  Hooray for tomorrow!

Well today started off really well, however Queen Snoopy doesn’t share her property very well. AND she is 100% sure that the backyard (which i share with my parents) is entirely hers and Murphy’s, so when she heard my parents dog barking she went INSANE and started jumping everywhere trying to find her. She had jumped up high 4 or 5 times before I could get to her and make her stop. It wasn’t until after that she realized she shouldn’t have done that and now she’s in lots of pain and even ripped out 2 staples. Dang.

When I was given Snoopy’s prognosis in May of 2-3 months I couldn’t believe it. As time passed and September came my only wish was that I would have Snoopy on my birthday. Well here’s my birthday and my tripawd pup is sitting on the couch right next to me. I couldn’t ask for a better birthday. Thanks Snoopy Loopy! My best girl. 🙂

Anyway, recovery is still going really well. I’ve noticed her surgery site is leaking a little bit, but other than that she’s great! She can hop on the couch now, and with a little help can even hop on my bed. I can’t wait for the staples to come out so we can go for a walk 🙂 I think that she’d like that. I also can’t wait for the staples to come out so she can get a bath! Goodness me, its all i think about. She’s a stinker.

Murphy (the four legged dog in the family) is staying at my parents during her recovery, but I think its about time that he come back home. Yay! I’ve missed him too.

Hey other tripawd havers – what should i do about stairs? I can’t afford one of those harnesses with the handle on the back that they sell on here, and they don’t seem to sell them in any pet stores by me. Any suggestions?

I know that everyone has been telling me that there are good days and bad days with this surgery, but I have to tell you, we haven’t hit a bad day yet! She has been frolicking around all over the place chasing moths, playing with toys and trotting around following me. She is so happy!

Yesterday, we went to the vet for a quick follow up to take the pain patch off, and snoopy decided that she wanted to pee on something. Now I have to mention that she’s always had a bit of an identity crisis. My girl dog always lifts her leg to pee on things. So she see a planter that she wants to pee on and actually LIFTS her leg up. Now I know what you’re thinking, or at least what I was thinking at the time…”oh dear, she is going to fall over!” right?

Wrong.

This crazy girl of mine actually balanced herself on her front feet! It was awesome! needless to say she’s in great shape. Woo hoo!

Well I’ve figured out how to add pictures into posts. Took me long enough…

Here is Miss Snoopy with her brother Murph on her birthday:

She was nice enough to share her birthday treats with Murphy

And her a couple weeks before surgery.  Her lump was getting so big 🙁

Here she is right after her surgery, before I took her to spend the night at the emergency vet And finally, here she is after i brought her home 😀

Hey everyone!

I had no idea that so many people would read this blog!  Thanks!  This is my very first one.  A couple people were interested in Snoopy’s history so here goes:

I got Snoopy Oct 6th, 2010 after her previous owners committed a murder suicide.  She was taken to the SPCA where it was determined that she had an embedded collar, worms, had fleas her whole life and was trained to fight other dogs.  The SPCA was going to put her down when they contacted the dog rescue I volunteer for (Black Dog, Second Chance). My parents agreed to watch my own dog while I fostered her to save her life.

We started these awesome dog training classes, first private, then group classes! She was a star 🙂

In November I found a small lump on her right hip.  I took  her to the vet and she said that it was just inflammation at an injection site where they gave her vaccines at the SPCA.  She even said it might get a little bigger before it got smaller.  The lump gradually got larger, and in January I took her back to the vet.  They did an aspirate and it came back as malignant, but they couldn’t determine the type of cancer.  We removed the lump February 10th, 2011.  The biopsy came back as a subdermal hemangiosarcoma.  The vet said that she was good to go for being adopted out.

We thought everything was good as gold until May when i could feel a small lump under her scar.  I took her back thinking that we could do another tumor removal, however after an ultrasound we found a tumor on her spleen.  Her cancer had spread.  We decided not to remove the tumor on her hip and I was given a prognosis of 2-3 months.

In June I decided to make her an official part of my family and let her live out her days with me 🙂  We kept training and training and now she’s living with me AND my other dog Murphy 🙂  One big happy family.

As the time passed, her tumor grew and grew to the size of a grapefruit on her hip.  She couldn’t put any weight on it, whined often and constantly licked it.  I was told to put her down by numerous people.  I took her to the vet and he said that my only amputation was an amputation.  I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted since she is living on borrowed time as it is, but other than the pain she was in amazing shape!  The vet even said that for any other dog he wouldn’t recommend an amputation for any other dog in her predicament, but said that she was SO resilient that she could take it!  So off to surgery we went and here we are.

I can’t wait to get over the recovery phase so we can play and walk and go crazy like always 🙂

Sorry for the crazy long post…I’ll stop talking now 😉

So my lovely lady snoop just had her back right leg removed yesterday. She had a subdermal hemangiosarcoma. She was in a lot of pain beforehand, and now that her grapefruit size tumor is gone, she seems to be doing really well. Her bum is all wiggly, not to mention she is excited that she gets to eat spoonfuls of philadelphia cheesecake filling three times a day. She doesn’t know her medicine is in there, and I won’t be the one to break the news to her. Ignorance is bliss.

I put off this amputation because I thought that it would destroy her, or that she wouldnt know how to get around and would give up. But actually it’s the exact opposite! She has a new lease on life for however long she has left. I couldnt be happier that I did this. I have seen her move so quick in weeks!

So, day 1 of recovery is going really well. She’s definitely in a little pain, and cried a lot of last night before her next pain pills were due, but this morning she is back to the upbeat, crazy dog I knows and love.

More to come…