Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Donner's situation

It’s been a while since I reported on Donner’s situation, so here’s an update.

I rushed him to his specialist vet in Baltimore the day he went lame in his right rear leg, and after an exam, x-rays and other tests, they sent him home with pain killers to wait out the results of his blood work. The first days were spent helping him get around since he could not walk at all, mainly because he did not know that he could get around on his good rear leg.  I also spent the days getting the home ready for another disabled dog, which went quickly since I had been down that road twice before, more than that, really.

One other key task I had, perhaps the most important, was to get his spirit up as he was very depressed over what happened to him.  The only way you can do that is to do everything we did before, and we did.  I took him to his favorite dog parks and doubled as his guardian and his rear legs.  Over the next four days, his spirt returned to normal.

The following Monday the vet called and advised that they needed to do a biopsy on his rear right leg as the blood work hinted at an infection, so I returned to the vet the next day for that.  He still needed help with walking.  We left the vets with a handful of antibiotics (Clavamox) just in case there was an infection. The vet explained that a bone infection would cause the lameness we were seeing.

Within a couple of days, I stated to notice that he was dropping his bad leg a bit more each, but not really walking on it, using it mostly for balance.  In the meantime, he became a pro at walking on his left rear leg only. I knew that he achieved that status when I came home one afternoon and found him on my bed. 

The vet called a week later and said the biopsy confirmed an infection, and so they continued Donner on the Clavamox, for a period of six weeks.

He continued to show signs of improvement, but he is a long way from being able to use that leg for anything other than balance.  But he is dropping it to the ground, although clearly favoring it. He may never be the same as he was before.

In the meantime, I resumed his weekly swimming, one of his favorite treats (he understands the GPS instructions on when we are getting close, and gets all excited), and increased it to three times a week. Every day I give him at least one of his three favorite treats: swimming, rides in the Defender, or walks “to see his buddies.”

Take him for a walk?  How?  Fortunately, I kept Leben’s three-wheeled stroller and he absolutely loves it. Occasionally, when I cannot find him in one of his nine beds throughout the house, I find him sleeping in the stroller. I also ordered a four-wheeler as a backup.  Although I took all his measurements for a wheelchair, I will hold off on that until he loses the ability to walk on his good rear leg, which will eventually happen. In the meantime, I stroll him the three blocks to the waterfront and then let him get out and walk around, although he is just as comfortable meeting other dogs from his stroller as he is walking. When he gets tired, without my coaching him, he steps into his stroller on his own.  While some people avoid looking at him, most smile, to which I respond, “This is what Pedicare for All will look like,” or, “He had “a good retirement plan.”

I have to say that the leaning curve on managing Donner was fast, just a matter of days. The management plan for each of my disabled dogs was different.  It took me three months to work through my learning curve with Sonntag, less with Leben.

To be sure, my life has changed because of this. And so has my home. My foyer looks like the parking lot during a disabled dog convention.  And, fortunately, I trained him just weeks before this happened to do his business on my balcony, which he dutifully does.  But knowing that he may be prone to “accidents” in the home, I seat out an indoor/outdoor carpet over the rug in my home where he had his “accidents” when I first got him, and set out large cloth underpads on top of that.  He never goes when I am around, probably hoping that I do not know that he is the one who did it. When I find that he has gone, I pick it up, walk it into the shower, rinse it off good, hang it to dry out, and set down another in its place.  It’s amazing how routine this has become so quickly. And when he goes completely lame, managing him then will become routine, too.

So, that’s where we are now.  Life is back to normal, and to all intents and purposes, and his life has not changed. In fact, it may better than before.  As for my life, well, it is different, but worth every bit of the work involved. One positive thing for my life (besides having him around) is that, after 47 years, I no longer have to rush to take my dog for a walk in the morning or the evening.  Oh, what a relief that is. (Not only a relief, but a savings. If I have to go into quarantine, I wont have to hire a dogwalker to come by at $75 a day for three walks. And as for setting up a pee station in the home for him, isn't that we we humans did, except we cal it a bathroom?) Why didn’t I think of this 47 years ago? With Sonntag, since he lost the ability to urinate on his own, I had to take him outside in his wheelchair and express his bladder from the wheelchair. The same with Leben, although to save myself from having to walk him late at night or in hurricanes, as happened, I learned how to set him on his side inside and express his bladder that way. Over and done with in one minute, virus 30 minutes for a walk outside. And I gained a new party trick in the process.

See below photo of Donner in his stroller.

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