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Wedding, new house, torn cruciate, lymphoma - been busy!

sjdavenport

Well-Known Member
We've been busy here! Some of it has been wonderful, and some heartbreaking.

First off, Kerry and I got married on March 4th (been together 7 years). It was a very small ceremony in Folly Beach. The ceremony itself was perfect, although the week or so leading up to it were a complete disaster.

Mazey is 12 now, and she was supposed to be in the ceremony with me. A week before we were supposed to head to Folly Beach, she came up non-weight bearing on her right rear (had TPLO on left rear almost exactly two years ago). I knew exactly what that meant, and we went ahead and scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for the day after we were getting back from the wedding (no honeymoon for us). Mazey also has horrendous elbow arthritis, so that combined with her knee meant she was unable to walk down the aisle with me. Thankfully with some help, she was able to stand with my family. So the day after we got home from the wedding, we drove her to Maryland. The CCL rupture was confirmed, and then I got news I did not expect. The orthopedic surgeon felt that Mazey's elbow arthritis was caused by chronic fragmented coronoid processes and wanted to scope her elbows to remove the fragments at the same time as her TPLO. I have been desperate to find something that would help her right elbow be more comfortable - she gets pain meds, supplements, bone broth, acupuncture, chiropractics, laser therapy, and we even did stem cell therapy 6 weeks ago - and she was still lame. So I agreed. And he was right - he pulled out large bone fragments from both elbows. I know some of you might disagree with my decision to go with invasive surgery for a 12 year old dog, but I am actually thrilled with her recovery. She is 7 days post-op, and doing AMAZING. She is so much more comfortable now than going into surgery. Her recovery this go round has gone so much better than her first TPLO. I'll try to get some pre and post-op video together. It will be a long 12 weeks of rehab though.

So then there's Gadget, our 15 year old cat. He was diagnosed with lymphoma (tentatively the day before we left for the wedding, and then I got the definitive news the day before the wedding). He was hospitalized the entire time we were gone. With aggressive medical treatment, he is like a different cat. I didn't realize how badly he was feeling until I saw how fantastic he is feeling now. He has gone from me begging him to eat ANYTHING, to demanding 5 meals a day, getting into the trash constantly for snacks, playing, and harassing the dogs again. Hopefully we get some good time with him.

We've also been house shopping. My only requirement was that we get a property suitable for me to be able to walk my pack off leash every day without worrying about neighbors/neighbor's dogs. I didn't realize how difficult that would be. We searched and searched, and finally found the perfect house. It's a 26 acre mini-farm with 2 ponds. Rhaegar will be in heaven! Closing date is April 20th as long as everything continues to go smoothly. First order of business will be to screen in the porch for the cats. Gadget will LOVE that, and I want him to enjoy the time he has left.

And oh yeah, we were planning on adding a new corso puppy to the family lol (before everything else happened). We found a breeder I love. She had a litter planned for this spring, but unfortunately the pregnancy didn't take. Honestly it's a blessing though - we have our hands full with Mazey's recovery and rehab, and Gadget needs a lot of extra care and time right now. So that will be later this year.

Here are some photos - a couple from the wedding/beach trip, of our new (hopefully) property, and of my Mazey girl. Still waiting on the rest of the wedding photos from our photographer.

16938581_1154092541355498_204086590245560642_n.jpg 17097480_1149163008515118_2558182497123047545_o.jpg 17157573_10155025318959598_2635216428328645882_o.jpg 17192566_1149987498432669_7957120111963268530_o.jpg IMG_4487.jpg IMG_4491.jpg IMG_4505.jpg IMG_4583.jpg IMG_4587.jpg IMG_4644.jpg
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
I have really missed your updates and pictures. Congratulations on your wedding. You look beautiful and I look forward to seeing more pictures. That second picture of you and Mazey made me teary. You'd better frame that one. I don't think anyone would ever say anything about the choices you make for your dogs. I've seldom seen dogs more loved and cared for than your group, particularly Mazey. I'm so glad that she's doing so well. I am sorry to hear about your kitty, but also glad that he seems to be doing okay for now. The property is beautiful! I hope everything goes smoothly with the purchase and you post a million pictures of the dogs enjoying it.

I hope we see you around more. You've been missed.
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
It is amazing how different they are when that fragment is removed from the joint. Best wishes to everyone.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Congrats!!!! Beautiful photos of the wedding and the new property looks amazing! <3
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Congratulations! LOVE the "mini" farm (26 acres seems like a "real" farm to this girl form the 'burbs). :)
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Congratulations! LOVE the "mini" farm (26 acres seems like a "real" farm to this girl form the 'burbs). :)

Ha! DennasMom - I agree on this one. I dream of a day when we have a larger house and a larger yard.. Of course that probably means moving states because prices here in California just aren't doable.
 

sjdavenport

Well-Known Member
I have really missed your updates and pictures. Congratulations on your wedding. You look beautiful and I look forward to seeing more pictures. That second picture of you and Mazey made me teary. You'd better frame that one. I don't think anyone would ever say anything about the choices you make for your dogs. I've seldom seen dogs more loved and cared for than your group, particularly Mazey. I'm so glad that she's doing so well. I am sorry to hear about your kitty, but also glad that he seems to be doing okay for now. The property is beautiful! I hope everything goes smoothly with the purchase and you post a million pictures of the dogs enjoying it.

I hope we see you around more. You've been missed.

Thanks for all your kind words! I'm super happy that we went through with the surgeries for her. She's doing great, and I truly believe it's going to give her the very best chance to return to hiking with us and hopefully having free run of the new farm pain free! She just always wants to be able to go and go and go with us, but can't understand why her body can't keep up.

I'm still anxiously awaiting the rest of our photos from the photographer!
 

sjdavenport

Well-Known Member
It is amazing how different they are when that fragment is removed from the joint. Best wishes to everyone.

How are Kryten's elbows doing? Mazey really does seem so much more comfortable on her elbows already. Arthritis in her right one was pretty severe already, but hopefully we've saved the left one from future problems.
 

sjdavenport

Well-Known Member
Ha! DennasMom - I agree on this one. I dream of a day when we have a larger house and a larger yard.. Of course that probably means moving states because prices here in California just aren't doable.

We couldn't afford any of the larger properties anywhere close to my work, so we're having to move way out in the country. It will be a 45 minute drive to work for me, and an hour or so for Kerry. I think it will be completely worth it though. We were in a contract for a house on ten acres of woods (it was a narrow lot), but the morning of our home inspection, they were bulldozing the woods like 35 feet from the house we wanted to build a new house. Thank god we were there for the inspection and were able to get out of our contract! I absolutely cannot tolerate neighbors. And I could never relax and have Rhaegar off leash on our property with neighbors so close like that.
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
How are Kryten's elbows doing? Mazey really does seem so much more comfortable on her elbows already. Arthritis in her right one was pretty severe already, but hopefully we've saved the left one from future problems.
He's doing great. He still has issues with lameness on his left elbow which was operated on in June 2013 and unfortunately always will. We're not sure if it's hardware related or due to the fact the osteotomy opened and the unlawful didn't have a clean rejoin. That joint is definitely reactive to air pressure changes but between supplements and Cartrophen injections he is mostly symptom free.
He had his right elbow operated on in October and immediately was better than he was before surgery. I actually had to hold him back from being to active the day after surgery. The surgeon was amazed and shocked by the size of the fragment that was loose inside the joint. Even scaling for the size of the dogs it was the largest fragment she had ever seen, that and he broke some of her tools during surgery.
It was terrible the day I got the text saying that he had stood up, there was a crack and he refused to put any weight on his right leg as I knew even before seeing him that he was going to need surgery again but there was a bit of relief too as the wait was over.
 

sjdavenport

Well-Known Member
Update on Mazey and Gadget. Gadget has started his chemo treatments and is doing fantastic. No side effects so far. I had to buy a new cat proof trash can to keep him out, so his appetite is still great, lol! Mazey's doing really well too. I can't believe how smoothly everything has gone. She has definitely lost a lot of muscle mass in the past few weeks though. Since she's older, I'm worried that she won't be able to put that muscle back on, so we're already being pretty aggressive with physical therapy. At three weeks post-op, we're up to 15 minute walks twice daily, and about 25-30 minutes of physical therapy exercises daily. We will hopefully get the all clear to start underwater treadmill therapy next week (although the facility is about an hour and a half from here). We've also started boxing things up for the big move. And oh yeah, for some reason I thought I had time to sign Rhaegar up for a parkour class!!! We only ever got our Novice, so I really want to start working on his Intermediate title. I was just worried that with everything else going on, he wasn't getting the one on one training time that he's used to. Hopefully this will fix that. Here's a quick video from 16 days post-op.

 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
She looks great! If I ever come back as a dog, I want to live with you. Lol. And good news that Gadget is doing so well.

Hey, where did you get Rhaegar's black and red collar? And I don't see you using the leather harness from Bold Lead Designs much. What did or didn't you like about it? I'm still considering one, but they're awfully expensive.
 

sjdavenport

Well-Known Member
I frequently think the same thing, lol.

The collar is from Bullymart - I love it! And while I really liked the leather harness, Rhaegar HATED it. After having it a while, I would get it out, and he would make a beeline for the loveseat to lay down to try to avoid it. It is heavy, and always sat really tight on top of his shoulders. I eventually had one made by the same lady from Ukraine that made a harness for Hector. I think that one might have been perfect for what I want, BUT it was a little too big. I messaged her about it, but never heard back. His reactivity is much more under control, so I find myself going back to using the Ruffwear most of the time since it's most comfortable for him.

Here's a photo of the harness from Ukraine:12970147_10154016002898162_1639977893_o.jpg




Sometimes I'll use this harness if we're going to a park or somewhere that I know there might be other dogs/people and that it's unlikely that I'll be letting him run off leash (since the strap does go across the front of his shoulders).
IMG_2850.jpg


So essentially I'm still in the market for the perfect harness!
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Thank you! I'll cross the BLD harness off my list. I want to try the perfect fit harness on page two of cleanrun.com. I think I might finally be able to get a good fit for my boxers. It's so hard with their deep chests to get a really good fit without chafing or gapping.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Thank you! I'll cross the BLD harness off my list. I want to try the perfect fit harness on page two of cleanrun.com. I think I might finally be able to get a good fit for my boxers. It's so hard with their deep chests to get a really good fit without chafing or gapping.
Speaking of harnesses did you say that freedom harness didn't work for your boxer? I'm looking to get Kahlua a new one and we love the freedom one for Diesel but of course Kahlua has more of that boxer body shape so not sure if the freedom harness would work for her.