Update ....

Wow, how time flies! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this! Sorry about that folks. A lot has been happening around here: Kane is recovering from his TPLO surgery and I've started a new job working with a bed bug sniffing dog!

I work for a pest control company which employs dogs trained to sniff out bed bugs as one of the services they offer. I'll be working and training with one of the dogs. Her name is Aggie (or Agent 99), she's under two years old, and is a golden retriever. I haven't actually met her yet, as she is still in training, but from what everyone else has said, she is smaller than their other golden (a male named Magnum), has a deep reddish color to her coat, and is sweeter and more laid-back than him.

I've been studying for the past two weeks to pass my state certification tests on Tuesday; two thick binders full of pesticide information, laws, and identification of pests. Even though I won't actually be applying the pesticides or even doing anything with them in my job, they want me to be certified to make sure I have the information down for any clients that might ask me questions. The pay is several dollars above what I was earning at my previous job, comes with full benefits, a company car, a gas card, and everything I spend on Aggie (toys, crate, grooming, etc) is reimbursed.

The only thing I'm a little nervous about is the fact that Aggie will be living with me. Kane is going to lose his mind with happiness about having another dog around the house to play with, and he's not allowed to lose his mind with happiness for another 3 months.

Kane's recovery has gone well, for the most part. He's using his leg better than he was before the surgery, although he's still preferring to toe-touch when he stands. He's putting weight on the leg and actively using it when he walks, but he still has a limp, which I'm hoping will go away over the next couple of months during recovery. He has an x-ray scheduled for the end of the month at MSU to make sure his leg has healed properly before the surgeon signs off on a "return to activity" directive.

We had to wait an extra week to take his stitches out because at some point, he managed to lick at his incision without me noticing, despite the inflatable donut collar he was wearing. Sneaky dog. So I had to switch cones to a bite-not collar. Have several pictures I snapped during the first couple of weeks he was home.

This is the cone collar they gave him at MSU. It was huge and it freaked him out. He'd sulk with it on, lowering his head, and get it caught on a crack in the pavement. He'd freeze and look at me for help. So, I'd have to reach down, free it from the crack, and nudge him to keep walking. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I could barely fit his cone through the door of his crate. And then when he laid down, it ballooned out. I knew he need a different cone, so off to Petsmart I went.

I came home with this. An inflatable, donut-type collar. He liked this much better, probably because he could see around him.

After the first week, I allowed him out of his strict, 24/7 crate rest because he was making the both of us crazy.  On the condition that he would lay down on the air mattress and BE. QUIET. I'd bought the air mattress because there was no way I was carrying him upstairs to bed with me and he yodels if he has to sleep by himself.

His incision, 2-3 days after I took the bandage off. Sorry for gratuitous weiner. 

He didn't like his bite-not collar because he couldn't turn his head.

You can see how much they shaved here. Down his surgery leg and over one hip to the other. But they left his tail alone.

The collar gave him a lot of bad ear days. :)

I was going to include some APBT history in with this post, but it's already longer than I expected with the pictures and such, so I'll save that for tomorrow.

I'll feature another legendary APBT, Garrett's Jeep ROM  (son of famous CH. Crenshaw's Honeybunch ROM) as well as the "keep", or conditioning, James Crenshaw followed for all of his dogs. Each dogman has a different "keep" he follows to get his dogs in fighting shape for their matches and I hope to compare them.

TPLO

Things have moved very quickly with Kane's leg. Have some bullet points!

• Kane had his consultation last Thursday at MSU.
• The surgeon palpitated the joint, manipulated Kane's leg this way and that, and diagnosed him with a partial (if not complete) cranial cruciate ligament tear. He quoted me an estimate of $28-$3200 for the TPLO surgery.
• My mother is awesome enough to split the surgery between her Care Credit and a credit card, and then I'll pay her back.
• The surgeon was concerned enough about the way the joint felt and the quick muscle loss in the two weeks between my visit with Dr M and MSU, that he wanted to admit Kane that day, do the surgery last Friday, and then release him the next day. I told him I couldn't do it because of my work schedule, so he agreed to admit on Monday (yesterday), surgery today, released on Wednesday--despite the fact that they were fully booked this week.
• With this in mind, I took off Wednesday and Thursday of this week from work so I could be home for him the first two days.
• MSU ended up calling on Friday while I was at work and left a voicemail, basically saying "Oh, whoops, heehee, surgeon isn't here on Tuesday like he told you, so we went ahead and re-scheduled your appointment to drop-off Tuesday, surgery Wednesday, released Thursday. Please call to confirm!" Gee. Thanks.
• Called them back on Friday initially, but they'd already closed. So, I called them yesterday. The receptionist said they were fully booked this week, but they had a cancellation on Thursday, would I like to take it? I said, "No, you don't understand. The surgeon said it was okay if we did the surgery despite you guys being booked." She replied, in a slightly uppity voice, "Well, it'll be easier for you to take the cancellation on Thursday, and I'll have to confirm what you're saying with the surgeon, but ok."  ...... Seriously? Like I'm just inventing the fact that the surgeon said he'd get Kane in even though they were booked? Why would I just come up with that? But everything worked out, surgeon confirmed, yadayada.
• I dropped Kane off today for admittance at noon.
• He took a huge crap in the middle of the hallway. Yes. Yes, he is That Dog.
• When the student handling his case leashed him up to take him to a kennel, she went one way and I went the other. Kane dragged her to keep up with me, but after some encouragement on the student's part, followed the student with one last look over his shoulder.
• She called me earlier tonight to tell me that Kane was being a model patient and was one of the favorites at the hospital. They'd already gotten the radiographs and measurements done for tomorrow. And, he also ate his dinner without a problem.
• She'll call tomorrow morning to tell me how the night went for him, again before his surgery at 1pm and then after, and finally one more time later that afternoon to tell me how he's recovering. This is a lot more communication than I expected from such a large teaching hospital, but it's very helpful for my nerves. :-)
• I pick him up at 330pm Thursday.
• Then we begin the fun part -- 8 weeks of strict crate rest with leashed potty breaks only, radiographs taken at 8 weeks confirming the surgery is healing properly, and then 8 more weeks of a gradual return to exercise. But still no running or jumping until a minimum of 16 weeks after surgery. Oh joy. 4 months of no exercise for a highly active, not-quite-2-year-old puppy. Because, I'm sorry, but leashed walks up to 20 minutes is not exercise for Kane.
• I have a runner between Kane's crate and the enclosed porch so he doesn't slip on the hardwoods. Then my stepdad is building a ramp for the three steps down from the porch to the front yard with some indoor/outdoor carpeting so that Kane doesn't slip on that either. For the most part, Kane will be getting around with a jerry-rigged towel sling.

Wish him luck in surgery tomorrow!

Rollercoaster Monday

So, I've got good news and bad news about Kane.

We'll go with the god news first because it's short and so amazingly awesome.

Kane has his CGC!!!

Yes, you read right! My bonehead puppy passed his test last night with flying colors. The AKC representative even wrote: "Awesome job! Great ambassador!" on his sheet. He got a super-cool CGC bandana; all I have to do is send in the form and the fee, and the AKC will send me his official CGC document in a frame. He's now known as Kane Denator Puppers, CGC.

Today, I took him outside and tried to get some nice photos of him showing off his bandana. Unfortunately, even though he has his CGC, he couldn't resist the allure of deer poo in the backyard. Just pretend the brown smudges aren't there. ;-)

Kane doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

It took only two good rolls in the deer poo to get his bandana to that level of dirtiness.
My stupid, delightful, doggy boy.

Kane decides eating grass is preferable to this photo shoot.

Kane is still not impressed.

Was that a squirrel? Lemme chase it, lemme chase it!

It's sitting right there! Staring at me. Taunting me!
Lemme go teach it a lesson. Please??

Oh, jeez, mom. Now it's up the tree!
You let it get away!

It's so hard being a Super Star. Just ask Kane.

Notice how is left rear leg is cocked underneath him
and his right rear leg is stretched out to the side?
Bad news time.

So, for the bad news.

Earlier yesterday, I took Kane in for what I thought was going to be a quick and easy vet appointment. He has a bump on his front right paw that I thought was a histiocytoma (although Kane's is nowhere near as bad as the one pictured on that webpage). Dr M examined the spot, told me to soak his paw in Epsom salts twice a day, wrote a script for an antibiotic, and then asked me about his limp.

And then from there ... it grew into something so much larger and terrifying than I ever thought.

Kane has had an on and off again limp since late April. It would get better with strict crate rest, and then it would pop up again two or three days later. I didn't think anything of it. Turns out he has a partial cruciate ligament tear in his right rear knee. More commonly known as a cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tear.

Dr M had Kane do some Sits and Downs for her. Each of those times, his right leg was stretched out to the side. She 'hmmm'-ed and then had him lay down on his side so she could manipulate the leg. She felt some swelling in the knee as well as grade 1 "drawer movement". Basically, what it means is that instead of his knee moving only in a hinge movement, it's moving forwards and backwards across the joint like a drawer. An uninjured CCL prevents that sort of drawer movement, keeping things nice and tight. Grade 4 drawer movement is usually indicative of a complete tear.

She thinks his grade 1 movement shows that he has a partial tear, but it's never a 100% guaranteed diagnosis because she's had a dog with grade 1 drawer movement get into surgery and have a complete tear.

Dr M wants me to get Kane in to see a specialist as soon as possible. Even waiting 2 months can be detrimental at this point, because this CCL tear has likely been going on since April. (She'd initially diagnosed his lameness as a pulled muscle since she couldn't feel any swelling or drawer movement in his knee, and she was hoping for the less serious injury.) Unfortunately, with a partial CCL tear, the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. The frayed ends of the ligament end up rubbing against the cartilage in the knee and wearing it down, causing arthritis; and usually the end result of a partial tear, if left unresolved, is a complete tear. At this point, she said he is guaranteed to have some arthritis in his knee when he gets into his senior years (usually around 8+ for pit bulls).

There are different kinds of surgery available to repair the CCL. One is known as an extracapsular imbrication; this is the traditional form of surgery, but, unfortunately, even though Dr M can do it and it would be so much cheaper, it is now (usually) reserved for those dogs who are under 25lbs and/or are senior and/or have a low energy level.

Kane is none of those things. Even though he is no longer willing or able to use his right rear leg and is thus hobbling around on three legs, he is still bursting with energy and sometimes it gets the better of him. I still have to prevent him from doing zoomies around the yard, I still have to hide his chuck-it ball so he doesn't pester me with it, and I still have to keep him from launching off the porch on his potty breaks.

Our other options are either a TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) or a TTA (tibial tuberosity advancement). These surgeries are basically the same; they focus on changing the angle of the tibia and how the femur meets it, and using a bone plate to stabilize the bone's new position. However, the TTA is a more recent (~2004) variation of the TPLO and cuts through a different part of the tibia. It's less invasive, and thus has less of a recovery time, and is also usually cheaper. TPLO/TTA surgeries restore mobility to ~97% after recovery, versus ~93% for the extracapsular imbrication.

The only problem is the cost. Dr M referred me to MSU veterinary school and they quoted me an estimate of $2600-$3300.

Yes. That thump you heard was me hitting the floor in a dead-faint.

Based on my research, that seems a little high (as most estimates I've seen are more in the $1500-$2500 range for a TPLO), but I'm not sure of the reasoning behind that estimate either (what they're including, etc, that I could potentially cut out or have Dr M do at her practice to save money [bloodwork, etc]). I have a consultation set up with MSU on the 25th of this month at 830am to discuss our options.

However things work out, he will either have the TPLO/TTA surgery done or his leg taken off if it's cheaper. I know Kane and he won't care whether he has that leg or not. He'll still be my wild and crazy puppers, careening around like a madman. Of course, if he does end up a tripod, there will go my dreams of titling him in Rally or Obedience. Or trying out dock diving with him.

Someone said to me that "a bullet is cheaper", when I told them about the cost of Kane's potential surgery. I wish I'd been able to punch them in the face. Who the heck says that sort of thing? Really?