From Bad to Worse and Totally Unfair

AP here:
On Thursday Tonka went to see a very nice Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Cannap at Veterinary Orthopedic Sports Medicine Group about his intermittent lameness in his right front leg. The result of which was 2 problems that needed to be addressed one being his shoulder and what would be analogous to our rotator cuff and the other being his elbow. http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/surgery/documents/RotatorCuffInjurya.pdf
http://vetsportsmedicine.com/surgery/documents/JumpDownSyndrome.pdf
I was very impressed with everyone and the facility and the technician Amy that took care of Tonka and measured him for the brace he would have to wear for 2-4 months after the surgery. I had them draw blood so we could make sure he was sound for surgery and scheduled it for April 6th. Tonka was fine for the visit and did not seem to be in any distress. We went home and the rest of the day was a normal day with all his normal routines. We walked with Nala that night and again everything was 100% routine for him. I on the other hand could not sleep and was stressing over the upcoming surgery
Friday morning everything was still normal and he was at the top of the stairs ready to go for our walk by the time I got dressed. We walked to the park and back and it was totally uneventful.Once home he laid down at the top of the stairs like usual and took  little nap while I got ready to go to work - all still normal. I put on 2 eggs to boil and went downstairs and fixed his bowl with his breakfast. This is his routine every morning.

He goes downstairs eats his breakfast - goes out the doggie door - goes to the bathroom - might dig a little/might not - comes up the ramp on the side of the house to the kitchen - might lay out on the deck for about 5 minutes/might not - stands at the door and barks once to come in - comes in and has either a tiny bit of egg or some sweet potato.

This is the routine and when enough time had passed and he did not come to the door and was not on the deck I went to find him. The first thing I notice was an untouched bowl of kibble which is not normal but not alarming. I went out the door and around the corner to where he has been trying to create a new monster digging pit behind the grill. I was really expecting to find him there with dirt up to his elbows caught in the act and I really wish that is where I had found him. I took four more steps past he grill and he was laying at a very strange angle with massive amounts of drool from his chin to the ground. I spoke his name and he snapped his head up in my direction but he was jerky and seemed panicky. I opened his mouth to see if he had anything half ingested but all i saw was more of the same thick drool. I ran into the house and grabbed a towel and the phone and yelled for CM. She came out while I was dialing the vet. She went back in and went thought the house and unlocked he gate while I got the ramp down in the truck. I got him up and to the ramp and again he was very jerky but I got him in the truck and took off for the vet. On the road he put his head down and went to sleep and I got my wits about me enough to start thinking seizure vs. anything poison related. There is nothing buried behind the grill and I know that because we dug all that up and put down a drainage pipe there so it is nothing but dirt. it seemed to fit a seizure as well - that thick nasty drool - the post ictal phase where they are really out of it. So by the time we got to the vet that was my diagnosis and I calmed down a bit (remember I only had 3 hours of sleep worrying about his upcoming surgery and rehab so I was allowed to be a little off my norm). We walked in and right away they were looking at his gums and checking him out before we even got in a room. They are the best there and Tonka loves them all and so do I. We were seen right away by Dr. Gerity and during the exam we were pretty much going with the seizure thing until she got to his heart rate. She came up from listening to his heart and looking at her watch to tell me his heart rate was 200 and for a big dog 100 is the magic number and that it was not beating normal. Even with 3 hours of sleep my mind started trying to make sense of this - he was just at a vet yesterday and they had listened to his heart and it was fine - that doesn't compute. She then told me he needed an EKG and chest x-ray and took him out of the room to the back while I struggled to make it all fit into something logical.
The news was no better when she came back in- his heart is in atrial fibrillation and the x-rays show an enlarged heart (not horribly enlarged but too big just the same). The biggest thing was to get his heart rate down so they put him on medication to do that. He spent the day with them so they could monitor his heart.
I called a few times to check on him and his heart rate was down to 120 and then to 96 so I picked him up and took him home. He is still in arrythmia so his heart is beating abnormally but as long as the heart rate is down and he remains quiet we should be OK till he sees the cardiologist.
I called a cardiologist and we have an appointment on Thursday for an echo cardiagram and his ortho. surgery has been postponed. One of my friends Buttercups mom is an amazing woman and adopted Buttercup who has a heart condition. http://www.traveldogbooks.com/?p=367 She and I spoke at length and she reassured me that the cardiologist we are going to will get him back on track.
So here we are- my big loving boy who wants nothing more out of life than to run and play and meet and greet everyone and everything has to be kept very quiet. No walks, no running, no playing, no excitement of any kind. If you follow the blog you will remember that anytime he has been in this situation it only takes one day to plunge him into a depression. At least with the other times I could take him in the truck and his friends would come out and meet him- with this he can do nothing.
This has totally blindsided me- of all things that could go wrong I would have never thought heart but better to find out now rather than on the operating table in two weeks.
Perhaps this is why Tonka loves everyone so much - he has an oversized heart!

Here we limp again!

AP here:

A week ago Tonka got up from a nap and he was limping on his right front paw. It went away by the time we got to the vet (of course) and they had a hard time making him react to range of motion -or anything for that matter -with his foot, elbow or shoulder. He pretty much started to fall asleep while Dr. Anderson was examining him (such a laid back boy).

So with no official diagnosis we started him on an anti-inflammatory and a prescription of no-playing or running. Since this is his fourth bout with this lameness issue in the past year Dr. Woodburn suggested we go see an Orthopedic Dr. that specializes in sports injuries in animals. So we are going to see Dr. Canapp http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/about/staff_scanapp.html at VOSM http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/ . Those of you that follow the blog regularly know that Tonka lives for his walks and so if he has something wrong in his shoulder we need to get it fixed ASAP.




A Tonka dog without his walks and his blippity blopping with his friends is a very depressed boy! If you are not familiar with the Blippity Blop be sure to watch any of his videos where he is running. Tonka steps really high when he is running - he sort of blippity blops along. He is allowed to go for short walks but no blippity blopping or wrestling and so far he is not depressed just mad... This boy has the entire neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods in a 4 mile radius completely mapped out in his head. He knows when you shorten his walk or deviate from his normal route. He is such a good boy that when he wants to keep going or turn the other way he does not pull to get his way. He simply stops, and sits. He has done this little routine since he was a puppy and back then I would just pick him up and carry him a few feet and put him down and continue you on. He has long since outgrown the ability for me to pull that off, at 125lbs I can only lift him down and out of a truck I cannot lift him up. The trick to get him to move is not pulling him or jerking the leash but to have a talk with him. I am sure the neighbors think I am very odd. I walk a blind dog 2x a day rain or shine he wears sunglasses on windy days and I have on occasion held an umbrella over him. Then then the crazy lady is squatted in front of him whispering in his ear.


It works though, I get down on his level and whisper that we can't go that way today and I tell him why he needs to come with me and he will just get up and willingly come along as if he understands. I am sure a behaviorist will tell you it is just the break in the situation that changes the pattern he was in or something like that but I like to think it is because he is just a good boy that needs to know why.