Saturday Sylvia Update

Trish let us know early this morning about Sylvia-
Sylvia's doing really well this morning, surgeon says. She's up and around and eating -- her favorite activity. We'll pick her up early afternoon.

This afternoon she was home and eating well and even telling off her foster brother for coming up behind her.

Heal quickly Sylvia...

Sylvia Update

My friend Sylvia had her surgery today and is doing fine. She had a lot of arthritis that they had to clean up and she is now resting and should be able to go home tomorrow. I am very glad it went well.
Tonka

Sylvia and Her FHO Surgery (Trish's Blog)

AGPR (where I came from) is a great rescue and the volunteers that help all of my Pyr friends are awesome people. Trish Rimo and Mike Diegel are two of those wonderful volunteers and they are fostering my friend Sylvia. Tomorrow Sylvia is having surgery and Trish has been nice enough to fill us in about the FHO surgery with this blog and will keep us updated on Sylvia's progress. Sylvia deserves a great furever home, she is such a sweety.


Sylvia and Friend



Sylvia’s Orthopedic Condition and Surgery to Correct It


Canine hip dysplasia is a genetic disease of dogs that causes looseness, abnormal development and arthritis of the hip joint. It is not particularly common in Great Pyrenees. However, Sylvia, our foster from Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue, has been diagnosed with dysplasia. Here’s a little more about the condition and the surgery to correct it that Sylvia is having on February 25th. Much of the technical information is from the Gold Ribbon Rescue website.

The hip joint is a ball-and-socket type joint. The ball is the uppermost part of the thighbone, or femur, and is called the head of the femur. The head is connected to the rest of the bone by the neck, and the socket is part of the pelvic bone. Normally, the ball, or head of the femur, fits very tightly within its socket. With hip dysplasia, this fit becomes loose and the joint partially dislocates, which can cause discomfort, abnormal development and/or arthritis. Sylvia has developed severe arthritis in her left hip, causing her discomfort and affecting her ability to negotiate stairs and do things such as leap and play.

There are three types of surgery to correct the problem, with the most extensive being total hip replacement. Sylvia is having a surgery called Femoral Head and Neck Ostectomy (FHO), which is designed to eliminate the source of discomfort by removing part of the hip joint. The femur is cut so that the head and neck of the femur are removed (“ostectomy” means the bone is cut and removed). Scar tissue forms between the femur and the socket, where the femoral head and neck used to be. This is called a false joint because motion between the bones is maintained without the true ball-and-socket joint. Eventually, this scar tissue provides enough support to permit use of the limb without causing significant discomfort.

Sylvia

While the surgery is very effective in dogs under 50 pounds, it can be effective in larger dogs as well – provided the dogs are kept slim and have sufficient physical therapy afterwards, which Sylvia will have. A few other Pyrs in AGPR have had FHO surgery with great success. One advantage of the FHO is that exercise restriction is needed only for a few days after the surgery. After 10 - 14 days, exercise is even encouraged to accelerate formation of scar tissue.

Many dogs that have FHO surgery return to almost normal function. The false joint that results from the surgery allows for walking, running and playing; however, the dog’s gait may be different. But with an experienced surgeon, which Sylvia will have in Dr. Aylin Atilla, and a lot of physical therapy afterwards, both at her foster home and the surgical center, Sylvia should be pain free and should enjoy a normal life.

My Friend Sylvia

Thanks to everyone that helped raise money for my friend Sylvia to have her surgery. We raised enough and her foster parents (Mike and Trish) have scheduled it with a great surgeon for this Friday. I have invited Sylvia's foster mom to explain what the surgery is all about and to keep us updated. She will be guest blogging either tomorrow or Friday. I am so happy she is going to be feeling better once her hip is fixed and then she can find her furever home like me.
T

Adoption Day at Petco

I had so much fun today at the AGPR adoption day at Petco.  We had lots of people stop and ask questions and a few took adoption applications to fill out.

 Frankie made lots of friends and was a ham for the camera.

I am soooo cute



CHEESE!

I wore my bandana that Momma Pat and Buttercup had made for me.



Stylin'



Casper was hanging out getting lots of love.

Love the Casper

Ahh thats the spot.



Who me?

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY

Come see me and my friends Casper and Frankie this Sunday at the Warrenton, VA Petco from 12-4.

Casper is a great guy, full of puppy playfulness and looking for a good family to romp with.

Casper

Frankie

Frankie is a wonderful 4 year old male and very smart.
They are both looking for a forever home so stop by and say hi and even if you are not looking to adopt right now you might know someone who is. Plus if you come by I can get treats while AP is not looking :)

Good Book

AP here: Tonka and I just finished a really good book about dogs. The author is Alexandra Horowitz and she is has PhD in Cognitive Science and the book is called
Inside of a Dog. http://insideofadog.com/index.php
She gives you a perspective on what it must be like to live so close to the ground, which is what I have had to do with Tonka since he was a puppy (but only from a safety standpoint). I must admit I got a little down when I realized from reading the book how a dog really does pay close attention to people visually. I hadn't thought about that much with Tonka because he gets along so well and we have such a routine. I hardly ever think about him in terms of "blind dog" and what he misses out on, or what "we" miss out on as far as a visual bond with one another. I learned quite a bit from the book and it would be great if she had some research on blind dogs and the differences in behavior between blind and sighted.

So Helpful

AP here:
My last Pyr and other dogs that have lived with me were always very eager to "help" in the yard whenever there was work to be done. Tonka has never really cared much what you are doing in the yard unless it involves digging or sticks then he wants to "help".
 http://blinddogsrule.blogspot.com/2009/07/july-26-2009.html.
This past weekend it was nice enough to finally pick up the zillions of sticks and branches that the ice and snow storms had brought down. I had been picking up the big branches and storing them in the top corner of  the yard in a pile (you can't leave big branches for a blind dog to get hurt with). I got out the rake, some big trash bags and a ball of string to tie up the big stuff in a bundle.
Tonka came outside but stayed at the bottom of the yard while I raked up two bags worth of little sticks. I measured out enough string for the first go round for the pile of sticks and laid it out on the ground. I piled the branches onto the string and pulled the ends up, tied a big know and started measuring out string for the second go round a little further up the pile. All of a sudden Tonka was beside me pulling at a branch and trying to drag it out of the bundle. I tried to get him to back away from it but it turned into a wrestling match and it takes way too much energy to win a wrestling match with a blind 125lb bear so I broke off part of the branch and gave it to him. That seemed to make him happy and I turned back and bent over the bundle to tie the string around the top part. When I stood back up (we are talking seconds later) Tonka was no longer interested in his piece of stick and had successfully untied the first string.

There are moments when I seriously consider that he is just faking the blind thing.

Round 2 of wrestling commenced and I managed to keep him back long enough to tie the first string back and lift the bundle. I started walking to the gate to take it around front when I noticed it was getting hard to move froward. Tonka- being oh so helpful had a branch in his mouth trying to pull it out and was successfully pulling me and the bundle backwards. I dug in and continued forwards. This would have been a very funny video - the two of us playing tug of war with a bundle of sticks.
I finally won and hurried to the gate and out to the curb leaving Tonka in the back yard with a few sticks that had fallen out during the battle.

Bundle of Sticks