Mr Rams

It’s been about 2 months now. Its crazy to think of the amount of stress everyone went through when rams had the surgery because now it’s like he didn’t need his fourth leg in the first place!

His fur is starting to grow back and his energy is back. Having three legs has not stopped him in the slightest.

play with me

His back leg does not drop so much anymore when he’s standing but some days, particularly after some exercise he might lick his front paws and legs. I did get him some socks, but so far he’s not liking me putting them on him, so I tried some cream and didn’t like that either. It’s going to be a slow progress. Patience, patience patience.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what else I could do for his paws?

He still goes for short walks about 10-15 minutes with a long nap to follow. His nails are also getting pretty long so i’ll see if the walks on the concrete will help with that. Hopefully it will or else it’s rambo vs the nail clippers.

We made good progress over the weekend. He can now drop on command again!

I also purchased the Fit Paws paws pods for him.  He’s not ready to balance on them yet so a simple ‘tap’ technique has been working better so far. I started with one then added two. Once he gets the idea i’ll teach him to tap with his back leg with the intention of progressing to balancing.

He is climbing more confidently too 🙂

Rams also made a new friend over the Easter break. My mum made a little doggie, who also has three legs!

Mel x

It’s already one month post op! It seems like it’s flown by now! I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief that a month has past and it looks like (fingers crossed) he’s past all the tough obstacles.

He’s now back to his normal routine now and he seems much happier for it.

A noticeable change is that he’s been getting much better at running. He had a lot of endurance before his amputation and it seems to be coming back. He still has tumbles every now and then but he’s quick to learn from his mistakes. He’s learning to co-ordinate around corners and objects so he’s becoming aware of how he needs to move his body.

I have noticed that walking will tire him out quickly but running won’t. He seems to have more stamina when he runs.
His walks still consist to about 70 metres down the street and back again every few days.

I’ve also noticed that he’s been much better at his strength exercises when he’s not concentrating on them.

For example I have a pillow in front of his food bowl that he stand on everyday. But because he’s focused on his food he’s not noticing so much that he needs to balance on this un even surface to steady himself. However when I put him on the couch yesterday, as soon as he had to stand he was showing signs of stress. It took him a while to stand and when he did he immediately lay back down.
When I put a treat in front of him suddenly that stress left and I’m pretty sure he would have ran up and down the couch 10 times for that treat.

The same goes for his sit and drop exercises.
If I ask him to ‘drop’ or ‘sit’ he concentrates too much on trying to do the exercise and then becomes quite frustrated. He’ll put his bum down slowly to sit but then take a few steps backwards with his back leg twisting a little. And he’ll do this again and again until he starts panting and barking.
As soon as I put a treat in front of his face and he has to do something to get it he will put himself into a sit without even realising it.

So now all his strength and balance exercises are based on him not realising he’s actually doing them 😛
And he’s improved greatly!

Mel x

The past few days have been really good. Rams is walking and balancing much better now. His front leg isn’t protruding out and he isn’t twisting his back so much. He’s managing the stairs really well too only needing help when he’s tired. He’s even confident enough to jump out of the back of the car, I just hold onto the handle on his harness to float him down.

He’s off all his antibiotics and pain killers so I’ve started his pro-biotics. No signs of intense pain and his cramps haven’t been seen in a few days. He is still a little stiff and sore after a long rest but I expect he will be like that for a while.

He is still sleeping a lot but when he’s up and about he wants to play, so I thought now is the perfect time to start him on some exercises.

A few months before the surgeries I was teaching him ‘sit’ ‘stand’ ‘drop’ and ‘tap’ with hand commands as he was quite stubborn with verbal commands. He was doing really well, well enough to drop or sit eagerly without me showing him the command. So now i’ll be teaching him again. Only thing is that I’ve forgotten some of the hand signals I gave him. Great job by me. I’ll have to slowly figure that out myself and then make sure I write it all down *face palm*

He is very eager to do the ‘tap’ command though, which is him tapping my hand with his front paw. Surprisingly his balance is really good. I only do 3 or 4 and leave it at that. The only thing with this exercise is that now he gives me a ‘tap’ every time he wants a treat. And at times he will repeatedly ‘tap’ me. Didn’t see that coming.

I’ve placed a soft pillow in front of his food bowl to start him on something unsteady to help his balance and strength. I also get him to place his two front paws on and off his bed (it’s quite thick) and reward him with a treat.

When he comes to the gym with me I get him to do the same thing but on the gym plates. I just place a few plates on top of each other to add some challenge when it gets easy. I find this type of exercise has been helping him walk backwards too as he is wobbly so has to concentrate on guiding himself backwards.

Mel x

I got told off this morning….

Yay! Today makes it 3 weeks since Rambo’s operation and we had all the sutures removed 🙂 We saw the surgeon instead of his regular vet and Rambo didn’t seem to mind, he walked over and accepted a pat from him.

Most of the fluid from the seroma lumps is pretty much gone only oozing every now and then. It is starting to scab so with the rest of antibiotics that will heal up. He is still tender around the area and the surgeon did say that he may still get phantom limb pain, although he’s pain management has been really good this week so i’ll just be watching out for anything out of the ordinary and keeping his exercise to a minimum for the time being.

He still has had days of soreness, stiffness and a few cramps. These days have been manageable. The cramps don’t last nearly as long as they did and he’s showing little signs of distress from them. Days like these he usually sleeps a lot so I’m letting him tell me what his day will be like.

Health wise he’s doing fantastic. The surgeon was really happy to see him alert and healthy, calling him “miracle dog” as he told me that Rambo had been the sickest dog he’d ever operated on, telling me again that he didn’t think Rams would make it through the surgery.

Every time we visit the vet I get told how strong he is and how close it all was. It’s such an odd thing to be told when you know your dog is very tough and resilient and you know has many years left. Even now you wouldn’t suspect that he was close to losing his life. You would just assume that he had the surgery and everything went remotely well.

It was such a terrifying experience that now it seems like such a blur and I can’t grasp the fact that I almost lost him. Because to me he’s my tough dog who is stubborn and strong, he even tells YOU off for ending a game of fetch, YOU are the one that needs to keep up with him. He isn’t one to give up so easily.

And because of his strong spirit I was able to take him home, care for him and have him by my side.

That’s why he’s a Rambo!

We have another vet appointment in two weeks to check on everything once again. In the meantime, I feel like now I can finally slowly relax so I’m going to do what Rambo loves doing most at the moment, and that’s nap a lot.

Mel x

zzzzz