[Dailydrool] Watson

[Katie Strobel]

Hello everyone,
I haven't been reading drools for about a week now - so I'm a bit
behind. I just wanted to thank everyone for the step and stair
suggestions. It will be a while until Watson can use steps but we want
to be ready for that time when it comes. Still don't know which steps
to get but it seems as if the possibilities are endless. Anyway,
thanks for all the help and emails about the steps.

Now, I didn't write yesterday because as you may have seen on the
news, it was a pretty crazy day in northern colorado yesterday. We
live in Greeley - about 10-15 miles east of windsor, and we were
surrounded by tornadoes but none actually came into town - which is
amazing to me. Anyway, I spent most of the day herding dogs around
from the basement back outside to potty every few hours, and Watson
came home from the vet yesterday so I were quite busy around here.

Watson had his surgery Wednesday morning. They were going to do the
TPLO but then took x-rays and realized that a TPLO wouldn't help
Watson. The vet says "normal" dogs have angles in their knee joint of
23% and a TPLO takes that angle down to a 6% incline, thus stabilizing
the knee better because the slope is less steep. The x-rays showed
that Watson's knee all by himself is already a 6% so no need for a
TPLO - you can't get a better angle than 6% or that's the ideal I
guess. So they went ahead and did the normal prosthetic ligament  in
place of the broken one surgery. The vet said everything went great -
watson did well under anesthsia and there was no damage to the
miniscus (the padding for the joint), there also was the tiniest bit
of arthritis but he said that with a torn ligament, it was incredibly
minor irritation and this surgery should rapidly slow down the
arthritis. He will still have it, but not for a while. The vet was
very positive about Watson's prognosis. He says the recovery should go
faster than we want it to so our biggest challenge will be keeping
Watson in cage rest and not running and jumping - he has to be on
super strict cage rest for 2 weeks - only 4, 10 minute walks to potty
every day - any other time he's supposed to be in the crate with that
stupid plastic e-collar cone on his head. I don't think his knee
generally bothers him in the crate - what is making him so
uncomfortable is that blasted cone....I have been researching
alternatives - they say the ones that keep them from bending their
neck aren't reliable enough to let him use when we're not watching
because Bassets are so long that they can reach around to their back
legs or bend in a way that still allows them to stratch or lick their
back legs. The other alternative is something called a comfy cone. It
looks like a regular e-collar but it is made out of foam that bends so
that dogs can get comfortable but it still stays in the cone shape so
they can't get back to their limbs to lick or bite. My only real
problem with the comfy cone is that I want it fast, and shipping that
will get here in any reasonable time will cost me as much as the comfy
cone. The cone is like 24 dollars but overnight or 2 day shipping is
23-25 dollars...not exactly great - does anyone have any other
suggestions about how to get one? THe websites that sell the comfy
cone say that some dogs can get them off - which is strange because it
attaches to their collar....I guess that's another worry....Watson
never wears his collar in his crate because I've read all about how
letting dogs wear collars in crates leads to some dogs choking
themselves....does anyone think that's a reason to worry? there are
also other comfy cone type collars that do not attach to the dog's
collar but instead use a draw string design around the neck - maybe I
will get one of those. When the vet calls to check on Watson, I'll ask
them what they think is best, but as always nobody seems to know more
about which things are best for bassets than droolers so any input is
appreciated gratefully.

As for Watson, he sometimes hurts and is not stable on the knee yet -
he wants to play and run and forgets that he's hurt so he'll go to
fast and then I can see that he's in pain. He is on a pill regimine
that made me get up every 2 hours last night because I have to give
one pill every 6 hours, one every 8, and one every 10 - which
basically means I was up at 2am for the first one, 4 for the second,
and 6 for the third....this is not going to be fun. I am done with
school and my summer job/internship doesn't start until tuesday but by
then i will be so exhausted that I wont know what to do...maybe I can
get them better aligned so that i can have 4 hours of sleep at a time
- I feel like I have a newborn...

Well other than that, Watson really wants to play, and can't - he
doesn't want to go in his crate, he hates the e-collar, but I think
he's happy to be home - he hates the vets office. When we went to pick
him up I could hear him whining and crying even before I started
talking to the receptionist...poor guy. I figured out later that he
really had to go potty and that's probably why he was so whiny. They
pump those guys so full of fluids and then don't walk them enough. The
drive home from longmont occured at about 10:30 am yesterday morning,
and I could see the storms but I only noticed the storms to the north
west of Greeley because usually, when a storm is to the east, it just
keeps going east and we don't worry about it - yesterday, the wind was
blowing to the west, and I should have paid more attention. Around
11:15 we pulled to the side of the road right around where the news is
showing that video of the huge tornado going towards those buildings.
It was incredibly windy, but not raining, and Watson was about to
explode so we got out to pee. He pee'd for 10 minutes! I kept checking
to make sure that he wasn't just standing around, but no - he REALLY
had to go! So we got back in the car and came home, and we got home.
My dad called and was yelling at me to get in the basement because
there were tornado warnings and one had touched down. I had to carry
Watson down the stairs and stick him in a crate so that Daisy, a
border collie who thinks she's Watson's momma, would not lick his owie
- which she has done before. Around my house, I could see the clouds
but it didn't appear that we were in any danger. we lost power for
about a half hour and just stayed put since we had no way of knowing
what was going on. Cell phone service was not working either - now I
know why....

There were at one time 7 reported tornadoes - but now they're saying
that it may have been multiple reports of the same tornado - I know
there were at least 3 around here yesterday. The big one was a mile
wide and was on the ground for an hour. It came through exactly where
Watson and I stopped to pee about 15 or 20 minutes after we left, and
I had absolutely no clue we were even in any kind of danger. We are
all fine here though - Windsor is not doing so great. Parts of the
town are demolished - but I bet most have seen it on CNN...I could not
imagine what would have happened had it hit us - thankfully, we were
lucky. Anyway, those I know who live in Windsor are fine, some people
are missing their dogs, but neighbors have rounded them up and the
sheriff's office is caring for them until they find their people. My
friend's car was totalled by hail, another friend can't get back to
their house because of gas leaks. All in all, it could have been much
worse.

Anyway, yesterday was nuts - hopefully today is more restful and I can
get Watson into a routine to make this whole thing eaiser....he's
asleep so I'm going back to bed.

Sorry this is so long :) Oh, and has anyone ever Iced a basset's knee
before for 20 minutes?? How am I supposed to do that 3 times a day? We
tried last night and he was not having it!

Thanks everyone for the drool and info about the steps again - I
always know I can count on you guys :)

Katie and Watson (what's a turnado?)