It’s been awhile Tripaw family so I thought I would check in. Our sweet boy is doing ok these days. He suffers from an ACL tear (which happened before Thanksgiving) in his back leg. NO fun for an old guy. Its tough on those back legs. Some days are better than others. He is not getting any better but he is not getting any worse. We understand it takes a long time for these things to heal and thats ok. We decided against surgery given his age. We tried some braces from Amazon and they just didn’t work for him. His pain seems to be doing ok. Sometimes it’s hard to tell because he can be so stoic when it comes to pain. He’s a prideful old guy! He’s on Tramadol 3 times a day and Rimadyl twice a day as well. The added Rimadyl has been helpful. He has small pee accidents here which is just age related. Our vet explained that its probably aging kidney’s and not being able to concentrate his urine. So all the water he drinks goes straight through and is produced into urine. As a result the bladder fills up frequently and a lot of the time they can’t empty it as much as they need to and so there is an overflow issue. It’s also hard to squat to urinate so they tend not to empty their bladder completely when they do go outside. He used to mark his spot everywhere he went. When your back legs don’t work so well you only want to go once while you’re out there! Especially if its 15 degree’s!
Our newest issue is a nasty pressure sore right where the strap of his harness hits on his underside. We hadn’t noticed it until yesterday when it started to seep. At first I thought it was a tumor we hadn’t noticed (he has fatty lumps everywhere!) but given where the harness hits, its probably a pressure wound. The front under-strap pushes very hard into him especially when he goes out to poop. He needs alot of assistance. He can squat down but we have to hold him up full force with the harness. OUCH. He needs alot of help getting up as well. So lots of pressure on that underbelly. I texted the vet again. She suggested a new harness. Right now he has the Ruffwear. We just ordered the AST Get A Grip harness through Tripaw in hopes that it won’t hit that area as hard. But now I see Ruffwear has a Brush Guard so we ordered that off of Amazon as well. Hopfully one of these will help stay away from that area. In the meantime off to the vet we go. 🙁 I understand these wounds are nasty and hard to heal. It would be super helpful if his back legs would just start kicking in so that we can stop having to help him around with the back handle of his harness! UGH!
All of these new phases of old age have made us think and ponder when enough is enough. We love him enough to know that quality of life is what comes first. We had some good hard talks with our beloved vet earlier this week. Together, we have agreed with her, that he is not there yet and pray that the good Lord will help see when it is his time. He enjoys his naps in the sunshine and Lord knows he loves his chicken treats! So we will just keep trucking on and hoping the vet can help his new wound. Praying he gets more strength in those rear legs soon too! 🙂 Cheers! 