berly

Sorry been super busy lately - really need to work on my time management skills considering i have so much uni work to do (only 2 months left until i am finished with uni!! woo hoo), balancing 2 jobs as well as having a inability to say no when friends ask me to go away for the weekend to holiday houses (gotta love friends with holiday houses). On top of that I have had no car thanks to my neighbour reversing into it.... Quick update on Jordan. He is doing well, havent seen any improvement for a while but there has been any decline in his condition. His leg seems to be in the same state it was a month ago? We have been going on 15 minute walks every day or second day and no problems there. Long overdue vet appointment tonight as i have had no car so we shall see what the vet says. Will keep you up to date and photos are coming of Jordan and his still purple harness... Kim

What naughty dogs!! Im glad to hear that mallee is back to 'normal' again!! and naughty chloe! im sure the man is over it by now, Jordan has done many naughty things like that and most people just get over it so dont worry too much. He's knocked children over (he is taller than most young children) by simply walking over them to get to where he wanted to go or by the wag i.e. wack of his tail. Just keep an eye out on her or at least make sure everyone around her is wearing socks!! Jordan is being really good he can start going for walkies soon but i am going away for the next couple of days (it's a hard life i know) so he will have to wait a little longer... He's a little obsessed with his newest squeaky toys and i can hear him squeaking them and growling at 2 in the morning so i have to remember to confisicate them from him at bed time. His energy is back to what it is now so i am really glad.. Only other negative thing at the moment is the fluffy white dog in the house behind us has been digging under the fence and i am sure jordan has probably been helping as well so ive had to spend the morning filling it up with random things i found (rocks, bits of wood etc). I am super paranoid because apparently my brother woke up one day last year to that little dog and Jordan playing with each other in my backyard That's surpising in itself as he can be dog aggressive.. But considering Jordan is about 25 times the size of this dog I would rather it NOT come into my backyard to get killed. Hope everyone behaves this weekend!! PS Funny story: i bought one of those car/walking harnesses to strap Jordan into the car properly from Ebay and the seller neglected to tell me it was bright PURPLE!!!! I put it on Jordan this morning and he looks ridiculous, imagine a huge male GSD in a bright purple harness...i will post pictures of it before i dye the thing black or at least put some racing stripes on it to macho it up a bit...

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Hilarious - where do you get your pictures/images from? Speaking of which, here are some photos of Jordan after his bath today as he was getting a bit stinky. He is playing with his latest toy, a squeaky steak (i.e. he is trying to eat it)...enjoy!

Hallo Hallo - my gosh doesn't anyone work? Then again i'm suppose to be working but took the day off to "study" oh the life of a uni student. Jordan's update - going really well. He is out of lock down and is allowed to roam free for most of the day with me keeping an eye on him except for at night when i put him back in. I've upped the food a little and he seems a lot happier. Weighing 46 kg is his optimum recovery weight so now that he's getting better I just want him to stay at 46-47. Also Bilby thank you so much on the link to the find/seek games. Jordan is taking to them well except for at first when i let him paw my hand to tell me which one the treat was in. Let's just say his claws are a little on the long side due to lack of walkies and i nearly lost my hand when he took a gentle swipe. His leg is going great although sometimes at night you can tell it's quite sore - i find it's all dependent on the weather. The colder it is at night the sorer his leg, the warmer then he's a-ok Bibly, I'm in! I loved your hierachial chart and job descriptions!! Very nicely done. Definately put a smile to my face. Jordan and the team will be the best search and rescue dogs the world has ever seen - we'll show them! Planning is defiantely Jordan's forte as like his owner he is pretty lazy and is a master in delegation rather than actually doing!! :D Hope Mallee's ears are getting better!!

Antoinette - Bad news about mallee!! THat's horrible....Well let's hope the rain has stopped and no more accidents or bad luck comes your way!!! How is she going now? Bouf should be coming off the pain killers soon...Hope he's ok. When Jordan came off his, I was prepared for the worse - but there wasnt that much difference...It's good to see he is full weight bearing! The rain has finally stopped here in Sydney and it's warming up again so Jordan shoud like that...He's doing well in terms of weight bearing. My latest worry about him now is his lack of energy...I think it's because he has given up on us in that when we go to talk/play with him it doesn't eventuate to anything fun - no walkies, no ball, etc. It's saddening that he sometimes doesn't seem to bother. Is he angry at me for locking him up? He doesn't even look at me sometimes =( Or even worse am i starving him to nothingness and that's why he doesnt have the energy???It's not like his food intake hasn't been cut too dramatically, he gets breakfast now and slightly less at night... His coat also looks crap these days as well - lack of exercise i guess....

Thanks for the words of support KL... I tried giving Jordan a raw carrot in place of bones and he sniffed at it and completely left it - so no luck. I do grind them up (with some other vegies and a tablespoon of the apple cider) and put it in with his dry food and he seems to lick it up... Do you feed her lots of vegies at atm? Or is it just dry food?

GOOD NEWS ALL We had our vet check up today and Jordan is doing really well, the leg is looking and feeling stable and my vet is really pleased with it. More importantly he has lost 2kg!! Considering he has been completely inactive and that I wasn't expecting him to lose any wieght at all - this has been a lovely surprise!! He was quite well behaved today which I wasn't expecting either as he hasn't been out anywhere for the last 3 weeks but he was as good as gold. KL: Im sorry to hear about Chloe's latest ailment - I hope it gets cleared up asap without any complications KL and Antoinette: I read that adding apple cider a couple of times to their diet's stops their wee burning the grass. I recently started doing that with Jordan and it appears to be working!!? It works out well because when I add his vegies (after putting through the food processor) to his dry food, he would leave heaps of the vegies behind, but adding a tablespoon of apple cider makes him lick the bowl clean! Well as I typed that, we got the news about Bouf... I'm very sorry to hear about Bouf's possible set back. I understand completely about your predicament in that some people don't seem to understand the severity of the injury and the importance of post op care. When I was preparing myself for Jordan, I had little support from my family and have had to reorganise my life in order to look after him and it was so frustrating to feel so alone and have no support. You say that you have spoken to your OH and the message seemed to be getting through? I guess all you can do is keep talking to him and get his support in this. He really should go to the vet with you at the next possible oppurtunity, what else are OH's for? I hope you feel better in the morning - as does Bouf. Keep us updated on the next fortnight, we'll be watching and waiting with you!

Wow so many posts since i last read - glad to see that everyone is maintaining the status quo and no one has made a turn for the worse! Great photo of you and chloe, you guys look so happy, good work getting .5kg off!! woo hoo Antoinette- I think you are right in that you have to let things progress naturally - thre is a definate middle ground, lots of walkies and no frisbee time is not a bad compromise so don't beat yourself up about it. Mallee has already been through so much but she's still as bubbly as ever so you have nothing to worry about. Enjoy yourself with her now, you've deserved it. Koza- you went on a walk for 7km? I dont think I could do 7km let alone Jordan even pre op. That's amazing how dogs can manage to over come anything thrown their way given the right care!! Well week 5 and Jordan is doing wonderfully! In the last week he has been bearing a LOT more weight on it - he no longer tip toes around on it nor does he paw it nearly as much (you when they having it on the ground but lift it up every couple of seconds??) so I am very pleased. I think the warmer weather is helping as well. He's leg doesnt look as wasted away any more but that could be my biased optimism. I've also started opening up his crate so he can have more freedom - he's quite lazy anyway so doesn't move around that much. He's always been pretty lazy but since opening his gate for long periods of time I am a little sad he doesn't follow me around like I thought he would, but I guess he knows what he can and can't do. I found that opening his crate was better because now everytime anyone goes near his crate, he isn't so frantically excited waiting for you to open his crate. So that's worked out quite well. In terms of his diet...unfortunately I got really carried away with his food and wanted to let him sample everything, so I don't know if he's managed to lose any wieght but I dont think he has gained anyway so I'm not too fussed but I have since calmed down and now have a steady routine with breakfast consisting of pigs ear or kong (about to introduce a bone once a week - he can't have too many cos he had an operation on a lump under his eye due to infection of a broken back tooth) and dinner is half his previous amount of dry food pre op with either some pumpkin, vegies, sardines or an egg. I'm going to start putting in some yoghurt twice a week and some apple cider twice a week... We have a vet appointment on Wednesday and so i can talk to my vet a bit more - i can also find out about how much he wieghs - as long as he hasn't put any wieght on, I will be happy and can keep focused on getting the weight off. But over all I am really happy with his progress. Kim Ps can't wait to hear about Bouf's xrays - good news i am sure!

Jordan seems to be back to normal now - well as normal as he can be. He's back to weight bearing again so i dont think the fall affected him as much as it did me. He's being really energetic these days and it's so hard to keep him quiet, he's caught on that when he gets taken out of his crate it's for the toilet and once he is done he has to back up again so lately he's been mucking around, sniffing and carrying on before he does his thing because he knows it buys him some extra time out of the crate. Just today he tried to jump on me - he weighs nearly 50 kg!!!! Speaking of his weight - last time he got weighed he was 48kg and since then i've cut back on his dry food and replaced it with some vegies. I've also been feeding him more raw meals - at the moment it's alternating between raw meat (lean human grade stuff) one day and dry the next with varying amounts of vegies, sometimes pasta/rice and egg once a week etc. The proportions are quite smaller now and i give him a pigs ear or some other treat in the morning. I don't know if it's actually working in terms of him losing wieght but at least he's healthier? The only issue is when i give him raw he poos without fail 2 hours later, but lately after eating dry (sometimes not all the time) he doesnt poo til the next day. He's a pretty big dog and I'm used to him pooing twice a day - thoughts and opinions please? I am really concerned about the state of his bad leg though - the muscle tone is basically non existant and i know there's nothing that can be done now but how is he suppose to increase his wieght bearing on it if it's weaker anyway due to less muscle tone even if the ligament is stronger?? Meanwhile what happend to Bouf? Has he returned to weight bearing yet?? I hope so...keep us updated

CONGRATULATIONS Kel and Chloe - that is such fantastic news!! After all this time, the moment has finally come. Chloe is cured! I am very happy for you...May she live on to the be the most super bionic dog ever! Alongside Mallee of course! Hope you have a great weekend playing and doing all sorts of fun dog things... Sorry to have to put a dampner on the celebrations but Jordan has a really nasty slip the other night, he just went splat, limbs everywhere, bad leg in an awkard angle - I freaked out and gave him as much space as possible so he could get up. When he did he was holding the leg up completely off the ground for a minute or 2 before bearing some weight on it again. He didn't cry out or anything when it happened and I can touch his leg without any fuss but obviously I'm not going to try to do anymore than place my hand on his leg but he seems ok - I can't help but notice he is bearing a smidge less weight than before the fall - but can't decide whether or not that's actually true or if I've just convinced myself otherwise. Going to the vet in a couple of days so I'm just monitoring his behaviour/condition for...figures cross nothing snapped. Surely there would be a lot more pain if that did happen?

It's official - i hate going to the vet! It is so stressful because I'm trying to keep Jordan calm but after a week in a cage he is just too excited for his own damn good, I can just foresee him hurting himself getting in and out of the car. Antoinette - I used milk crates and towels over them to leseen the gap between front seat and back seat, works quite well, and as for him charging out of the car like a maniac, all i can do is give him as much room as possible and move the seatbelt etc well out of the way and hope for the best - at least my car is quite low to the ground so it could be a lot worse... Anyway, his stiches came off today - nice clean wound, barely a scar so thats good AND the vet had a good feel of it and he was really pleased with the results!!! He didnt think Jordan would be at this stage so early, apparently it's very stable and weight bearing is ideal so fingers crossed it wont be 1 step forward 2 steps back! When Jordan came off his meds I thought he was going to be quite restless but he was fine, no change actually. So all I can do is keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best and that he keeps recovering at this rate. It all just seems to good to be true, so I am super paranoid that something will go horribly wrong. I don't have to see the vet for another 3 weeks - phew, no more stressful trips for a little while and I'm just going to concentrate on getting his wieght down. He's 49 kg atm - big dog I know but he's quite tall (he used to be 60kg when he was a chubba wubba) but he has a waist and you can feel his ribs no problem, so he's not overwieght atm but I would like to see him slim down as much as possible. Been feeding him lots of veggies whilst lessening his dry food intake. Bilby? How's Bouf going? Thanks for listening, -Kim-

Hi Artechim, Thanks for your post and the info. Jordan my 8year old GSD just had his cruciate ligament replaced last week so it's always good to hear the experiences of people who've gone through it before. Even though he is recovering well and not putting any undue strain on his leg whilst he is in the crate, I'm preparing myself for the worse. He is after all a huge dog (50kg) but as a uni student the replacement ligament procedue was the only way to go due to finances (or rather lack of). He's limping on it atm (same as pre op) and he does bear weight on it which I wish he wouldn't - it just seems to early to try to use his leg too much, but try telling that to a dog who weighs more than you do. Bilby, thanks for pointing out that after the drugs ran out Bouf got more restless- I didn't even think of that! At least I am somewhat prepared. However now I stressing out because Jordan loves to "twizzle?" ie spin around on the spot before lying down - I can't stop him from doing it!! If i try to get him to stops and twists to face me and gets up etc all way too quickly for my liking. We are going to the vet today for a check up (all post op appointments are free - thank god) to take the stiches off his face (he had a lump removed from there 3 days before he ruptured his ligament) and I am really worried about his excitement level - I've done the best I can in terms of preparing the car for the quick journey but getting out of car is what is giving me a nervous breakdown, but we'll see what happens today. I'm keen to get him off his drugs because I can really see the difference in his movements first thing in the morning ie when his painkillers have worn off and his movements are much slower and he knows to take it easy. Will report back after vet. PS on my questions list - diet, painkillers, what else should i ask??

Hello all, Just an update on Jordan. He came home Friday and whimpered for about 30mins, and then settled right down and has been very well behaved. It's still early days (day 3 today) but I'm so relieved by his behaviour. I was anticipating breakouts from the crate and all sorts of worse case scenarios. but he has been such a good sport - amazingly he has learnt to go to the toilet on command which is quite astounding considering I never taught him, but he has no issues getting taken out of the crate to go to the toilet on leash and back in the crate. Thanks for the tip on food KL, I'm still trying to find the right balance when adjusting his food but so far going well - he did have diarrhea the first night but i figured it was due to the change of food from the vet and home and also as I had bought so many different treats for him, i gave him a sample of each one throughout the day..oops. Apart from that things are going swimmingly...He's bearing some weight on his leg - its about the same amount pre-op, i just hope he takes to the ligament well... Can i ask why is Chloe on a diet? Did she put a lot of wieght on whilst recuperating??

Antoinette, i just read your post after coming back from the shops to stock up on treats etc and i went past some non slip mats that would be perfect for his crate because i was thinking it was too slippery with the blanket straight on top of the plastic tray, so there you go! Thanks anyway!! Jordan is at home now, been here for about 15 minutes and is whining and whimpering in his crate wanting out but hopefully he will calm down soon. The vet said he was really good and only got taken to go the the toilet twice a day and had no accidents so maybe my original plan every 4 hours is a little extreme so i might make it 3-4 times a day instead....apart from that everything seems to be ok for now but we'll see. Thanks again, Kim

Photos of Jordan (Hope this actually works, if not sorry I will try next time)

Photos of Jordan

Hi all, Wow thanks for the advice! Bilby, it seems you and I are in the same boat so hopefully we can help each out esp with the advice given by Kelly Louise and Malleerr and others. Thanks again, you have no idea how much this has made me feel better about Jordan. He comes home tomorrow because i was at work all day and then went out as i figured i will be home for a long long time hanging out with Jordan. I'm 22 so try explaining to your friends and boyfriend that you don't want to go out because you have to look after your dog...so i let him stay at the vet one more night so i can bring him home tomorrow morning and monitor him all day, that way if need be i can call the vet without waking him at 2 in the morning. I'm really worried about his reaction to being confined. But at least with the crate his movements are limited so he won't be able to do too much damage. The neighbours have been warned that there could be a lot of whining for the next couple of weeks, but they are animal lovers too and have offered to keep an eye on him with me so that's great. I will definately bring a towel for him to walk on when we get to the vet as I am sure he will be overly excited to see me and he's a bit clumsy because of his size; imagine a cartoon image of a dog running so fast that he has to come to skid a few metres in order to stop, sound effects and all...that's Jordan... Malleerr, I'm glad mallee is doing well, i read (well most of it, this thread is 25 pages after all) about all the problems you've had but its good to see she's on the road to recovery well and truly. Ditto Chloe, you seemed to have so many worries and concerns but its all worked out for the best Kelly Louise, I only hope Jordan will be back to his usual goofy self soon. Anyways I'm going to go have another check of Jordan's new living arrangements and make sure it's all ready to go. I think I need more blankets to make sure the floor of his cage isn't too slippery. Oh and here are some photos of Jordan in his hey day. I'm sure I will be back tomorrow to post thousands of questions that I will no doubt have when he gets home.

Ok, I have just spent the last hour or 2 reading all 20 something pages of this thread. It contained so much useful information, so thanks for playing it out everyone. Makes post op care seem a lot less daunting and maybe even possible! My 8 year old GSD, Jordan is currently at the vet :D recovering from the surgery for his rear cruciate ligament. I went for the traditional suture method and talked to my vet before and was told the op went very well. I will bring him home on Friday and the long long road to recovery begins. I've got a crate for him which he has been using for the last couple of days so he is used to it. It's filled with blankets so it's super comfy and it is in his usual hang out area i.e. on the back porch on the other side of large sliding glass doors so I can keep an eye on him and he can still see me so he won't be too distressed. He has never been confined in his whole life and he is not going to be happy when he cottons on that there will be no walking for another couple of months. From his crate there are quite a few stairs down to the yard to go to the toilet, but I have been assured that stairs are ok as long as he doesn't go helter skelter down them and that I use a sling. He hasn't been toilet trained either (he's an outside dog), so wait til he finds out there will be no going to the toilet unless he's on the lead... My brother and I have worked out a roster so that at least 1 of us can take him to the toilet and have water every 4 hours or so. 7am, 11am, 3pm, 5:30 (for dinner), 7:30, 11pm and 2 am. I have no idea if this is appropriate. I am also stocking up on treats, bones etc for him.. My question to the experts? Is there anything I have missed out on? or is there anything I should know? secrets of post op care? etc. etc. I think everything has been covered in the thread but if there are any pointers anyone wants to emphasize, please let me know! Thanks in advance

Why don't you try a halter? I weigh 40 kg, my dog 50kg (60kg for a while when he was younger)- makes for an interesting walk. I bought a Gentle Leader years ago and it was the best thing I've ever bought! Although he always paws at it when I first put it on, he adjusts really quickly when he figures out its walk time and doesn't pull at all and when he does lunge or have a go at something I have total control of him with a gentle pull.