A Sigh of Relief

Tucker had surgery on his leg on Wednesday, March 9th. We ended up staying here and doing the surgery locally through Tippecanoe Animal Hospital. I took him in that morning before I went to work which was not a good idea. I was crying before I even left the house, bawling the whole way there, and bawling the entire way to work. I'm going to blame it on the pregnancy hormones, even though I tended to be a pretty emotional gal before all of this. Ideally, Kyle should've dropped him off and saved me the heartache. Anyways, the doctor said they would do x-rays first to be sure that it was indeed a tear and if it was they would proceed with the surgery. If it wasn't torn he said they'd be giving me a call to pick him up because they wouldn't do the surgery then. When I didn't hear anything by lunch I knew it was a tear and they went through with the surgery. However, we were not allowed to call and check on him until 3. Kyle called and they said he did really well and to call back the next morning at 9 to see how he did overnight. If everything went okay and Tucker was eating and acting "normal" we would be able to pick him up Thursday.


That night was really awkward. Mind you we have had Tucker since about a month after we moved into our house, which will be 3 years in June. It was so weird not having him around and it did nothing but play mind games with us the whole night making us think and worry about him. What was he doing? Was he in a cage? Was it too small? Was he lonely or crying? Were there other dogs there barking incessantly driving him nuts? Was there anyone there? We definitely missed him WAY more than we anticipated. Kyle said when he got home Zeke was running all around the house and yard looking for Tucker. It was pretty sad.

Kyle called the next morning and to our relief they said he was doing great and we could pick him up at anytime. Kyle was already taking Friday off to stay at home with him, so we waited until he got off to go pick him up. Luckily my kids at school were in specials most of the afternoon and my principal was nice enough to just let me leave without taking any time off as long as someone could take care of my kids for 15 minutes and dismiss them at the end of the day. I was relieved and so excited all day to see Tucker, but I was also very nervous. I had no idea what it would be like once he got home, and I was constantly praying that this surgery would work and we wouldn't have any problems. We paid alot of money to fix our dear Tucker's leg.


He was definitely excited to see us when we got to the vet although I think we were even more excited to see him and know that he was still alive. We had never left him at a vet since we got him. If we left, he had always stayed with a family member. After seeing how he acted that first night we got him home, I'm convinced he was slightly traumatized by the whole experience of being somewhere new, not knowing anyone, and being by himself. He was a very needy and quite the attention seeker that night. I'm not complaining though because I was just as bad. I was glad our boy was okay and home again. He was getting around pretty well, but slowly because they had put a lot of thick bandaging around his leg to protect the incision, staples and sutures. He was obviously not used to this big, bulky thing being on his leg so it was hard for him to adjust to figuring out how to sit and lay down as well as get up. Pretty painful to watch. That night was the worst night he's had since we've had him. He had to go outside about 3 times and was constantly whining for attention and someone to be by him. Needless to say, Kyle was glad he didn't have to work the next day and I was wishing I didn't have to. That next day was a long one, but I was relieved because that was my last day before spring break and being off for a week.

After that first night he kept getting better each day. By Friday he had figured out how to sit/lay down and get up without much difficulty. He still wasn't eating a whole lot but that was pretty normal for just having had a major surgery. Our main concern became the medication we had to give him. We were giving him 3 pain pills and 3 antibiotics twice a day. After a lot of trial and error, a lot of frustration, and trying MANY different things, we realized the only way we could get him to take the pills was to give it to him in roast beef lunchmeat and to not let him see us doing it. He's one smart cookie. Any other way he would sniff the meat and turn his head away at it. He knew those pills were in there and he didn't like taking them. I was so glad when we were done with those.

We took the bandage off that first Sunday after his surgery. We were only supposed to leave it on for a maximum of 5 days or until it slipped down and the staples were exposed. We were starting to see some of the staples, so we knew it was time. Again, we were nervous, but Tucker was a trooper and didn't whine or anything when we took it off. After that we noticed that he was able to move around a lot better and he even began to toe touch.


Each day he has been getting better and better and acting more like his usual self. He's becoming the awnry little guy that we love so dearly and that sometimes drives us crazy. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks and we are really impressed and happy with everything. The main concern of him getting an infection is gone and we took him today to get his staples and sutures taken out. The doctor was really surprised and impressed with how much weight he was putting on it already and told us that we could begin to take him on short walks. He will like this because we've been extremely hard on him when he gets up. He was only getting up to go to the bathroom, eat, and move from room to room. We'll take him back in 4 weeks, on my birthday coincidentally, for one last checkup with this vet and then hopefully he'll be doing even better on his road to recovery.


This mom and dad are sighing one big sigh of relief that a very expensive and what we considered risky surgery has turned out better than we could've imagined. After all the stress and worrying about whether or not we should pay all that money 3 months before the baby arrives, we are glad that we did it.

Here's some pics of our little guy since the surgery.

Poor guy with his "cast"-it was actually a light red but looks pink

They had to shave the hair on his leg for the surgery. Here's a pic of the 13 staples and 5 sutures he had.

Poor Tucker....

Well, since my last post, we haven't really had much exciting happen. About 2 weeks ago when it was really nice outside we took the dogs for a walk. Once we got home we decided to stay outside and play with them for awhile-a decision Kyle and I both regret. We both wish we would've just gone inside and wonder if any of this would have ever happened.

Anyways-it was warm so all of the snow that we had gotten was finally melting. Most of it was gone, but the ground was definitely still saturated and slick. We play a game with the dogs where Kyle or I will take them to one end of the yard and keep them while the other one takes off running around the house-we let the dogs go and they love chasing after us. So Kyle took the dogs and I took off around the house. A couple seconds later I hear their chains clanking together because they have already almost caught up with me (I'm going to blame my slowness on being 5+ months pregnant). All of the sudden I hear Tucker yelping over and over again-I look back and he is just stopped with his back left leg hiked completely up. I knew right away that something was wrong because he will usually only yelp once or twice if he hurts something-this time he did until I turned around and look at him. Even then, he wouldn't even move. It was all he could do to walk inside the house and lay down.

Trying to be optimistic, Kyle and I decided we'd wait a day or two and see how he was doing before we totally freaked out and took him to the vet like crazed, overreactice parents. That night, Tucker didn't really move much so we knew something was up. When the next morning rolled around and he was still almost totally hiking his leg, not putting any weight on it, we knew we had to take him in. So Kyle called and got him in the vet that afternoon. Luckily it was at 3:30, so I left right after school got out and met him there, where we got the worst news for our poor little Tuck-he has torn his ACL. I was an emotional wreck-again I'm blaming this on the pregnancy. Don't get me wrong-I love Tucker to death, but he is moreso Kyle's baby and I was the one who couldn't stop crying for 3 days. Kyle was just so mad. He has always said that Tucker has had something wrong with his back legs.

So they of course suggested surgery because of his weight-132 lbs. Apparently if we don't get it fixed he will more than likely always have a limp, it could re-tear, and it could cause so much pressure and additional weight on his other back leg that it could tear too. So after taking their recommendations we called Purdue and another vet to determine prices. OUTRAGEOUS!! Purdue was going to charge $3500 when it was all said and done. To make an extremely long and frustrating story and time short, through many calls with our vet and other vets we have decided to have the surgery done by a local vet that is a little cheaper, yet still expensive. It's been a very tough decision with the baby being only a couple of months away and I'm thankful we have had the time to really think this through. We tend to be very impulsive people when it comes to decisions like this. Tucker is only 2 1/2 and he has been our kid so far. It's a gamble, but we have talked and both agree we want it done, but that if it happens again we won't be able to pay for another surgery and will have a HUGE decision to make. I definitely don't want our pup suffering by any means.

So his surgery is this Wednesday and I will drop him off before I go to work, he'll stay the night at the vet, and Kyle will pick him up Thursday after he gets off work. He's taken Friday off to stay at home with him and make sure he's doing okay and doesn't have any problems. Fortunately I have the next week off for spring break so I can watch him that whole week. As the surgery gets closer I'm getting very nervous and hope that everything goes okay and our guy can get back to normal. He just hasn't been the same ole Tucker since he's gotten hurt and it's tough to watch.

I'll keep you posted. Please keep your fingers crossed for our sweet Tuck.