Leo' leg

Well, Leo had his stitches out today and so far his leg hasn't dropped off!

Actually it will be two weeks tomorrow since he had the op on his knee and he has made remarkable progress. He is already putting some weight on his foot and he no longer falls over when he has a wee!

Mike, the vet, doesn't want to see him for another 4 weeks, when he will be half way through the recovery period. He is going to write to the Kennel Club about Leo's op, we have to ask the Kennel Club for permission to show him after his operation.

The news is not so good for Lacey. She is a 15 year old black rough Griffon who has mammary tumours, they have now spread to her armpits and she walks with a limp. She can also lick the tumours and has made them sore. I thought we would have to say goodbye today but Mike is going to give her a steroid injection which will calm them down. So we will see how she goes on.

My Furry Friend

It's not easy to keep a dog resting (see previous post). It wouldn't be so bad if he was the only dog in the house, but there are eight others, and they all want to sit on my lap too! By the way Leo is behaving at least one of the girls is coming into season as well!

There is also poor Lacey who has terminal cancer and is very near the end of her life, she needs lots of TLC and she wants to sit on the nice soft cushion that I have just put down for Leo. So I have two cushions but then the other dogs are all trying to get on them, it's very like a game of Musical Chairs, only with cushions and nine dogs.

At night I put Leo's cushion on the bed next to my pillow and wrap his lead around my wrist so that I know when he is going walkabout. This morning I was dreaming that someone was trying to pull me over a cliff and I was desparately trying to pull them back, digging my heels into the turf etc. Then I woke to find Leo was nearly hanging himself by trying to jump off the bed!

I have to take him everywhere, to the loo, to fetch my grandson from school, to church, to the hairdressers etc. Last night it was so cold that I left him with my husband and son while I went up to the gate to meet my grandson, who was staying the night, I could hear Leo screaming from the other end of the garden and when I got in these two grown men were trying to stop this tiny dog, who only weighs twelve pounds, from leaping about.

At least I'm busy on the computer printing the church magazine and producing copies of our Pastor's new CD, so I can sit and cuddle Leo. That is until one of the young girl Griffons gives him the eye!

Leo the patient

Leo is laying across my lap with a blanket over him. We picked him up from the vet this morning, yesterday he was admitted for an emergency cruciate ligament repair.

To those who don't know what a cruciate ligament is it's the stringy thing that holds one bone to another under your knee-cap (patella) and allows your knee to bend up and down but not side to side. Leo's had broken and needed a quick repair so that he could be free from pain and able to walk on four legs.

The vet told me after the op that he had inserted a new ligament made of plastic with metal clips to the bones, and had tidied up the cartiledge in his knee. Leo was kept overnight as he needed morphine to cope with the pain.

He is to have absolutely strict rest for 4-6 weeks and then very limited movement for another 4-6 weeks, with physio-therapy to keep his knee from stiffening up.

Whether we will ever be able to show him again remains to be seen. We will have to ask the Kennel Club for permission to show him as you do after such an operation.

But that doesn't matter, I am just glad he's OK now