Chloe Day 5

Chloe has been licking at her incision a lot. It appears that she has removed some of the sutures and the incision has a bit of gapping which they told us to watch for. The vet is closed today (Sunday) so rather than taking her to the ER and paying a fortune, Cory will take her in tomorrow morning. All we can is watch her closely so she leaves the incision alone.

Chloe Day 4 - Celebrating Vivi's Gotcha Day

Chloe had a good day today. She rested well and seems to be leaving her sutures alone. The incision looks about the same. We have been doing her physical therapy once a day which consists of flexing and extending her leg slowly, repeating 10 times. She then gets a pack of frozen peas to help with her swelling.

While the girls were napping, we took advantage of the mild weather. Steph put up the garland and some more Christmas lights while Cory cleaned out the garage. We are trying to get in the Christmas spirit, but it doesn't help that there is no snow on the ground.

We went to the Holdsworth's for pizza, ice cream cake and to celebrate Vivi and Charlie's Gotcha Day. All the kids played so well together and we had a wonderful time.

Chloe Day 3 - Bandages Removed

Cory took Chloe into our vet to get her bandages removed today. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication and they removed the bandage AND her sutures. They had to sedate her again and put back in new sutures. We were both very upset not knowing how this would set her back. Her sutures were not suppose to be removed for 10-14 days! We called Dr. Levine who did her surgery and he said she should be fine and not to worry. There is another set of sutures beneath the surface ones. She is sleeping better and not winning throughout the night.

This is a photo after her bandage was removed. She is starting to have a little bit of bruising but overall the incision looks pretty good.

Chloe Day 2 - Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chloe rested well today. She was more independent, not winning and needing as much as attention as she did last night. She finally went to the bathroom last night around midnight without any problems so we removed the plastic bag from her bandage. The bag was to prevent her bandage from getting wet not to cause an infection.

The girls napped and then we went to Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Charlie's for dinner.

Alaina has started to try to walk up the stairs rather than crawl. She attempts to hold on to the side of the wall. She also is babbling a lot, carrying on a conversation with herself. She is growing up so fast and we can no longer characterize her as a baby, she definitely is a toddler.

Chloe Returns Home from Surgery - Day 1

Chloe's surgery went very well. She returned home early afternoon and has been a trooper. We set up her new home in the basement where she will be spending all of her time for the next few weeks: no stairs, easy access outside and carpeting so she will not slip and reinjure her leg. It is so important to limit her activity so she benefits from a full recovery.

Her leg is wrapped for the first 3 days so the incision can heal a bit without her irritating the stitches. She also has a fetanol patch on her front leg to slowly release pain medication for her. The bandages should be removed on Friday so we will then actually see her incision.

I don't know who got the most sleep; Chloe or Steph. It was a long night with quite a bit of winning and not a lot of sleep, more like rest. Overall Chloe did well and we made it through the night. We are hoping each night gets easier for her.

Today was Vivian's "Gotcha Day," celebrating 3 years! Unfortunately we did not do anything special. It was a hectic day with Chloe's first day home post surgery.

We're Back!!!

It has recently been brought to my attention that it has been about 1 year since I've updated our site, amazing how fast time has gone by. In less than 2 months, we will be celebrating Alaina's 2nd birthday.

Chloe injured her right rear leg hunting this October in South Dakota. After 3 weeks of appointments with the vet, we had an orthopedic specialist look at her. The diagnosis was that she had a complete tear of her cranial cruciate ligament (equivalent to our ACL). She had surgery to repair this and will have a long recovery ahead of her, minimum of 8 weeks. We will track her progress on our blog, please keep her in your thoughts.

Halloween

Vivian and Alaina before we went out trick or treating. Vivi was a bumble bee and Alaina was a ladybug. It was fun for all!!!