Got Her Life Back - Riley

Post tie-back surgery, Riley has gotten her life back!  It really is amazing.  Prior to surgery, I had joined a Yahoo group for laryngeal paralysis to get more information about tie-back surgery.  It was crazy.  You would have thought tie-back surgery was the greatest thing in the world.  It turned out to be just too much information, difficult to navigate, and it was all pro-surgery.... very overwhelming.

Well, so far, the surgery outcome has been pretty great for us so I can kind of understand what all of the excitement was about.  She easily hikes for over an hour and chases rabbits when temperatures are in the low 70's.  A few times a week, I let her play in the backyard once the sun goes down a bit and she plays with her toys.  If I had to do it again, I definitely would at this point.

I would say the main difference is that I am very careful about what, how, and when I feed her.

What: Big chunks of food that she can easily swallow.  Most of her food is 1.5 - 2.5 inch cubes of Fresh Pet.  I used to squeeze it into round meatballs, but now I leave it in whatever shape I cut it in.  She eats 1 pound per day.  And in place of chicken backs, I feed several Instinct medallions.  In the beginning, I split the medallions in half, but now that her throat is healed, I feed the whole medallions. Riley also gets 2 leafy green egg frittata muffins.  I break those into 3 or 4 chunks. 

No kibble. No tiny treats.  No crumbs. No dusty supplements.  I generally use her food chunks as her treats, but also will do 1 inch cubes of cheese.

How:  I hand feed (spoon feed raw Instinct medallions) each chunk, one at a time.  No more gulping down her food from a bowl.  I also feed each meal over time.  I might give her 3 chunks, prep food for other dogs, feed her 3 more chunks, continue preparation, 3 more chunks, feed another dog, feed Riley a chunk, feed another dog, feed another chunk, feed last dog, feed another chunk.  Then I put everything away and give her another couple of chunks.  So her meal might take 10 minutes instead of 30 seconds.

When:  I probably feed Riley 1/3 of her food for breakfast, 1/3 for dinner, and the remaining 1/3 throughout the day.  If she gets a treat for going in her crate, for example, she gets several chunks.  If we go hiking, I bring egg muffins or some food chunks for her recall treats.  I try to use up some food during her strength exercises.  I also have her do our stairs 3 times in a row each day for chunks.  She usually gets the last couple of chunks before bed.

I do not feed her anything significant an hour before or after she runs and plays with a toy.  I have noticed it upsets her stomach and she will sometimes get hiccups for an entire evening.

Everything else is back to normal!  We could not be happier. 

Post Tie-Back Surgery - Riley

We are four weeks out from Riley's tie-back surgery for laryngeal paralysis and it is her 12th birthday today.  Overall, things are going well.  She definitely pants quieter and is a little more heat tolerant.

We did have a situation last week where Riley was gagging so hard one evening that she eventually vomited and was desperate to eat grass.  And sometimes she seems to have nonstop hiccups.  She vomited again a couple of nights later. But she has been find again the last several days.

We are back to hiking in the mornings at 6:30 AM. Riley is doing pretty well.  I don't think her breathing is slowing her down at all, but the heat and mugginess does.

I am fighting the polyneuropathy as much as I can.  Her rear end is getting weaker and weaker though.  I still have her do the stairs at least three times a day and other strengthening exercises. We used to have a pretty elaborate peanut, balance disc, and flatwork routines for kibble, but since I don't feed her kibble or tiny treats anymore it limits what I can do with her.  I was mostly luring her through the exercises with kibble, but now I do it with her chunks of food and ask her to do more.  And I back off if she starts panting too much.  So we aren't doing nearly as much as we used to.

Happy 12th Birthday, Riley!

Tie-Back Surgery Completed - Riley

Riley came through surgery fine. My vet does tie-back surgeries first thing before morning appointments so Riley's was started around 7:45 AM.  This allows him to observe her all day in case there are complications.

   Brought her home around 6:45 PM.  She pottied, ate a few Fresh Pet meatballs, and went to bed.

Riley made it through the night with just a cough periodically and a couple of potty breaks. She was definitely feeling perkier in the morning.

Since her larynx is permanently tied open now, I have to be very careful with what I feed her. Soft chunks or meatballs is recommended.

To replace kibble, I am feeding her FreshPet Select. It comes in a roll and can be cut into chunks and squeezed into meatballs.

To replace chicken backs, chicken necks, and veggie mixes, I am feeding Instinct Raw.

It too is easy to pull apart and squeeze into meatballs.

Lastly, to try get some extra veggies into Riley, I cooked up some power greens egg frittatas. When I used to eat eggs, I would make these little muffin frittatas.

I put a dozen eggs into my Ninja blender and several handfuls of leafy greens and blended it all together. Poured the mixture into a muffin tin (each half full).  Cooked at 375 degrees for 17 minutes and out came these little veggie filled egg patties that are easy to pull apart into small chunks.

Drinking actually seems to give Riley more trouble than eating.  I make her take breaks so she does not start gagging.

Hopefully the next few weeks fly by quickly and Riley returns to mostly normal life.  I can tell already that her hoarse, raspy breathing is gone.

Riley Bridesmaid's Mouth

Riley did not have a good trial like the other two did. Earlier in the week, she choked on a treat really hard. It happens from time to time when they are eating treats while winded.  But this was different. Riley had to cough, hack, and gag for quite a while. Afterwards she seemed fine, but later that night she seemed sore and achy.  Her head position was a little funny and she was moving slowly. The next morning she was about the same, so I made an appointment for her to see the vet.  That afternoon, I could see some swelling under her cheeks and throat.

The vet saw nothing concerning.  Salivary glands were fine. Nothing looked infected.  Didn't look like hives. So he agreed that maybe the choking and gagging caused some trauma that has caused the soreness and swelling.  Rest and Deramaxx for a few days and we figured all would be fine.

A few days later, we were off to a trial and Riley felt much better, but still had a little puffiness.  But she was active, playful, grabbing toys, eating and drinking fine, etc. So I ran her in the trial on Friday. Well, I started to notice some resistance to drinking.  And then while panting, a friend noticed this:

It was as if Riley had a blister under her tongue on both sides. It was very strange. So then I starting to wonder if this was something else all together and that the choking several days prior was a symptom of something much greater. Saturday and Sunday were the worse days for Riley and I made plans to return to the vet on Monday assuming we would be aspirating to see what was going on. By Monday morning, she was much better, of course. One of the blisters had popped and she was much more comfortable. We headed back to the vet. Our final conclusion is that the choking on Tuesday caused swelling and trauma which blocked the salivary glands that caused the blister-like pockets underneath her tongue............... only my precious Riley Greyhound.

So we taking a break from agility for a few weeks and heading offline for awhile because Stephen and I bought a new house and will be moving soon.  Only 15 minutes from our current house, but we will be very busy prepping both houses.  We are going to keep the current one and rent it out. We are so excited to have more space.

Toe Surgery

Riley's toe ended up needing surgery. I really wish we had done it sooner. Oh well.  Our vet put a suture inside the toe. It basically pulls the toe in tight since the ligament that used to be there is torn and it makes the tissues angry so as to stimulate lots of scar tissue. Hopefully we'll get a tight, tough toe from it.

So Riley is to be leash walked only for the next 6 weeks and then we will rehab once again.  Hopefully this is the very last injury.

Accident-Prone

True to her nature, Riley has yet another injury. The hound is so accident-prone. You would think she would finally start to chill out in her 8th year, but not Riley Greyhound. She must twirl, spin, run, dart, stop, start, and zoom in every direction. It is one of my favorite and least favorite things about her.

I am actually quite surprised it took this long for Riley to dislocate a toe. It is such a common greyhound injury and since Riley has fractured a hock, seriously punctured a joint, bowed a tendon, sprained an elbow, and had a minor strain to the iliopsoas.... it only seems surprising that she has only sprained a toe once up until now.

So while running and playing about a month ago, the outside toe of the right rear foot dislocated at the P1 and P2 joint. The nail pointed towards her foot and the joint jetted outward. It immediately popped right back into place and it appeared that it might just stay that way. But then when she stepped out onto a very soft surface, it immediately dislocated another 3 times in a row.  I taped it to prevent it from happening again. My vet thought we would need to do surgery, but when he saw it a few days later, it was tight and not painful. So we opted to rest her.

I have not been resting her completely.  The toe now has a nice fat knuckle on it (scar tissue to hold it in place) so I exercise her, but carefully. No agility and no crazy stuff. Also, I have filed and continue to file her nail as short as possible. Every night I file the nail down to the pink of the quick... close, but not to the point of making her bleed. Riley gets lots of cheese for the slight discomfort.

I am about to start Riley back to work.  I plan to tape it for awhile.  Fingers crossed there is plenty of scar tissue to make it hold.

Accident Prone Riley

Of course, Riley hurt herself again and had to be pulled out of the last agility trial. She came up lame after a training and play session. And then still limping after a couple of days. Luckily, we already had a regular appointment scheduled with the rehab vet.

Dr. O found significant pain in Riley's elbow. I was relieved it was not her shoulder (most likely place for bone cancer), but injuries to the elbow joint can be tricky. Dr. O was worried that it could be a bone chip or arthritis that had flared up since she could not find any soft tissue pain upon palpation.

I decided not to wait and see, opting for x-rays the following week.  Thankfully, everything came back clean! We even got carried away and x-rayed both elbows, shoulders, and carpal joints. Riley is just so wonderful and my vet allows me to assist with positioning her so we just kept going.

Everything looked great! He even had an orthopedic specialist from the University of Georgia look them over and he did not see anything either.  The only little thing was a little arthritis on a stopper bone, but it was nothing to be concerned about at her age (7 years).

Riley has since stopped limping and is back to work!  She has no chronic problems, but she sure is accident prone...... and so precious!!!  Love that face!

And if you poke around the blog at all, you will notice that photos are missing from many posts. I accidentally deleted photos from a web album that feed the blog. Stupid me. I think I will attempt to fix it, but it will take a very long time.

Good Dog

Seven competed in a two day agility trial again recently. This time it was local so we did not have to go out of town. We did not qualify in either class on Saturday. My fault in Standard. Seven's fault in Jumpers. But we came back on Sunday and won both classes.

I am just so grateful that Seven continues to stay sound despite the bad carpal joint. I never want to take that for granted.

Riley is doing well also! The rehab vet felt that she could go back to work as long as there is no pain or swelling afterwards. Recall that she fell off the dogwalk a few weeks ago and the tendon that runs from the stopper pad to the big pad swelled up. The tendon is still thick, but Dr. O said that she has seen something like that remain for a year. Riley has been easing back into work and seems just fine.

I pulled both hounds out of the trial that happened last weekend and entered them in a trial in December we had not planned on.  If I am going to take Friday off, I would prefer it be for both dogs if possible. In total, two more trials before the end of the year.

Maddie... I really need to do a post on Maddie. However, she tends to not cooperate when I turn on the video camera during a training session. She is a right-brained, free spirit and she does not always go for my Type A plans. I am getting humbled on a regular basis.

Recently, I was emailed a request to use Maddie in an Italian fashion line photo shoot in New York City. We turned it down. I am pretty sure that if I had "really needed" Maddie to do something... I was definitely not going to get it.... but maybe one day. For now, Pressure is not our friend. She is precious though!

Red Light

Just when Riley gets the green light to get back to work, she does something reckless and gets hurt again. She was just getting back to agility when she took the dogwalk in typical Reckless Riley fashion, lost her footing, and fell off of it. She landed on her feet, but came up lame on her left front. Her pastern (the section between the foot and the carpal joint) swelled up immediately. You can also see a little bit of bruising.

Riley's lameness was gone by the next day and the x-ray was clean . I am not sure exactly, but she may have strained or bowed the tendon that runs down the pastern and/or she may have banged her stopper bone really hard. Since it is not painful anymore, I have been walking and working on her core muscles with the FitPaws Peanut and Balance Disc. The rehab vet will see her on Wednesday.

I pulled Riley out of the next three agility trials (big frowny face) just to be safe. I do not think the injury is that serious, but we do not want to make it worse. Anyways, I just get tired of poor Riley having to spend so much time on the sidelines. She loves to play, run, and jump more than anyone, but at the age of 7 Riley still has no self-preservation skills. She is just funniest little greyhound.  So calm, content, and reserved.... and then she EXPLODES!!! You just have to be so careful with her when you flip the switch.

Odds And Ends

Just a very random post...  First, Riley has been green lighted to get back to work.  She had some lower back and illiopsoas soreness that the rehab vet found.  I gave her 3 to 4 weeks off from work with lots of laser therapy, massage, and stretching.  Riley and I are so happy she is allowed to play again! We will, of course, be easing back into it.

Maddie is now 15 months old.  We are working on weave poles, jump sequences, and contact obstacles. Right or wrong, I depend heavily on food motivation in training and Maddie just is not food motivated consistently and never at a level on par with my other greyhounds.

Maddie is definitely forcing me to get comfortable using toys.  The funny thing is that I did want to learn to use toys, but had Maddie been food motivated, I am sure I would have long forgotten the idea of training with toys by now.  I have done that with all of my other hounds.  Travis, Katie, Seven, and Riley were/are very toy motivated, but I just never bothered with it because I am great working with food and they were/are great at eating. So I got the challenge I asked for. I try to approach each training session with "what will you teach me today?" instead of focusing on what I will teach Maddie.

Here is a little video of Maddie working on weave poles and contacts.

As you can see, Maddie was food motivated for the contact training the day I videoed.  I do have a feeding strategy that helps to promote food motivation on training days.  I tend to think about how much food Maddie needs to eat in a week rather than per day.  So on her days off and hike days, I over feed her and then under feed the meal or two prior to training sessions.  I use toys as much as I can, but some things (small detail work) are best trained with food.

Seven is doing great!  She is running well, training awesome, and staying sound.  Her "trick" wrist has been quiet and has caused her no problems lately.

I am just so grateful when all my hounds are happy and sound.

Seven's movie, "Pain and Gain", came out on DVD in the USA. There were no additional scenes, but the photo of she and Rebel Wilson did make the back cover.  I thought that was pretty cool.  I have now seen it about 13 times, I think, and can just about quote the entire movie. I still need to put together my photos and clips from filming to a couple of songs from the movie.

Well, summer is just about over.  I am looking forward to the heat not being a factor and being able to play/train/work dogs in the middle of the day!