TPLO is a major surgery. (Tibial-plateau-leveling osteotomy).
One of HoundDogHotels loveliest clients is bouncy Boxer Ruben. Some months ago a new addition joined his family - a rescued female boxer called Shelby.
Within a short time Shelby developed a bad limp to her rear left leg and she was clearly in significant pain as even with painkillers by the end of each day she was unable to put her leg to the floor.
Shelby’s wound is healing well and not swollen. She mainly lies with her left leg uppermost, but not all the time
Following a consultation with SASH (highly respected Small Animal Specialist Hospital) the owners found beautiful natured Boxer Shelby needed to have TPLO surgery - a serious and expensive operation costing $5000. But all her caring owners were worried about was getting the op done as soon as possible to relieve their girls discomfort.
A problem they had was that after the operation Shelby would need to be alone with strict confinement to limit movement. This ruled out staying at home with Ruben, so the owners asked if we could help with her 6 week rehabilitation.
Because it is lockdown my daughter is here so we were happy to help as that would mean Shelby would have two of us ensuring full time company in quiet surroundings.
But it was vital to first get Shelby used to us and the Hound Dog Hotel surrounding before she came to stay after her op. As just imagine if she was dropped off after an operation to a strange place how confused and stressed she would be.
We set up a number of day visits culminating in an overnight stay. This key preparation paid off big time as when Shelby was dropped off after her major operation she was happy to see us again and settled down right away. Between sleeping she managed brief trips to go outside - hopping on three legs.
All was going well but on her 2nd morning she gave us a big scare.
Around 2 hours after her morning pills – one of them a strong tranquilliser, Trazodone – she stood up to get off her bed, walked a few steps and suddenly fainted. She fell to the floor and did a little involuntary wee. It took about 10 minutes for her to come round.
My daughter was right there, witnessing the whole things and also saw her eyes flicker a bit too, so we were concerned it was a mild seizure.
Hound Dog Hotel policy is that owners are informed of even the most minor events (‘full disclosure' ) so we contacted them immediately. They collected Shelby, who went back to SASH for a check over. The Vet said she was fine, it could have been ‘Syncope’ (pronounced Sin - co - pee) and she was returned to our care.
The next morning however, an almost identical event occurred, again an involuntary wee but this time it was almost 20 mins before she could get up.
We quickly realised this second episode had occurred within the same time frame as the previous morning, in particular within around 2 hrs of having been given the tranquilliser.
Long story short - we needed to isolate the cause so the fourth morning we did not give her the tranquilliser.
As the morning ticked into the 1030 am - 11 am period we were anxiously watching to see what would happen when she got up from her bed and whether she would faint again. You can imagine we were very relieved to see when she got up she was absolutely fine.
We have been keeping notes of what drugs are administered -and at what time. These reords are noted on a sheet* I designed for keeping up with meds and have used with various dogs in my care. *examples attached
And we also noted the precise times when the incidents began and how long they lasted.
If you are looking after an animal notes are very helpful. There is a saying “A short pencil is better than a long memory’ and it is too easy to forget things that you might want to review at a later date.
TWO POINTS
Giving Trazodone to sedate after an operation is quite normal. But decided to look it up - and it did not have fainting listed as a side effect. However, it was for sure having this effect on Shelby so we ceased giving to her. The snag is, being drug free, she is more aware of the limitations on her movement. But she is such a sweet girl she puts up with being kept inside with good grace.
N.B. If anyone wants a copy of the schedule of drugs I'm happy to let you have one I can put it on Google for you to pull down in Word and adapt for your own use:-)
Dear girl that she is, sitting on the floor with her, she looks sad as she is so over being constrained, but it is neccessary at times to keep her resting.
Shelby’s chart since her arrival (we made notes of her SYNCOPE (fainting) times on her checklist)