Goodbye Old Friend

Hello. I know it's been a while since our last post. There is a reason for that; a year ago on December 12 of 2011, Cool passed due to complications and old age. He was 15 years old. We miss our Cooldog so very much. We will never forget him.

In loving memory 
You will never be forgotten 
Forever loved and missed 
Always our Cooldog.
~ ♥ ~

Cool's New Boot

Gone are the days of taking Cool to the vet every week to change his cast. Thankfully, Cool got his new support brace last week. And, he is already getting used to walking with it!

He wears his brace during the day, then we take if off at night before bed. We watched him last night take a few steps without the brace as he was settling down to sleep. His hock looks pretty good, not as low as it was. He is still weak though so it's a good thing that he has this brace for extra support.

The velcro straps make it pretty easy to put on and take off. The doctor did an awesome job at creating this custom fit brace. The mold that was made of Cool's leg and foot makes the brace form-fitting so it doesn't slip and slide has he walks. It's made of some sort of durable plastic outer casing with cushion interior and the craftsmanship is impressive.

We're very lucky to have had such great care at the La Mesa Hospital - Pet Emergency Speciality Center. Everyone there knows Cool by name and greats him a smile. Dr. Serdy was Cool's surgeon. We can't thank him and his staff enough. He was the one who recommended we get the custom fit brace.

That's when he introduced us to Kel, Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist with SCOPe. We did some research online for braces beforehand and found a few but we weren't sure if they would work. The extra cost of the custom-fit brace is worth the peace of mind knowing that Cool is comfortable.

Tough Year for Cool

It's been a tough last part of the year for Cool. In August, he started limping. We thought it was just tight muscles from sitting for long periods of time. A week went by and we noticed that in addition to the limping, Cool's right heel was lower than his left heel and he was having trouble walking, sitting and getting up. We could sense he was in discomfort, possibly even pain.

We called Cool's vet and they had us bring him right away. The vet examined him but couldn't find anything wrong at the time and sent us home with some anti-inflammatory and pain medication. After two weeks of the treatment with no results, we took Cool back to the vet. By now his heel (also called the hock) had dropped even more.

At this vet visit they took several x-rays of Cool's spine, hips and legs. We had done some research and we were terrified that his symptoms matched what we thought to be degenerative mylopathy; a condition of older dogs where they lose all function of their legs, leading to paralysis. Luckily, the x-rays didn't show any signs of this disease. However, there were sings of bone loss, and the telling sign of his symptoms.

The vet pointed to the achilles tendon area and explained how it appeared ruptured. She advised us that the situation was serious and that we needed to see a specialist as soon as possible. There were two possibilities of treatment depending on the specialist's examination; either a splint to help the tendon heal or worse case scenario, surgery.

So we took Cool to the specialist the first appointment we could get. After the specialist read the x-ray, he confirmed that the tendon had ruptured but also had become dislodged from the bone. With this news, surgery was the only option.

Cool underwent the surgery in late September. The estimated recovery time was eight weeks with weekly visits to have his cast and bandage changed. Cool was mobile and was doing well. Eight weeks went by and were anxiously awaiting to hear that he was healed.

It was the week before Thanksgiving when Cool's cast was supposed to be permanently removed. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Cool was not yet recovered, in fact, four more weeks of a soft cast was recommended. Even though the surgery was successful, older dogs like Cool (14 yrs old) sometimes take longer to heal. We knew going into the surgery that there was no guarantee. But we needed to do what we could to help our dog.

This past week we learned that Cool is still not recovered and that he will need to wear a splint for the rest of his life to support his leg. Luckily, Cool is in good spirits. He's our same happy dog who can still walk and we're so thankful to have him in our life.