Sunday Post Surgery

Well, it's been a couple days for Betty. Friday she was pretty well out of it, as she was still on morphine, and had a painkiller patch that she had to wear until today. Saturday she bruised up a little around her incision, and she was much more alert and like her old self.

We go a pen from PetSmart to help limit her movement, and have to watch her, especially after her PROM exercizes, to ensure that she doesn't lick her sutures.

Tripod Frankendog!

Betty is safely home from her surgury! She's a little stoned due to the morphine patch she has to wear for a couple days, but she's already putting weight on the fixed knee. While she was under they removed a wart in her head and a papilloma from her upper eyelid. In 12 weeks, she'll be good as new!

Honey, I broke the Dog!

My poor crippled baby!

Since all the snow has melted, I've been taking Betty out for more walks, and more playing in the backyard. She loves, LOVES, LOVES playtime in the backyard, with ball or frisbee. She will literally want to play until she passes out (which is kinda good, as the Vet wants her to lose 10 pounds (she's at 62 right now, down from 65, headed to 55 lbs, hopefully). But, as we were playing a couple weeks ago, she brought the frisbee back with a limp in her step. After a night's sleep, she was still limping...so it's off to the vet we go. He (Dr. Shaw, Woodstock Vet Clinic, and Bully expert) looked her over and couldn't find anything wrong. So we got some anti-inflamitory meds and two days later, she was right as rain.

Next week, we were going away for the weekend, so Betty was going to be boarded at Chasin' Our Tails (http://www.chasinourtails.com/). She goes there on Saturday mornings sometimes for Puppy Playtime and much-needed socialization, and the owners have a Bully, so they know how to take care of her. Before dropping her off, I again took her out into the backyard to play and burn some energy. After the third ball-toss, she was limping again, so I sent her meds with her, and they promised to take it easy with her (which I'm sure they did, they're excellent there).

Picking her up after a couple days, she's still go the limp, so we go directly back to Dr. Shaw that same day (Monday the 7th of April). After checking her out, it appears that Betty has torn the ligament behind the knee of her rear right leg. Dr. Shaw was awesome in explaining what would need to be done (with drawing, photos and models) and Betty will be having surgery on Thursday the 17th. The recovery time is 8-12 weeks, and they gave us very detailed instructions. Hopefully all goes well and she'll be better than new.

But, no more frisbee/ball in the backyard, ever. Tug of war should still be fine, tho.

Welcome Home, Betty!

It's been one week since we got the call and went and picked up our rescue bulldog, Betty. I put in an application with Chicago English Bulldog Rescue in October, hoping to get a new family member (the cats were getting way too complacent). After a written application, phone interview, and house visit (they're very thorough), we had about a month of waiting until they found the right Bulldog for us. You can visit their site at http://www.ebullymatch.com/, they were great and found the perfect girl for us.

Betty just turned 7 years old yesterday. She's an Old English Bulldogge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olde_English_Bulldogge), not an English Bulldog. While I find the English ones cuter, Betty will have less health problems and probably live longer, which are both good things. She's extremely energetic for a bully and LOVES to play frisbee in the backyard. She will literally play until she passes out (we haven't gotten there yet, I tire out before she does). There's also Living Room Tug Of War, that's a real popular game with her.

I'm learning what it takes to be a bully daddy, namely that they take a bit of maintenance. We're lucky in that we have a Vet that specializes in Bulldogs about 5 miles from the house. Betty had her first appointment with them on Friday and got a clean bill of health, a microchip, and special shampoo for her skin ($25). Her shampoo costs more than mine does.

Her previous owner was obviously very good to her, and only gave her up when his work demands kept him from home for long periods of time. She's very well trained, including crate training. She also will absolutely not defecate in our yard. For that, we have to go walk down the street to the neighbor's yard (and yes, I do clean up after her). She's very happy to lay on the couch with the TV on (much like all of her daddies) and sleep. She's also good with strangers, other dogs, and definitely with the cats (who are just starting to not be freaked out anymore...they will be in the same room as her now). She's also really good to pull up into bed with you, she's a great spooner. She snores, but so does everyone else in this house.

The purpose of this blog overall is so I can show off my new baby, and keep everyone up-to-date on what she's done now. I can't wait until it's warmer out, so we can go for long walks and go camping with her.