Late last year, Yoshi started to favor one of her back legs. A trip to the vet determined that she had “ruptured a ligament” in her knee.
It was a fairly common injury the vet assured me and there were three options: Do nothing. Send her North for the “Golden package” which would roughly cost the price of a small apartment, or the middle option -a more reasonable fix that would allow her to run again, but would require some extensive post therapy.
It all happened around the time when I was busy taking advantage of my travel freedoms and jetting here and there like there was no tomorrow. I put the decision off until a few months later when she started to carry her leg full time. I ran the numbers and determined the cost of her pain meds would quickly justify the middle option for surgery and booked her an appointment.
Then Covid hit and the vet rescheduled all their appointments because they needed to reserve supplies.
All that is to say -a month ago, Yoshi finally had surgery.
It was her first ever surgery. She walked into the vet like she owned the place and two days later walked out in a dazed fog with a naked leg and Einstein looking staples in her “passenger rear” knee. Yes, I’ve been hanging out at the shop too long because I actually told the vet that she was favoring her “Passenger rear” leg. But I digress.
Yoshi has always been a fairy shy dog…she doesn’t like people. Doesn’t like loud noises. Doesn’t like change. The vet sent us home with the cone of shame and explicit instructions not to let her lick at her staples. I attempted putting the cone on her once, but she flipped out and was going to do more damage WITH the cone than without, so I decided to give her a few days before trying again.
The second attempt was even more disastrous than the first and I hit the internets looking for more comfortable options for our girl.
I should also add that she only attempted to lick the incision once -and she stopped as soon as I told her no. She never seemed interested in ripping them out, just in cleaning her wound -but that would risk infection, so it was a no go. The vet also said so long as we were with her, she didn’t need the cone -but at night and when we weren’t around, it would be best to put it on.
The first night, neither her nor I slept very much. I kept waking up thinking she was ripping her staples, and she kept getting up because I got up. The next day I hit up the store to look for solutions. I once heard that a pool noodle, cut into pieces and strung onto a collar could make a good alternative. But apparently, we don’t sell pool noodles here. I instead bought some floaty bands, cheap collar….and some baby leggings.
The floaty bands would have probably worked in a pinch, but she seemed uncomfortable with the contraption on. I also attempted to put my travel neck pillow on her, and while that was a more comfortable option, it didn’t really prevent her from reaching her “Passenger rear” leg.
Insert: Baby leggings.
I cut a hole in the rear for her tail and wala. A perfect solution. Not only was she styling, her wound was covered and I could sleep at night.
Ignore the pained look. She wasn’t THAT upset about the leggings, she was mostly put off that I wasn’t letting her climb into bed and instead was taking pictures of her striped butt to post on the internet.
Four weeks later, the staples have been removed and our girl is no longer rocking her leggings. Her fur is growing back and aside from her aversion to her therapy, disinterest in following rules (No running! No stairs! No jumping!) she is healing up great.
She will be back to running all the miles with me in no time…and I can’t wait.
Tangled Thoughts 