lyndon baines

Hi all,

rare moment of cuddling between tripawd beauty and the quadrapawd beast

This is a couple of days late (technically Lyndon had surgery on November 10th), but we are celebrating his 1 month ampuversary.  I’m not sure who was the first to coin that term, but my family got a real kick out of it.  I can’t believe that it has already been a month… and then in some ways it feels like it happened a long time ago. 

We’re still having some challenges with Lyn, basic stuff like the slippery deck, his quadrapawdsiblings and the licking.  He has an obsession with the little muscle pad that the surgeon left so that he can sit more easily and comfortably.  I don’t think it hurts, but he really likes to lick it… he’s licked all the hair off of that little area! 

Incision area as seen on day #7 of recovery

Incision area as seen today

The other problem is one we’ve been combating for years, and I thought since this was a dog site that maybe someone had some insights or suggestions.  Lyndon has the driest skin of any creature I have ever seen.  He always has flakes of skin just sluffingoff of him… it’s like living witha poorly groomed snake.  The worst thing is that it makes him very itchy.  It wasn’t that big a problem before, but now that he has no scratching power on one side its becoming more irritating for him.  Poor baby… Yesterday he reached his head down to his bad side (like he used to do when he was scratching his head with his foot)but nothing happened, so he looked at his incision site all confused, like “why aren’t you scratching me, didn’t you hear me say I had an itch?”  poor little guy. 

So sleepy

Still, I’m so proud of the progress he has made and what a strong little man he is.  I’m so happy that he came into my life and that I get to keep him…Lopsided and picked on by the siblings, but happy and now healthy.

Hi all,

Well, I couldn’t figure out how to fix my new ruff-wear harness so that it wouldn’t block Lyndon’s weener (no offense to you dauchsunds).  His Little winky was always a little further forward than my other male dogs.  So, Lyndon is back to donning his old run-of-the-mill harness.  The funny thing is that he seems more comfortable in his old cloths.  He has been a little less lazy and more confident trying to go up and down the stairs himself.  The last few days the only stairs he won’t try on his own are the deck stairs.  It’s only four steps, but the wood is a bit slippery. 

I think that I will still use the ruffwear harness when we take Lyndon for a walk.  Untill then I think that Lyndon is doing great on the stairs, although Scampers is still trying to prevent him from getting to the top.

The incision area is looking really good, and he has stopped trying to lick it.  Lyn has also started laying on that side, which is a big step forward because before now he would squeal when ever he tried to lay on his bad side. 

Scamper, momentarily disracted from knocking Lyndon back down the stairs

Our last update with the doctor is that they are pretty sure Lyndon is 100% cancer free now that the leg is gone.  I feel so lucky and grateful.  I’m still waiting on the result of the biopsy.  They know it was some type of soft tissue sarcoma, but they aren’t entirely sure which kind.  Its been quite a while that I have been waiting for it, so I’m going to have to call in again. 

Well, till next time… TTFN

I feel so exposed

Well, the problem with Lyndon’s halter has not gone away.  The strap still covers his little peepee no matter how I adjust it, and he is still peeing on it when he tries to pee inside.  I’ve had to wash the back strap about four times to get the smell out.  So today I am going to save myself the hassle and let Lyndon stay naked for a while.  I’ll try again to fix it tomorrow.  Anyone have any experience with this problem that may have some ideas?

Well, I found out today that the new ruff wear harness has its disadvantages.  The rear strap goes right over Lyndon’s little peepee.  At first I didn’t think that it would be any problem, I figured that when I let him out to go potty that I would just unclip the back strap so that it didn’t interfere with his business.  Unfortunately, Lyndon has a nasty habit of leg lifting in the house when nobody is looking.  He doesn’t have to worry about lifting the leg now, but he still thinks accidents in the house aren’t that big a deal.  So when I came home today and unclipped the back strap of his harness, it was soaking wet and stunk.  I was able to wash the pee out of the strap, but I’m sure that it was uncomfortable for Lyn during the day.  I’m hoping that maybe this experience will discourage him from trying to sneak a pee in the house any more.  Sweet little brat is very smart… if only he’d use his powers for good instead of evil. 

Other than that little chink in the armor, the harness has been working really well for Lyn.  He can go down stairs by himself, but he’s not confident yet yo go up.  If you go to the top of the stairs with a treat he’ll go up them with not a moments hesitation, but without a treat he just stands at the bottom and cries.  However, if I hold the harness while he’s going up, he feels safe and will go on up the stairs.  It seems to be comfortable to him, as well.  He hasn’t objected to it the way he objected to the cone, boxer shorts, sweater and occasional Halloween costumes.  I think that it is also keeping him warmer than he would have been without it, which is good for winter, but we’ll have to see what happens in the summer.  For now though, we’re happy.

The latest in unwanted apparel

Hi all, the new boxer shorts have gone into retirement (so long as Lyndon continues to mind his manners).  Sadly though, The torture cone and evil boxers have been replaced by the monster harness.  Yes, the ruffwear harness is the new fashion trend of the week, and this one is here to stay for a while.  Lyndon is adapting to it okay, but it’s obvious he doesn’t like it one little bit.  The funny thing is that once he is fine on the stairs and doesn’t have to wear the harness any more, it will be time for him to don his sweater.  I’ve never been one to dress my dogs up (except for Halloween for fun and really cold days for protection), but that trend is going out the window with all of Lyndon’s three-legged garb. 

 The good news is that Lyn is doing pretty good.  He can go out potty on his own now, although I still have to stand by the back door to make sure he doesn’t sneak under the deck.  He can go down any amount of stairs without any help, he can run around the back yard (albeit clumsily), and he’s back to eating his normal food. 

The next stage in tripawd cloths evolution

The part that still isn’t so good is that he doesn’t have the confidence to go up even a few steps, and the few times he has tried my other dog, Scampers, barks and jumps at him and tries to knock him back down the stairs.  Luckily the harness will help me to teach Lyndon how to go up the stairs, and leave one hand to fight off Scamp.

Well, we’ll see how this harness thing works. Till next time… TTFN.

Sorry it has been so long since Lyndon and I have written, but this past week has been crazy busy.  Aside from the usual holiday craziness, Lyndon had a pretty eventful week too.  First of all he got his stitches out on Tuesday!  I was surprised how quick it was, they just took him in back for about 5 minutes and then we were free to go.  The bad news is that he is still banned from messing with his scar for another week… hence the cone is still in power.  Due to all his misery over the cone of shame I asked the vet if there were any alternatives.  And the alternative turned out to be… little kid’s boxer shorts…

swashbuckler boy

Needless to say that Lyndon is not fond of his new britches, but he likes them better than the cone.  It is a really good solution too as Lyndon can sleep and move around and even go down the stairs with the shorts on.  The problem is that they don’t stay up very well, and I’m constantly having to pull them back up (it doesn’t help that he only has a little stub instead of a tail).

The other night we had a funny night with Lyndon.  We were staying with my parents for the thanksgiving weekend and my mom decided that she wanted Lyndon to sleep in her room the first night.  It was a decision she soon regretted.  She first put Lyn in the bed with her and he wandered around the bed, crying for about an hour before my mom put him back on the ground.  Once on the ground, Lyndon wandered and cried for another two hours.  Finally my mom said she heard a tearing sound coming from the master bathroom, so she went to see what it was.  To her annoyance, she found Lydon sitting on the shag bathroom rug picking out every single piece of string.  He had a little pile of torn pieces sitting next to him on the bathroom floor and when she caught him, he just looked at her like, “WHAT?!”  Needless to say he spent the rest of the nights with me.

Lyndon the day before surgery

Well, I guess that’s all for now.  This coming week we are going to start working on going up the stairs.  He’s a pro at going down, but he’s not confident in the slightest going up.  We even got him a ruff-wear harness to help him.  More on that next time.

Tomorrow is the big day… Lyndon finally gets his stitches removed.  I’m hoping that once the cone is finally gone that he will be a bit more comfortable and not quite so whiny.  It has been so difficult listening to him crying and not being able to do anything about it. 

Halloween 2008

The last couple days have been pretty even keel.  We did have one little hiccups, though.  The day before last I had Lyndon in my room.  I stepped out to put some towels away and when I went back in, Lyndon was nowhere to be found.  Of course, being Lyndon, when my back was turned he saw the perfect opportunity to do something naughty.  He went all the way down to the living room, a whole 20 steps down.  I was both mad at him and proud of him at the same time.  Still, even without the stitches he won’t be allowed to do that again without my assistance… at least not until he’s gotten the hang of it.  We got him a ruffwear harness, so tomorrow he gets his fitting and first real stair lesson.

Happy Family

My baby is doing super today.  Earlier he was pseudo-running in the backyard, I even had to stop him from trying to get into the fence fight that the other dogs were having with the neighbor dogs.  Lyndon is the best little fence fighter on the block.  He’s run along the fences barking at and chasing dogs on the other sides that he has displaced all of the rocks we had lining the fences.  It was nice to see him wanting to go back to his old game, but I didn’t want him to hurt himself. 

My other dogs are handling the sitution a bit better since they have been allowed to go in and out of the family room at will.  Scampers still tries to get Lyndon’s doggie bed, though.  We’re all very excited for tomorrow, so things can go back to (at least somewhat) normal.

stairs were hard even before the surgery

This morning I just couldn’t stand it anymore.  Poory guy just would not settle down… I tried feeding him, taking him potty, taking off the cone for a while, giving him his meds, and every other thing I could think off.  My Lyndon just would not stop whining and wandering.  So I finally out him down in the family room, hoping that he would settle down when there was no one to show off for and that I would get some rest.  When I came down to let him out potty again, he had ramed his cone against the gate until he had pushed one side opened and he had gone up the stairs.  Thank goodness there was only six steps.  I was a bit mad at him because he could have hurt himself, but on the other hand it was nice to know that he can handle it once we get to that point.

If only he'd do this at night

Later in the afternoon he was behaving so well that I decided to take off his ‘hood’ for a while and let him rest.  Of course I had to sit right next to him and push his nose away every time he went after his incision site.  But after a while he was sleeping so well that it was worth the battle. 

I really hope he sleeps better tonight.

my cutie boy taking a nap with his grandma two days before surgery

Last night was a bit unsettling.  In the middle of the night I heard Lyndon farting like crazy, so I thought, “I bet he has to go to the bathroom.”  No sooner had I picked him up than I heard his stomach make a startling noise.  I spun him around really fast so that his butt has over the potty pad and just as he was over it he had explosive diarrhea.  I was so worried about him.  I’m hoping it was because of all the stress yesterday or changing his diet to the turkey and rice to get him to eat. 

Luckily we didn’t have an accidents during the day.  Actually, there wasn’t anything of note today except that the dogs and I are going crazy from boredom.  Unfortunately I can’t do anything to entertain Lyn, but I’m going to a holiday gift and craft show this Saturday… I have to get out of this house. 

come on mama, take it off, please!!!!

My poor baby is still stuck with his cone.  I’ve discovered that the united states is looking in the wrong place… the most powerful weapon of mass destruction currently resides on my dogs head!  Lyn has knocked over chairs, gates, food, water, ottomans, the fan, a plant, the trashcans… he even came dangerously close to knocking over the ironing board (but luckily I was there for that one and stopped him before he tried to go between the legs).  All I have to do is step out of the room for even a minute and a tornado hits.  I can’t wait till my poor guy doesn’t have to wear this darn thing anymore, and I can stop rebuilding the family room.

Well, today totally sucked… there is just no other way to put it.  Don’t worry, there wasn’t any crisis, but both Lyn and I are upset and tired. 

It started this morning when I got up from bed to use the bathroom.  Lyndon was sleeping so soundly, and I didn’t want to disturb him by putting on the cone of shame (besides he was doing so well without it).  So I went to the bathroom and let him sleep.  I came back into my room a few minutes later to find him sucking on his stitches like a pacifier.  He had loosened a couple of the stitches on the very tip of the incision and made them really red.  I called the vet right away and they said that they needed to see him asap.  My surgeon was doing surgeries today so they asked if I could come in before 8:30 for him to see if the stitches were okay still. 

red on the back tip from naughty licking

So I got Lyn and I in the car (after blocking off 90% of the back seat so he would have to stay on the passenger side floor in the back).  We were heading to the vet when some idiot pulled out of a shoppette and sideswiped me.  No one was hurt, but my poor Lyndi and I were stuck there talking to the cop about what had happened for an hour (the other driver didn’t have current insurance and didn’t speak a word of English).  My car was damaged and my tire was destroyed, but I was so glad that I had the foresight to block Lyndon on the floor or he could have been hurt. 

So I went home to trade cars (because there was no way that the doughnut I had to put on my car would have made it all the way to the vet’s office).  I had to rearrange everything into the other car and put Lyndon in with him still a bit shaken up from the first car ride.  We finally got to the vet around 10:00.  Luckily the stitches were okay, but the vet said a couple more licks and Lyndon would have to be restitched in that area and be at great risk for infection… so the cone of shame is now a permanent addition to Lyndon’s wardrobe.  I hate doing it to him, but I’d rather have him a bit uncomfortable than unsafe.

The end result... another full week in the cone of shame

At the moment Lyndon is starting to adapt to the cone being on.  He whimpers and wanders till he gets tired and then falls asleep.  I feel so bad, but I can’t have him prolonging his recovery or making this whole thing worse with an infection.  So far we’ve been pretty lucky… considering, and I don’t want to ruin that when he’s so close.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be a bit better….