Duke Update

A quick explanation for those of you who may be visiting as part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge, Duke is our three-legged wonder dog, one of our many foster failures.  He had surgery for the adrenal form of Cushing’s Disease in January.  Now, on to the update.

Duke is officially recovered from his surgery.  Dr. S. cleared him to resume all of his normal activities.  He’s still on steroids, though they’ve already lowered the dose to half of what it was.  Dr. V. has turned over managing the steroids to Dr. M., and the hope/plan is that he’ll be able to come off of them at some point.

Duke’s muscle strength isn’t back to what it was.  No one is really sure if that’s lingering from the Cushing’s Disease or if it’s simply because he’s an older dog.  He has had an ongoing issue with a sore (like a pressure sore on a person is probably the best description for it) on his back left leg, kind of near his knee, and it got much worse in the weeks leading up to his surgery.  Steroids can impede wound healing, so that’s part of the problem.  Dr. M. said those sores are also very common, especially on older, larger dogs.  It’s practically impossible to keep it bandaged because of where it’s at.  Dr. M. has told us that encouraging Duke not to lay on hard surfaces may help.  Our floors are all hardwood or vinyl, so we’ve put down some rugs and have pet beds and blankets scattered throughout the house.  We keep adding more because it seems like Duke will always pick the spot without a rug to lay down.

We put a little outfit on Duke for a while to try to help pad his knee a little bit.  It’s hard to find clothing for larger dogs, but I finally found one that fits from Target.  Duke doesn’t mind wearing clothes and I think he looks adorable in it.  He got it pretty dirty pretty fast, so we took it off of him to wash; then we had some fairly warm days, so we haven’t put it back on him yet.  We have several cooler days coming up this week and next, so we may try putting it back on him to see if it seems to make a difference. 

Duke’s leg with the sore got really bad a couple of weeks ago.  The sore looked a lot worse, and his leg was swollen to about twice the size of his other back leg.  Since he’s already down a leg, we tend to panic over anything involving his legs.  Dr. M.’s office worked him in that day.  Dr. M. has put him on a very long course of antibiotics, and it seems to be helping.  The swelling went away within 48 hours, and the sore doesn’t look as bad. 

I asked Dr. M. about the muscle weakness while we were there.  He said there’s a chance it will get better, and there’s a chance this is as good as it will get.  He said it’s possible that Duke’s age, the missing leg, and having had Cushing’s Disease are all catching up with him.  He also said that Duke seems happy and doesn’t seem to be in pain, so even if this is as good as it gets, it’s not a bad life right now.

Duke is still wearing the Help ‘em Up harness.  He’s able to get up without help from a rug or a firm dog bed but struggles with getting up from the hardwood floor and cannot get up from the vinyl floor.  Since he still likes to lay on those floors, we’re keeping the harness on him so we can help him up.  It makes it a lot easier on him and on us.

Howard is still Duke’s shadow.  He pretty much follows him everywhere, which Duke seems to be okay with. 

Duke had a fantastic weekend.  We had our neighbors over to dinner, and the kids were very generous in sharing food with him.  And I’m not sure there was a point in the evening where there wasn’t someone petting him.  Food and attention are Duke’s favorite things, so he was very happy.