Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Doing Well After Surgery Lovers!!!!!!

Today Grandma and I went to visit Emma and participate in her first physical therapy session. Her rehabilitation specialist is very pleased with Emma’s surgical result so far. Emma is wagging her tail even more than before the surgery and has feeling in her back legs. She is even working hard to stand for a few seconds on her own, with watchful eyes upon her. I am so proud of her. Her therapist told me that she loves Emma and was so impressed with her ability to trust others due to her blindness. This is her first bind dog doing rehab and she is thrilled that Emma is doing so well. Here is Emma getting laser therapy. It is supposed to stimulate the healing process. We are participating in several more sessions and then it will be on to water therapy.

Here is Emma on the red rubber ball. This is used to support her mid section as she practices standing. She seemed to like that.

Here is Mommy kissing the patient. She has a pain patch on her back and our Emma was a bit disoriented but she is doing so good. I really think she is very inspirational to all of the staff and they keep gushing over getting to know her.

Grandma was petting her the entire time!

Emma has such a strong spirit and a will to succeed and I am very certain she will be walking soon. I am totally dedicated to her rehab and Grandma and I will be doing 3 sessions at minimum per day. I will make sure to document this journey along the way. Emma deserves the best treatment and care love can give. Talk about overcoming obstacles. Our girl is the champion.

More champion tails later……..Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Emma out of surgery update lovers: Emma did great during surgery and is resting in the recovery crate. The surgeon said that the rupture was large and he had to remove a lot of disc material. Intially, he thought it could be a mass, when he saw it on the CT scan but the good news was it was not a mass, just a blood clot. I did not tell my dear readers about the mass because I did not want you all to worry, but now I can say that she is mass free!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I am just so glad that she is in a safe place. Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments and well wishes for our gal. I bet that drool really helped glue her back together.

Here is a picture of our Emma as a young pup. I thought it was so cute and I just had to share. I had only had her for about a week. Who knew what we were in store for when I snapped this picture. I actually remember thinking that I had to get as many pictures of her as possible during this time period because she will never look like this again.

How precious the pup Emma was and still is. I cannot wait to get her home and back to normal. Life is just not the same without our girl.

We love you dear readers……..

More updates from the recovery crate later……….Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and CT Scan results lovers: The Doctor just called me and said that Emma needs surgery to fix a disc. I know he said it much better with a lot more details, but I really cannot remember what he said. I am waiting by the phone for the estimate white knuckling my Discover card.

I talked to the tech about Emma’s night and she said she could tell that Emma really enjoyed having her blankee. This is a picture of her at home laying on her blankee. This was taken after she healed from her eye surgery.

I will update everyone after her surgery. I am going to go visit her tomorrow and every day until she comes home. Hopefully it will be Saturday!

More Emma updates very soon. Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma Update Lovers: Well, as per usual, Emma cannot catch a break. Last night after dinner she was not able to walk. She was so thristy from the steroids that she wanted to drink non-stop. We all know what that means, non stop tinkle time! So, I stayed up with her all night. We laid by the front potty area so she could go out every 45 minutes or so. It was so sad. As of yesterday morning I really thought she was making a slight turn for the better.

My Mom, Dad and I carried her to car in a make shift blanket sling which was so difficult. When my Mom and I got to the office (Grandpa stayed with Chaps) the gals poured out to help Emma. About 4 of them loaded her onto a stretcher and marched her into a room.

As she was being carried through the examination area all of the technicians were just drawn to her like magnets. Everyone was kissing her and telling her how pretty she was. It was a real hustle and bustle office and everyone was so upbeat. All the techs would pop in and see Emma and introduce themselves. Everyone was petting Emma and she got to nibble a lot of chins. She loves to nibble chins. One of the gals that popped in asked if she had gone down in the back and I answered yes. She said, “Oh we can fix that”. It was just so nice to hear and GM and I shed a few tears. This tech happened to be the rehabilitation expert and said that she would be the one rehabing Emma after surgery if indeed she needed it. She gave me some literature to read.

The doctor came right in after that and did all of his stuff. He suggested that Emma have a CT scan. He said that the techs who run the imaging center would transport her and we could know if she has to have surgery by this evening. All indications point to surgery. If his feelings are correct, Emma will spend the night and be on the list for surgery tomorrow. She may be at the hospital until this weekend. This is all just the doctor’s best speculation until he sees the CT Scan.

Emma is now asking for your drool and well wishes. She cried when Grandma and I left but this is the best place for her. Last night she was so frightened. I was even more so.

Our Emma. She is never the one that gets the good news. However, I have to say that she got the best news ever when she became a Rudert! We love our girl so.

More updates later and hopefully very soon. I am sitting by the phone. I am not answering unless it is the doctor.

Love, Cat, Chaps (feeling lonely) and our Emma at the hospital.

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Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Emma update lovers: Well, she slept through the night fine and this morning she got up when she heard Oscar yelp at 7:00am. It is so strange how he knows exactly when it is 7:00am!

Emma struggled to get up and she is about the same as yesterday. I hope for some improvement during the course of the day. I will keep everyone posted. I just snapped this picture of her getting ready to take her nappy poo.

She needs her rest.

More resting later….Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Emma Lovers: Well, today we had a very tough day. As I have been reporting Emma has been up and down but not very down with her back problem. However, this morning she could not walk on her back legs for a period of time. She is still very wobbly.

Her doctor said to bring her down right away for an x-ray and we were his first appointment.

This is our Emma in the Element. She was able to slowly walk up the ramp and did so good. She got her legs as the morning went on. However, these are her weak legs in the Element.

The x-ray revealed that she has some bulging in one disc. She is on a course of steroids but she does not get her first one until 7:30 this evening because she had a pain pill this morning.

There is a 24 hour clinic near by that has orthopaedic doctors if she takes a turn for the worse over the weekend. We just have to see how she does.

Since Emma went blind she has taken a few stumbles, slid off the ramp to the car and twisted her back in ways that I know she would not have if she were not blind

I am so happy that she is with us. The poor girl is just so compromised.

She is not asking for drool yet. Save it for the extremely needy. I will be keeping all of her fans updated as time goes by over the weekend.

Oh, on a good note! My brother-in-law is an orthopaedic surgeon. I am going to have him look at her x-rays. He is one of the best of the best in our region. Emma is his only niece, so she is his little girl.

Also, Sandy – Thank You for all of your help. Sandy is our dear friend who offers so many suggestions for Emma.

More getting “back” to you later…….Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Emma Lovers: I just wanted to let my dear readers know that I could not update my site today due to a scare Emma gave us. It was the weirdest thing. I noticed that when she was in her office bed she would not lay her head down. Then when the door bell rang this morning, she did not do her normal frantic barking. Then I knew something was wrong. I called Grandma to see what she thought. When Grandma came in she did not move. OK – something is really wrong. We hauled her off to the vet and it turns out she might have an aggravated thoracic disc with a urinary tract infection. Or it could be just a UTI. I did a free catch outside of his office and I actually saw some blood. She had not shown any signs of a UTI at all. (straining)

She is on antibiotics for the UTI and a mild pain killer. She is resting now and I made a full length body pillow so she could just lean her head and not have to put it all the way down.

I placed her favorite toy next to her for comfort. That is what is in front of her face. The doctor said that disc pain can radiate to the neck. He did a neurological examination on her and she functioning fine, for the exception of a weakness in her thoracic spine area which he said could be from the UTI. Sorry for all of the medical data.

Our Emma is now resting with her mild pain pill, a dose of antibiotics for the UTI and her full body pillow. I will keep everyone posted.

More updates later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

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