Losing Bruce 

Longwood police just came and seized Bruce because the sergeant couldn’t find any signs of neglect. I hope those so called owners realize how awful they have been and have a change of heart on how they ‘love’ their dog.

Although they specifically said they cannot afford his care the longwood police said he had to return the dog to them. Sorry we failed you Bruce. Hope you recover. 

In the event that the owners actually care about his well being here are the instructions. Bruce has hookworms and needs to have pills in three weeks to rid him of them. He cannot have walks longer than 5 minutes 2x a day. He cannot have contact with other dogs that will injure him. He needs his Dermaxx antiinflammtory once in the morning. He also needs 1-2 Tramadol pills for pain and 1 sedative pill. At night he needs the same thing except no Dermaxx. Please cherish that you got your dog back and love and care for him the way he needs. If you need help with vet bills to get him recovered please please come to us and ask. We will help you and not try and recover him. We want him to be healthy and please acknowledge when you need help. 

Slowly but surely

I think we can all agree Bruce has been recovering in comfort…

Saturday we took Bruce to get all his vaccinations. We found out on Friday that he had never had any puppy vaccinations or exams. Thankfully, he got caught up on all of that through Longwood Veterinary Clinic. He was so patient and sweet through the entire process and the all the vet technicians gave him so much love.

Bruce is on several pills including anti-inflammatory, pain medication, and a mild sedative. He wants to play so badly and doesn’t really care that he is hurt, until he slips or accidentally hurts himself. It’s hard to keep him calm while still trying to give him love and have mild play. We are allowed to take him on 1-2 ‘long’ five minute walks a day and he has a 14×10 room all to himself. However, how do you make a dog understand that he can’t play or get excited? You can’t. All he knows is that he is left in a small room with very limited activity and is going absolutely stir crazy. The sedative calms him down slightly, but it’s not a sleeping pill. While, we have several bones and toys for him we can’t actually play with him or take him for a long walk to relieve his energy. A great alternative would be to give him mental stimulation and teach or reinforce tricks. Unfortunately, that’s not an option either. You can’t tell him to sit, lay down, shake, or anything else without him accidentally injuring himself.

However; despite him being too sweet and playful for his own good, he seems to be walking a lot better. He is now almost always bearing weight on his right leg when he walks. Before, he was either not using it at all or putting very minimal weight on it.

No surgery!

I took Bruce to Affiliated Veterinary Services this morning for his hip exam. As soon as we walked in everyone started gushing over him. He’s pretty much a rockstar.

The vet told me that Bruce had 2 fractures instead of the just the one we were initially told about. Break 1 was more severe and this was where his body bears more weight. Break 2 looks worse, but may not be actually hurting him or causing him discomfort. She said we had 3 options to pick from. I am clearly not a vet, but I will explain the options the way I understood them.

Option 1: Cage rest for 6 weeks. Let the bones heal on their own in their semi crooked state. She said that there shouldn’t be any major complications from the bones healing this way. He may have arthritis later in life, but could end up with it either way if we chose to do surgery. After six weeks they would reexamine him and see if break 2 was causing him any problems with mobility or pain. If they did determine that it was then an issue we would do FHO surgery. This is where the cut off the ball/head of the hip and let the muscles and nerves stay intact. After physical therapy he would then be able to use his leg like normal. His hip would remain slightly unaligned, but the vet said that it should not have any long term negative affects other than arthritis.

Option 2: Surgery for both break 1 and break 2. This would be fairly intensive and would realign the hip completely as well as inserting plates and screws. This was estimated at $3400. He would be on cage rest for 6 weeks then slowly reintroducing regular walks and exercise. Estimated 10 weeks total. He would also need physical therapy and 2 more rounds of X-Rays at $280 each. This would fix him completely and should take away all possible pain once healed.

Option 3: Repair only break 2 which would be the FHO surgery described in Option 1. He would need 2 weeks of recovery time for this.

We chose option 1 because Bruce has not been showing many signs of pain. We know dogs can be stoic, but he is very active and mobile for his condition. The vet said that the alignment of his hip will most likely not get worse and it’s in the very beginning stages of healing. That with the possibility that he may not need surgery at all was very appealing for his comfort and our finances. If he were in more pain and not very mobile we would definitely do option 2. However, right now it doesn’t seem like the best option. I hope you all agree.

Bruce is still at the vet because he is getting chest X-Rays. Since we think he may have been hit by a car the vet wanted to make sure there wasn’t any further internal trauma. She said sometimes with the force of a car hitting the body it can make the organs move around inside or rupture the diaphragm. She kept him so they could sedate him and get clear images. 

Starting over with Bruce

Yesterday, Anthony and I saw a Facebook post about a found dog in the Altamonte Springs area. He was a big lovable squishy face mutt a good Samaritan found wandering the streets with a leg injury.The ad said that the guy had him for about a week, but since no owners came forward and he lived in an apartment he would have to relinquish him to Animal Services the next day. Anthony wanted to help him so badly so we sent him a message that night saying we would take him in and get him the care he needed. The guy didn’t respond. The following day my husband took it upon himself to cyber stalk him. He literally messaged him on all the social media websites as well as sent messages to his family members. We can be a bit obsessive. The guy finally responded and Anthony picked him up that night on the way home.

We decided to name him Bruce because he looks so similar to our other dog Banner. Get it… Bruce Banner…

When he came home he strolled in and acted like he owned the place. He was immediately comfortable and was so sweet with us. He didn’t need to warm up to us at all. He was limping pretty badly and most of the time didn’t bear any weight at all.

I took him to our vet and of course they did X Rays. Poor Bruce has a fractured hip. The vet explained that the break was in very close to the hip joint and it would be a fairly difficult surgery and he may have arthritis the rest of his life. We left with a referral and a $418 bill. Tomorrow is his appointment at the specialist and he may or may not have surgery then. The vet wants to decide during the appointment.