With a cool breeze rushing through her fur and gums flapping in the wind, Miley took a joy ride home from MSU on Monday, March 15th at about 9:30AM.

1. Have you ever tried to keep a puppy from playing?  
2. Have you ever tried to support a 70+ pound puppy with a sling and a leash without tripping yourself? 
3. Have you ever carried a 70+ pound dog upstairs at 4:35AM on a Tuesday morning because she was barking in her crate? 
4. Have you ever tried to keep your puppy from beating you down the steps WHILE carrying her? 
(Yeah…I laughed too!)
5. Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?

1 through 4…yes…
5…not so much…but a very good line by the Joker played by Jack Nicholson  :)

You may be asking…”how do you keep a puppy from playing?”  It is very hard to do…almost impossible.  I am having much difficulty with it.  Miley does not quite understand that she just had a MAJOR surgery.  She is not allowed to jump, run, pounce, bounce, wrestle, dance, rough house, fall, climb, leap, or slip for at least 4 weeks.  I’ve realized that you can not get excited when she’s about to step onto the lanolium floor in the kitchen or the ceramic tiles at the door.  She gets too excited and thinks you are playing…and then she tries to run from you.  This is scary.  I imagine her slipping, going sprawl legged, and having that shiny new $2000 hip pop out of place or the cement loosening!  EEEK!  GASP!

Miley has a 4-inch incision over her right hip and underneath lies a new shiny hip worth more than my car!  Miley’s hip is currently being held in place by her super weak quadraceps and hamstrings and by the mere shape of the hip socket.  Until scar tissue forms over the hip to keep it from popping out of socket, Miley will be relying on aided support from her sling.  She is only allowed to be walked with leash and sling around her hips.  There is very little free roaming on her own.  Miley is able to walk within a small, carpeted area on her own but we prevent her from entering the kitchen area so she does not lose her footing.

Again, slipping = EEEK! GASP!

Miley’s pain is managed with Tramadol and Previcox.  The Tramadol offers very little drowsiness…in other words…it doesn’t phase her by much.  She is also on Cephalexin, an antimicrobial, to prevent infection of her new hip.  Any infection would cause removal of her new hip. 

Fortunately, it doesn’t take Miley long until she needs to stop to rest her hip.  Yet, unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to recovery either!

Miley’s schedule of events during the day:

6AM – Up to eat, pee, meds, and maybe sniff the lawn a bit
7AM – Out before Molly heads to work for one last sniff
7:02AM – 12PM – Crate time
12:05 – 12:45PM – Out for lunch, pee, meds, and visiting Badger and Bailey next door for an exchange of barking, sniffing, and tail wagging
12:45 – 5:30PM – Crate time
5:40 – 9:00PM - Out to pee, meds, dinner, sniffing the lawn, watching Molly make dinner from the carpeted area, and getting restrained several times for being too “puppy-like”
9:00PM – Bedtime
12:00AM – Up to bark at…nothing
2:00AM – Up to bark at…more nothing, out to pee, then sniff the air for 5 minutes
4:00AM – Up to “play” with bone, maybe bark at nothing, whine to go out, get yelled at by Molly because its 4AM!
Repeat…

(Currently, we are working on the above schedule…to eliminate 12AM through 4AM.  Please, “throw me a bone”!)

Stay tuned for updates throughout Miley’s healing process!

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