Preparations for Surgery

Life has been moving too fast since learning Gigi needs TPLO surgery on her right hind leg.  She's a very large Bouvier des Flandres, 9 years old, and overweight by about 20 lbs.  We, her people-parents are average height, overweight by more than 20 lbs and living in a house with wood floors and porches that all have steps up.

Here were the preparations we did and how they worked out...

FLOORS - we begged and borrowed carpeting of all types and created contiguous runways over the most travelled areas.  Anything that didn't have carpeting was blocked off to dissuade her from that route. The critical issue (in my mind) was non-slippage because bouvs tend to launch themselves.  The effect totally matched my ADD decorating style - and it works very well to reduce the likelihood of slipping (for all of us).

CONFINEMENT AREA - We created two locations for confinement - the usual sleeping area and the "family area".  Gigi normally sleeps on the floor between the bed and the wall so the important additions included siderails to keep her from "scooching" backwards under the bed or the side table.  We tied a 2x6 to the inside of the bed legs and put a 2x6 across the back - between the wall and the bed - and lashed it to the side table legs.  Put in a pool flotation lounger and lined the rails with body pillows (long round pillows) for bolsters.  This arrangement has worked INCREDIBLY WELL.  She was able to brace her feet against the rails and ease herself down onto the bolsters in the initial, most painful stages.  She was also able to rest her head on the bolsters which made life in the collar more bearable.

COLLAR - Forget the Elizabethan on a large dog.  The "Colonial Collar" (my own design) has worked very well - 2 file folders, folded in half (to fit between the top of the shoulder and the base of the ear), stapled end to end (for length to go around the neck more or less), and all this folded inside a stretchy, soft but not heavy  fabric.  Then wrapped snuggly around the neck and clamped with a spring clamp (like you'd put on a thick report).  This might not work for a very limber dog, but Gigi isn't so limber in the spine, so this was effective.

RAMPS - we got a telescoping pet ramp for stairs and cars.  However, while she can and will go down, she cannot climb up because she slips on the nonslip material... So now we use it only for stairs down from the house.  For getting in and out of the car, I made 3 styrofoam block steps (about 20x20x6) with a 1/4' piece of  20x22" panelling glued to each piece.  This makes it look and feel like a step, but is light enough for me to lift easily.   I'll put a photo in on this when I get a chance.