Otie 05-445

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12/26/05: We received a call last week from a local vet who was performing surgery to repair a broken leg on a 12 year old male who would have been euthanized. Otie is in good health for his age, but a bit overweight at 107 pounds. He is recovering comfortably from surgery to set his broken left rear leg, and will be unable to bear weight on that leg for 6-8 weeks. Despite being pretty much immobile, Otie is making the best of things. He is a great boy who loves to be wherever we are, and our 3 kids keep him covered in the hugs & scratches department. He will bark if he wants something, be it attention, a drink, a snack, or a stroll around the kitchen to stretch his 3 good legs. He is housebroken, and despite a UTI and his cast, hasn't had one accident in the house. He sleeps quietly downstairs from 10 until 7 without a peep. It does take a bit of work to get him outside, because we have to support his back end, but we are getting into a good rhythm and it's getting easier.

Due to the amount of follow-up that will be required during Otie's recovery, he won't be available for adoption right away. If you'd like to donate to Otie's medical care, our address is:

Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota, P.O. Box 5567, Hopkins, MN, 55343-0492, or go to the Network For Good web site (copy and paste the address below into your browser):

http://partners.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateR...

At a Glance #05-445

Breed not specified Born: March 2005
Male Weight not specified

Status: Adopted

Profile

12/26/05: We received a call last week from a local vet who was performing surgery to repair a broken leg on a 12 year old male who would have been euthanized. Otie is in good health for his age, but a bit overweight at 107 pounds. He is recovering comfortably from surgery to set his broken left rear leg, and will be unable to bear weight on that leg for 6-8 weeks. Despite being pretty much immobile, Otie is making the best of things. He is a great boy who loves to be wherever we are, and our 3 kids keep him covered in the hugs & scratches department. He will bark if he wants something, be it attention, a drink, a snack, or a stroll around the kitchen to stretch his 3 good legs. He is housebroken, and despite a UTI and his cast, hasn't had one accident in the house. He sleeps quietly downstairs from 10 until 7 without a peep. It does take a bit of work to get him outside, because we have to support his back end, but we are getting into a good rhythm and it's getting easier.

Due to the amount of follow-up that will be required during Otie's recovery, he won't be available for adoption right away. If you'd like to donate to Otie's medical care, our address is:

Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota, P.O. Box 5567, Hopkins, MN, 55343-0492, or go to the Network For Good web site (copy and paste the address below into your browser):

http://partners.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateR...

Updates

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Here are some new pictures of our Mr. Otie, fresh from his bath and grooming. He’s such a handsome gent. You can see that the fur is growing back on his left leg. We did learn at the vet this week that the leg may have healed a little crooked, so he will probably always have a little gimp to that leg – but what the heck, makes him unique. He goes up steps with absolutely no problem, and is cautious coming down the steps. We also realized that he had a birthday and is now a healthy 13 year young guy. He loves playing with his toys, lopes around the backyard, enjoys going for short walks and seems much more like an 8-9 year old dog. He’s also lost another 5 pounds and now weighs in at a light 86 pounds! That’s quite a weight loss from the 107 pounds that he was carrying when he first came to RAGOM six months ago. He could still afford to lose another 6 pounds to be at his most comfortable weight. His ears are looking good. Still a little infection in the left ear, but one more week of meds and we expect that to be all cleared up. He did contract an upper respiratory infection this past week, which is really odd, since the only sick thing he’s been around, is me. The vet assures me that I didn’t give him my cold, but I don’t know how else he would have caught it. He’ll be on antibiotics for a few days and that should take care of his cough.

Otie visited the PetCo in Rochester on Saturday and was meeting and greeting people at the Gay Pride event on Sunday. He absolutely has to say “hi” to every dog that he sees and loves being petted by every human, including the children. If you are ignoring him, he might just have to woof at you once to let you know that he’s not being petted. He loves to have little chats with us on occasion. He’s so easy to have in the house, I sometimes forget he’s there, so he’ll remind me with a couple of woofs. A quick belly rub and chin scratch and he’s happy again. I think he has us trained. If you are looking for that perfect companion, the Golden Retriever that you dream of lying with in front of the fireplace, that has no aggression and loves all people, dogs and cats, the one you can trust with your children or grandchildren, you want to meet Otie.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Otie went for his bandage change today and we didn’t have a very pleasant surprise. Because he was sporting the ½ cast, instead of the full cast, the ½ cast had to be held on tighter and was rubbing against his skin which has caused what amounts to bed sores. He has some red areas, some black areas, and some raw areas. Not a whimper for the past two weeks, nor today when they had to remove the bandage and tape which was stuck to his raw skin. It was awful, but he just laid there and let the vet do whatever she needed to. I’ve never met such a wonderful, patient, trusting animal. Hopefully, putting pressure on his leg is accomplishing the goal of healing the bone, but we won’t know that for two more weeks when he will once again be x-rayed. For now, the poor boy is being such a champion. He has no cast and is restrained so he doesn’t run or climb on the couch, no bandage as we are trying to heal the sores, is coned so he doesn’t lick it, and is about as pathetic looking as a dog could be. I attached a picture of my darling boy tethered to the coffee table so he doesn’t move and lying with his cone on and his skinny leg stretched out. I gave him a massage and some treats and told him how wonderful he is and he just looks at me, like why are you doing this to me? Breaks my heart. Please keep him in your prayers that in two weeks that stubborn bone will finally be showing signs of healing and he can run free. And once he is healed, you couldn’t possibly find a better friend to bring into your home. You are welcome to stop by and visit him – he loves the attention and deserves all the pets he can get right now!

Sunday, March 5, 2006

I'm getting so bored laying around this place, I could just jump for joy that foster mom said I get to go to greet people next weekend!! YIPEE!!! So, if a senior guy with a busted gam is what you desire, come & meet me next Saturday (that's MARCH 11th) at Stone Mountain Pet Lodge in Blaine. I'll be the good lookin' guy with the white mask & bright yellow cast!

Thursday, January 5, 2006

Today Otie had his staples removed. The surgical incisions are healing very nicely! What isn't healing quite so nicely is his broken leg. There is still alot of movement at the point of the break, which could simply be due to Otie's age (the break will not heal as fast as if he were a much younger pup). It could also be because there was extra room in his cast after all the swelling went down, allowing the leg to move too much. Dr. G. wrapped him up extra tight this time, so hopefully when we go in two weeks from now for an x-ray we'll see some bone growth. Otie got a new cushion to lay on, so he's not so uncomfortable on our plain wood (as in subfloor!) floor; he seems to be enjoying it alot! He continues to be a wonderful guest in our home. It's like he knows he's not supposed to be moving about, so he'll bark ever so softly for a drink of water or help getting up. I'm going to see if I can get my groomer to do a major brush & freshening for Otie; he's probably carrying around 5 pounds in extra hair!

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Here is a before and after picture of Otie's broken leg. It was a displaced fracture, but Dr. G was able to get good alignment and is very hopeful the break will heal completely. It is just above the "ankle", which is a good place for a break, because bone grows better here than higher on the leg.

Before....and after.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Otie & I made a trip to the vet today to have his bandages changed & check his incisions. Everything is healing very nicely. His ears aren't looking quite as good as his leg, so he got another good deep ear cleaning and we'll continue with the daily spray. He goes back in next week to have all his staples removed. Otie is becoming easier to care for, he has recovered some strength from the surgery and can now get in & outside with little to no assistance. His favorite thing to do is lay outside in the snow each morning, just looking around & sniffing the morning air.