Tomorrow will be 1 week since Ulla the 7 year old German Shepherd had her surgery! Awaiting the biopsy results and crossing our fingers (& paws) that all is well! Various vets, specialists, surgeons & physical therapists all agreed that this appears to be a case of severe osteoarthritis causing her extreme swelling and pain in her front right wrist. So much so that she recently stopped using the leg all together.
This began when we noticed a slight deformity, or a kink, in her wrist soon after rescuing her from a shelter when she was around age 5. Immediately our vet suggested laser therapy as he felt if we caught the arthritis soon enough, it wouldn’t worsen, or at least we could slow the process. After several months of laser treatment, no such luck. Just more swelling and Ulla didn’t want to do much uphill walking anymore. No more hikes in the hills!
Long story short and tons of vets, specialists, medications, supplements, and home cooked diets later, her bones were quickly “disintegrating” (as per her x-rays) and amputation seemed imminent. It was recommended by the vets, the surgeon and the physical therapist as the only real way to get her out of pain and back to being a happy dog again.
After reading all the pawsitive stories on tripawds.com, we were confident it was the right decision. I should also mention that she has never spent a single night without us since the day we rescued her. She goes on all vacations, work trips, and family visits with us and even gets to go to work with her dad. So surgery week was really ruff’ on all of us! Just glad to have her home again recovering. Each day of recovery gets a little easier and we’re so excited about her progress!
Will post some updates as we go along and also some more details about her first week at home and our experiences so others can know what to expect. Thanks to the tripawds community for all the great info. and making this transition much easier for Ulla and us as her pawrents!
Oh you GORGEOUS girl! I see a look in your eyes that says “I am a German Shepherd…I can do anything! I cannot be stopped!”
You’re going to do great as a Tripawd. I’m so glad you joined us here because my people have a special place in their hearts for GSDs.
We are unstoppable!
Keep us posted on your recovery, we’re here to help however we can OK?
Ooooh I’m in LOVE!
Tripawd GSDs rule!
Thank you so very much! Ulla is truly a strong girl. She’s still trying to be her guard dog self through her most difficult recovery days, though we’ve tried to convince her she’s “off duty”! We’ll be posting some more about her progress as she begins physical therapy in just a few days.
She is gorgeous and yes, she certainly has that look of “I can do anything”. Reminds me of a certain rottie!
Ulla is a very lucky girl to go everywhere with her new pack.
I am so glad things are going well for you so far.
Karen and Spirit Magnum
Thank you Karen & Spirit Magnum! Yup, so far so good 🙂 Taking it day by day over here.
Jarrett, Wendy & Ulla
Yo Hawt Mama! Allow me to welcome you to Tripawds! I bow down to your beauteousness! We got 3 tripawd GSDs in our house (don’t ask!). I am the gorgeous young hunk, we got Codie Rae, our own 7 -year old diva, and we got Austin Ray, the new dawg. He’s s’posed to just be here temporary but he’s been here since last October. Dude, get a home!
Anyway, we are the Oaktown Pack and we got all 13 pawz (we got a 4 legged not a GSD dawg Smokey B. here too) crossed for you that your biopsy comes back B9! We can’t wait to hear more about you and see more pictures!
xoxox,
Travis Ray
Thanks for your pawsitive thoughts Travis Ray with all those paws crossed for us! Someday we would like a house full of GSDs too. How awesome 🙂