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| Barnabas Reed posing for his photo op |
Sometime around last November, Barnabas began favoring his right back leg. After a day, we took him to the vet, figuring they’d just scold us on being overprotective, worry-wart pet parents. But unfortunately, that was not the case. He had partially torn his ACL. Worse, the vet said, actually it was his back left leg. Turned out to be both. It could potentially be corrected with surgery, which was quoted somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000. PER KNEE.
After I came to with smelling salts and a fan, I thanked her for her time and asked if there were alternatives. She said to try “bed rest.” Blank stare. She seriously wanted us to put the nearly 100 lb PUPPY (and yes, he is still considered a puppy until age two when he may reach his full growth) in “bed rest.” This entails him sleeping all day and night, no dog park visits, no walks, and only a short trip out to the yard to do his dirty business and returning to bed. I will say I did rather well in not laughing in her face and left the building.
We did our best. We corralled him in the living room. We could easily avoid the dog parks. I was happy to take one for the team and no longer go on our daily walks (gee—give up exercise, well, okay, if you insist). Taking him out on a leash in the middle of winter was not going to happen. I did it for exactly one week. By then he stopped limping most of the time. Good enough for me.
We checked in at six weeks. The vet was pleased for the most part. The swelling was down, but she said he still had a lot of play in the knee area. So six more weeks of no exercise for anyone in our household. (Hello, couch!) It was a hardship, but I powered through with Season one of Longmire and more time for writing.
After research and discussion with the committee (husband), it was determined that unless it is life or death, we will not be doing the surgery. One big factor was when the vet said surgery might work. MIGHT. No guarantee. We could spend $6,000 and then he could tear them again. Another factor was several members of the online Newfie society stated they did not do the surgery either and their pups eventually grew enough scar tissue for the problem to take care of itself. As he is a puppy and not fully grown, we thought it might be a better idea to wait until he’s fully grown before reconsidering surgery. I’d hate to spend that kind of money, and then he grows out of the fix.
All that being said, we are on hold with the surgery for now. We will reconsider it in the future as need arises, but right now Barnabas is dealing well with the situation. He’s learned when his knee pops out (and they both do this sporadically), if he sits down, they usually pop back in. Sometimes he will just stand there when it happens, and I’ve found if I reach down and pull his knee up toward his body, it will pop back into place and he’s off and going like nothing happened.
Another interesting thing that occurred during this time or fretting and researching, I’ve discovered Golden Paste. It is basically turmeric, olive oil, and fresh ground black pepper that you make into a paste. It helps with inflammation. As soon as I started giving it to Barnabas, who now considers it a treat, he started improving.
On further research, I decided to try some myself for my fibromyalgia. It worked as well or better than some of the medicines they have me on. I got out of bed the first day after starting it and walked across the room. I stopped and looked back in shock. Usually, I have to stand up slowly, move carefully until my joints cooperate. I even went down the stairs like a normal human as opposed to walking down one step at a time (with each foot). I was putting one foot on a step, then the other foot on the next step and simply walking up or down without trouble. It was amazing, and I’ve taken it ever since. I’ve even been able to go to bed and feel relaxed and able to sleep instead of my normal—can’t lay on this side, it hurts; can’t lay on that side, it hurts, etc. It brought back great memories of younger days when I didn’t have these issues and could just go to bed and get some sleep and enjoy lying in the bed without pain.
Stay tuned for more Barnabas adventures. We are considering therapy dog training so he can visit cancer patients and nursing homes. He cannot start that until he is two, but in the meantime, we are working with his trainer to get the basics down so he can go through school with flying colors. Go Barnabas!
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| Barnabas Reed doing his Pretzel Pose |
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