Amanda's Linus 5/26 Surgery

Hey y'all, my name is Amanda and I'm afraid I'm a newbie to this whole situation. My little trooper isn't even home yet, but our surgeon recommended Dodger's List to us as a resource.

My other half and I own two longhaired miniature dachshunds (Fletcher and Linus), and our little Linus (4.75 y.o., black/tan, 10.75 lbs) started having a stilted gate on Friday (5/23). Took him to our regular vet (having gone through very very VERY early back problems with Fletch, our 6 y.o. red sable 15 pounder, in September) for reduced activity and prednisone on a taper. Seemed to bounce back late on Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday morning, but on Sunday afternoon started acting stiff again. When he started having coordination issues, off to the emergency vet we went in a hurry. (As an aside, of course, it was a holiday weekend.) He did have reflexes, deep tissue/pain reactions/anal tone, could place weight (albeit with coordination issues), and still had one heck of a wagging tail.

Surgeon couldn't get their tech in until this morning (leading to one very sleepless night with my boy at the hospital and me, the other half, and his "big buddy" at home), but he had a myleogram and a laminectomy this morning. Myleogram revealed a bulging disc/compression at T-11/T-12, but surgery revealed no calcification and no bruising. Spine looked fantastic, apparently, and the surgeon was really positive about his outlook. He came out of anesthesia like a little boss and retained all of his tissue/pain reactions. He's currently catheterized and on IV fluids, a hydro/lidocaine mix, and has a Fentadyl patch on his back. We did get to see him this afternoon, and despite being drugged out of his sweet little gourd and still sleepy from the anesthesia, we were greeted with a thumping tail and a muted version of his typical assortment of vocalizations. He was under a warm air blanket (little goob was still cold from surgery and he is a cold-natured little fellow anyhow) so I didn't get a really good look at his incision. For this particular emergency hospital, he has to have bladder function before he can come home. Cue me hoping/praying/wishing/dreaming that he'll be sans cath tomorrow and we can try a potty run together. I think we're about to drive the poor ICU techs nuts by calling every few hours to check in, but this is my little dude. Linus and his buddy, along with my cats, are my world. 

In advance of him coming home, we've already set up two recovery dens; one of which is his old puppy crate with his favorite bed in it that we can move through our house easily, and the other in his and his brother's joint crate that stays in our kitchen. Thank goodness my other half's work schedule allows for telecommuting, so we can tag-team his recovery period easily. We have also ordered Linus a WiggleLess back brace to act as both a support brace (his tail wags so hard, his whole body wiggles like crazy and his back curves up, and we have a sinking feeling that attributed to his problems) and as a cover for his sutures. His brother gets one next month for those days he plays too hard. I'm turning one of our whiteboards into a medicine checklist so we can easily track things and creating a task list in our shared Google calendar to track PT/meds times. 

We're debating building a ramp for outside our house, as there is only one step to come inside and it is 8.5 inches tall, or just making both boys be carried inside from now on. We do have a portable ramp/incline cat scratcher (multitasker!) that we'll move around the house. Fletch doesn't love using it, but we're working on that. We took care years ago to buy "dachshund friendly" furniture and, well, an all-one-level house because of the boys. Our bed frame is very low profile, so the guys basically step onto the lip of the frame and then up onto the mattress.