Anatolian Shepherd Dog

I'm not sure where to start on this. It's going to be a long one. As you may have recently noticed, the updates on the site have been postponed and are getting behind. We had an incident that took priority over everything. We have been dealing with this for a while and will still be dealing with it for some time to come. We had a wonderful Christmas and everyone was great and enjoyed it. Two days later is when everything came crashing down.

I had taken the dogs out to run and everyone was having a wonderful time running around and enjoying the day. They were only all out running for about 10 minutes when disaster struck. The younger group went running past Raven. Raven wanted to join in and she turned to run after them. As soon as she turned, she took a couple of steps to start running and suddenly she cried out. I ran right to her to see what was wrong because she stopped dead in her tracks. She was holding up her back leg and we couldn't get her to walk. I grabbed her collar and talked to her to get her to walk back to the house very slowly.  She wouldn't step up the little step to get on the porch to go back inside. I had to lift her onto the porch and then up another step to go back into the house. This was a Sunday and right after Christmas. I quickly called the vet that I work with and told her about Raven. She believed just from talking to her that it might be a torn cruciate. I was to keep her calm for the night and keep her off of the leg and take her to work with me the next day so we could check her over.

Now I have to back track some and tell you some other things before I go on. Last summer Raven started getting weak in the hind end and it would often give out on her. With the advice of the doctor, we put her on Glyco-Flex to help her joints and see if that helped. She only got worse. It came down to taking her in and getting x-rays run on her. I was dreading hip dysplasia or bone cancer. It turns out that when they examined her before the x-rays that her knee popped out of joint. You could see it popping when they moved her leg. The looks on the doctors faces that all felt the knee was a wincing look because they could feel it was like crumbled up cellophane paper. That surprised me but not as much as it should have. When she was younger she fell down the steps and her knee started popping in and out of joint. It only happened a few times. I would pop it back in and then she'd be fine. She eventually popped it back in on her own too and then it seemed to no longer be a problem and no longer seemed to be popping in and out of joint. She was fine for years with no problems and now it was a problem. We x-rayed her and ruled out cancer and hip dysplasia. Her hips looked great. We did see that her knee cap was not in place and it was floating around. That's what they call a luxating patella. Her right leg was bad and her left seemed to be ok. We did see cartilage loss around that knee too. She also had arthritis in both back knees. The arthritis developed because of the knee cap. We had a few options. We could treat her conservatively with medications like joint supplements and start her on adequan injections to help or I could go see the orthopedic specialist and see about surgery. No one felt that she would be a good canidate for surgery and thought the specialist would feel the same. She's a big dog and both legs are now affected with arthritis and she could blow the other leg out and make it worse from having the other one done. We took the route to treat her conservatively. We started the adequan along with still giving her the Glyco-Flex and she did better. She was doing well until this particular Sunday.

With having this information from before, I was terrified. I was so devastated and thinking if this was a torn ACL that I might have to put her to sleep and say goodbye to my baby forever. I thought this because of knowing she was most likely not a good canidate for the surgery. That night I laid on the floor with her and held her and cried my eyes out. I couldn't leave her with knowing this might be it and might be our last night together. The next day would tell us. I was completely heartbroken and just laid on the floor and held her all night. It was horrible seeing her happy spirit drain away from her. I've never seen her spirits this low before and it was like she gave up because she was injured like this.

The next morning on December 28th, 2009, I took her to work. The doctor examined her after we got her to the room. She was hopping on 3 legs instead of walking on 4. She felt over her leg and could not feel a cruciate tear. That was a major relief! I was so happy but there was still something wrong. We decided to run more x-rays on her and see what we could see. It turned out that her knee was really unstable and we were't sure if she twisted it or pulled it wrong so we put her on some pain meds to see if that helped. We waited it out for a week to see if the medication helped her. The medication did not help at all. She should have used it by now if it was going to help her. After that first week passed, I decided to make the call to the orthopedic specialist to see what could be done if anything. I was so upset and hoping that at this point that something could be done or I was going to have to put her to sleep if we couldn't help her. I called on January 4th, 2010 and we set a consultation appointment for January 13th, 2010 which was the soonest we could get in with the doctor.  All we had to do now was wait it out and see what the orthopedic specialist had to say.

January 13th finally came and it was time for her appointment. I was worried and everything laid on what the specialist thought. I was hoping for the best. I took her in and he checked over her right knee. He also did not feel a cruciate tear so we were good in that regard. He did say that her knee was very unstable and it needed to be repaired. That was the only hope she had. He thought she would be fine for the surgery and she should hold up well. While he examined her, he checked her left leg to make sure that leg was stable. While he was checking it, her left knee popped out of joint. I about died. This is the first time this knee ever popped out of joint. It was okay for now but would also need repaired in the future. Both legs needed surgery! He only wanted to do the worst leg now which was her right leg. She would be able to use the left in the meantime while she healed. He said once she's recovered from the right leg then we would repair the left. Most of the time when he sees the other leg go out is about 6 months down the road from the first leg being repaired due to using it as the strong leg. We decided and said yes to go ahead with the surgery. I was willing to do anything to help her at this point. I knew we would have to do the other leg later this year after she healed and was prepared to do that when the time came. We had to make this bad leg stable. She was completely lame in that leg and had no use of it at all. The doctor went to get his surgery book so we could schedule her. I wanted this done as soon as possible so she could start healing and getting back to normal and not be in pain. He came back in the room and looked over it. He looked at us and said that he had a cancellation in the morning and they could do the surgery that very next morning. This was a miracle! You normally can't get in with him for a couple of weeks for appointments or surgeries. I said YES with no hesitation. We decided to let her stay overnight so they could do it first thing in the morning. It was tough saying goodbye to her but I knew it had to be done. We went home that night without Raven but knew she was going to hopefully get fixed up and better.

It was so weird that night at home without her. It felt so empty and the dogs had no idea where she was. Kazara was in a pure panic looking for her. We all settled in for the night and hoped that everything would go fine in the morning. All I could think about was my girl in a weird place with people she didn't know and hurting. I prayed all night that she was going to be fine. The next day, I knew the surgeon would call as soon as she was done. It was going to be a long day of waiting. My phone rang around 10am that morning but I was in the shower. I got a voice message. I had no idea who it was from and I listened to it. It was the surgeon. My heart dropped when I heard his voice. It seemed too early for him to call and already be done. His message was that they had Raven under anesthesia and prepped for surgery but they ran into a problem. Her ACL was torn too. No one knew until they put her under anesthesia and she relaxed the muscles. She was so tense before that none of the doctors could feel it until she was sedated and relaxed. He said they would fix it while they were already in there to repair her knee. I had called them back and told them to go ahead and fix that too. My poor girl must have been in so much pain but now she was having this fixed too on top of the knee. I was on pins and needles until I heard back from the doctor to tell me she made it through the surgery. The phone call came close to 12:30 that afternoon. She was out of surgery and awake! He told me that it was really ugly when they got in there to fix her leg. They deepened the grove so her knee will stay in place and not pop out anymore. He said the ACL was completely torn and they repaired that. Also they saw she didn't have much cartilage left around that knee and what was there was so badly torn and ripped up that he had to cut more away. He also saw really bad arthritis in that knee joint. The report came back saying that the tear was an acute traumatic rupture and that there is severe osteoarthritis present. I am to keep her on her Glyco-Flex and adequan injections for the rest of her life to help treat that and slow the progression. She had to stay there overnight and she was allowed to be released the next day to come home. In the meantime, I got all of the medications ready that she would have to take for the recovery. They included Tramadol for pain, Deramaxx for pain and inflamation and also Cephalexin as an antibiotic. She would be taking 1,250 mg of Cephalexin twice a day for 1 week, 100 mg of Deramaxx once a day for 3 days and then move her to 75 mg of Deramaxx once a day for about a month, Tramadol 50 mg  which ended up being 3 tablets 3 times a day for 2 weeks and also stay on the Glyco-Flex as she has before. This poor girl was going to be a walking pill machine but she needed it. I got all the meds ready before going home from work that night so I had them for when she came home the next day.

The next day, I called to check on her and see when I could pick her up. We set a time and went to get her. She was happy when she saw us and she came walking out on her own with help but still only using 3 legs. She had 18 staples going down over her knee. Ouch! We lifted her into the truck and took her home. Once home, we walked her into the potty area and she went potty. We had to lift her onto the porch and into the house because she's not allowed to do steps and we have to keep her on leash at all times to go outside. She's going to have a long recovery in front of her of about 12-16 weeks with restricted exercise. She was only allowed to go out to potty and go back inside. That was for the first 2 weeks at least until we could ease up on restrictions after our next check up with the surgeon in 2 weeks. She was a bit uncomfortable when she first got home but she quickly settled in and relaxed. You could tell she was hurting but she was going to get better. Over the next couple of days her spirits got better and she began to feel better. She even started testing out her newly repaired leg and would touch it to the ground to see if she could use it. She eventually started putting a little weight on it here and there and was doing well. I was so proud of her and how she was coming along with her recovery. She is a strong girl and had the spirit and strength to do this. She's really a trooper and trying to overcome this. I am impressed with her strength and will power. Everything was going great and I was looking forward to her 2 week check up because I was so impressed with her progress and couldn't wait to hear what the doctor thought.

Her next check up was scheduled for January 27th. We noticed she was limping a little bit on January 25th. I thought maybe she was just trying to use the leg a little too much or the other leg was getting sore from taking the majority of her weight. On January 26th, the day before her check up, I took her out to potty that morning and she was limping a little bit still. I told her she needed to go back inside and lay down. I guided her towards the house with her on the lead and she didn't want to go up on the porch. I had to again lift her and help her up into the house which was odd because she was allowed to do the tiny step to get inside but not the others out the other door. She was able to do that before but not this day. I went off to work but then got a phone call later in the day about a half hour before it was time to go home. Raven was hurting bad. She couldn't get up and stay up long. She was really in pain with her leg. I got off the phone and was worried sick about her. All I could think was how badly I wanted to leave work and get home to her to see what was going on. I got another phone call a couple of minutes later. Her knee was popped out of place. When my mom had pulled on her leg to straighten it and see if she could move it, it popped. This was supposed to be her good leg to use while she was healing. I had to get home! As soon as I could, I wrapped up with work and took off to get home to Raven. I got home and she actually stood up to eat. I looked at her and was shocked. She was putting all her weight on her leg that she had just had repaired and holding up the left leg now. I had brought home a harness from work to use in case we needed it back when she had her first surgery and it was a big help holding up her back end to help ease the pressure on the other leg the past 2 weeks. My girl needed support and a lot of it now. I even had to use the chest brace on her to help try to lift her if she went down. She couldn't get up like she was doing before. As soon as I saw what she was doing with her legs, I said that I thought she torn the other ACL. We had the check up the next day so we would find out then and I was even more worried now. I didn't know if she could go through another major surgery so soon.  The panic was back in full force.

Here are some pictures of her the night before the check up when we had to put the chest part of the harness on her to help her along with already using the hind end part of the harness. She finally decided to lay down to eat because it was too hard for her to stand.

We took her in on January 27th to have her looked at. I had called them earlier in the day to give them a heads up that this was not going to be a normal check up because now she's not using her other leg. We got there that evening and went in to see the doctor. We were talking to him about her not using the leg and holding it up and using the leg she had surgery on to stand. He was shocked and said "That leg!". We said yes. She was standing on the repaired leg and not putting weight on the other leg that was supposed to be her strong leg. He examined her left leg and then went to her right leg that was just repaired. He had stood up and looked at us and said "This leg is now her good leg." about the leg she had just gotten repaired. He said she had torn the ACL in the other leg and now that's her bad leg. She needed it repaired and soon so she didn't damage the original leg. She had gotten her staples removed from the original leg that night too. He went and got his surgery book to look over the appointments. Once again he had another cancellation the next day due to another client cancelling since we had a bad storm the day before and as he was leaving the orthopedic specialist's office a tree branch broke and fell on his car along with power lines right at the stop sign right down the road. I couldn't believe this! Two times with this luck to get her in immediately. This was another miracle for us! We once again left her for the night and they were going to fix her torn ACL and knee in the other leg. The pressure was on now. She was scheduled for another surgery on January 28th.

I waited patiently the next day for the phone call. We weren't sure what time her surgery was going to be so it was an all day wait. It was an long day and the call didn't come in until 6:30 that evening. She was out of surgery once again and awake. They were keeping her overnight again and we wouldn't be able to pick her up until the next day. The leg was a mirror image of the other leg from what the doctor told me. Same problems and osteoarthritis is present in that leg too. I once again got all the medications together that she was going to need and went home that night to relax since I knew my girl was fine and I had a lot more work coming once she got home.

We picked her up on January 29th and brought her home. She settled in much faster this time since she knew the routine. She was much happier this time too. The first few days were really tough and worse than the first time. We had to use the entire harness to help lift her to get her to walk. My arms and back were paying the price. She really needed help but I knew I had to do it. This was going to be tougher than before and a longer recovery period after having both legs done so closely together.  After several days, we no longer had to use the chest part of the harness but kept the hind end part on her to support her entire back end. She was beginning to do well and get around with our help and lots of lifting. This time she came home with 17 staples in the left leg.

Here are some pictures of her only days after she was home from the second surgery.

She hated having to wear the elizabethan collar but we had to keep it on her due to her wanting to chew at the incisions since they were slowly healing and itching her. She had to wear this for almost 5 weeks. We would take it off of her when home and in the same room with her and cover her legs with a blanket to help keep her warm since she was shaved and also to keep her from bothering the incisions. She had to wear it all other times though and looked so sad with it on.

We had to go back in 2 weeks on February 17th to get the staples removed and see how she was coming along from the second surgery. In the meantime we got hit with 2 major snow storms and had over 2 feet of snow outside. Raven loves snow and this was heartbreaking to all of us. She wants nothing more than to run and play in it but she can't. Of course I had to let the others out to play in it and it was so heartbreaking seeing her wanting so badly to go out with them but she had to stay in the house. I know snow storms like this don't come too often but I'm hoping for another blizzard like this sometime during Raven's life when she is still active enough to run and play in it. Of all times for us to get a blizzard, it had to happen now when she can't get a chance to live it up. We ended up shoveling a path for her to be able to go outside to potty and we decided to take her out so she could see all the snow and get her nose in it for a few minutes. We ended up being outside for a good 10 minutes with her because she didn't want to come back inside. She loved it! At least she got to enjoy a little bit of it but I know it's not how she really wanted to. I took some pictures of her in the snow as much as she was able to be. She surprised us and took the dive into it to walk through it. She was able to feel it up around her body surrounding her and I'm happy she at least got to feel it like that and enjoy it some. She was so happy.  

Raven in the path.

She's checking it all out on the patio. You can see the difference in the back legs with the hair growing back. She had to have been cold so we didn't want her outside too long.

This picture you can really see how the surgeries affected her weight. With all the medications that she's been on, it was not making her feel well and she didn't want to eat like she normally did. The weight loss isn't bad at this point due to it being better for her recovery and keeping that weight off her back end so she can recover without over stressing those legs. She does like eating snow though!

She's got a face full of snow!

This is when she decided to take the plunge and go right into the snow bank. This really lifted her spirits and I was so proud to see her be able to enjoy this to this point but I knew this was the most she could do. She loved every second of it.

She was doing great and the next appointment was coming up quick. All the other dogs knew that Raven wasn't feeling well and they knew something was wrong with her legs. They have all been great with her and understanding. I tend to find one of them here and there laying with her just to be close to her and it's as though they are watching over her. I caught these next pictures on Valentine's Day. Tayyar has really been impressing me lately. He has taken to watching over everyone and this night he felt like he needed to stay with Raven and watch over her. He's been staying right with her and he doesn't want to leave her. Here are some pictures of Tayyar staying with Raven.

We had her check up February 17th and she had gotten her staples removed from the second surgery. The doctor examined her and was pleased. Both legs are now stable! She still needs to use the harness and keep her leash restricted and still keep her only going out to potty and coming back inside. She can have free roam of the house. Her next appointment was then scheduled for March 3rd for another recheck on her progress. We took her in and the doctor was pleased again. Raven is coming along well. She did manage to sneak out the dog door on her own which the doctor laughed and told us that it was the second time that day he heard that same story. We can let down on some restrictions now. She's still to be leashed to go outside and still needs the harness to help support her but she can start to apply weight to the legs and begin to use her muscles. I can start taking her for 10 minute walks and judge if she needs less or if she's good with 10 minutes. She's now off of most of the medication but she still needs to take the Deramaxx until at least May since she had both legs done. She's still continuing the Glyco-Flex and adequan and will be on that for the rest of her life. I'm hoping to get her off of the Deramaxx soon.

Some time has passed and her next recheck isn't until March 31st. In the meantime, I've lessen the restrictions a little more. I no longer use the harness on her. She really appreciated the help when she needed it but now she refuses to walk with it on. She prefers to not have it on and just walk on the leash without the help. This girl is a trooper! I'm also allowing her to go out the dog door on her own if she needs to. She doesn't have access to the large area and she has no urge to run in the smaller potty area. She won't come in the door on her own so I open it when she's ready to come in. I do supervise her the majority of the time when she goes out the door just to make sure she's not running. Most of the time she just goes out and does her business and comes right back in. A couple of days this past week she wanted to lay down outside and just watch the goats and lay in the sun so I would leave her for a couple of minutes so she could get the fresh air. This weekend she went out onto the patio and just laid there for a good hour. She loved being outside and being able to get the fresh air. I've also been taking her on walks around the fence perimeter and she's loving it! They last about 10 minutes and she gets some good sniffing in of everything. She perks up and comes to life when she's out on those walks. She loves to patrol the fenceline and this is giving her a chance after being inside for so long. She has even begun pulling me! She's gaining strength and I have to hold her back. She can't run! She's not allowed to do that yet. There are days that she doesn't want to come back in from walks and I can't move her. It's like her feet are cemented into the ground. This girl may still be wobbly and a little weak but she sure is strong when her mind is set! She's also getting back to eating more normally. I'm so proud of her and her progress that she's making. She goes back this coming week on the 31st for her recheck and then she only has 1 more recheck 6 weeks from this next one and that should be it. She should be done! I'm hoping sometime during this summer that she'll have her freedom back and be able to run some. It's still going to be a while but she's making great progress.  

Here are some pictures I took of her this weekend. She was so proud to be out there and you can see a major difference in how proud she looks. I'm so proud of this girl. She's got an amazing strength to her and a great spirit. This girl does not give up! She has taught me so much through this whole ordeal. She still has so much to tell me and teach me. Her journey is far from over. This is just a new beginning.

She found a bunny tail laying on the ground. Don't ask me because I have no clue how it got there. She's obsessed with rabbits and she grabbed this tail up in her mouth and then dropped it. It took me a minute to realize what it was and I got her back away from it. That's when she refused to go any further and plopped down on the ground to keep a close eye on the dangerous bunny tail. She was guarding that thing and not taking her eyes off of it. It was hers! She wanted it bad! Here she is watching the tail like a hawk.

She was so intent on staring this tail down and was refusing to get up to come back in the house. Here is a quick picture of when I tried to get her up. When she doesn't want up, she'll roll on her side and make it even harder for me to try to move her. She flopped her head upside down and gave me this famous look of hers. She does this when she doesn't want to do something and she thinks it's funny because I can't move her. This is her goofy, clownish side. You can't help but smile when you see this picture. When she does this at different times, I can't help but to laugh. My baby girl is coming back to me!

We did eventually get her inside. The only way I was able to get her up was to get the tail and she followed it back inside the house. Of course the tail got thrown out but she didn't want it to leave her sight. She's a funny girl. I just love this girl with all my heart. She's on the road to recovery and doing great!

Now you see why I've been so far behind on updates with the site. It's been a bit crazy around here with dealing with Raven's injuries and helping her, raising the new puppy, spending time with the others and still working full time. Don't forget caring for the goats too!  It's been a bit hectic but things are finally calming down and I'll be starting to update the site more. I'll keep everyone updated on Raven's progress too. Thank you to everyone who knew about this and was supportive. Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and kind words. You don't know what that means to me. Everyone here at Mystic Anatolians sends lots of Anatolian leans and hugs your way. Thank you all for the support during this tough time.