Gidget!
So hey, it's been about a month since my last update … Gidget's due for her follow-up x-rays, and I need to remember to call the vet on Monday to schedule that! How's she doing? She's doing great … the little beast is freaking HUGE. She was 15.7# the day she had her first x-rays, and I'm betting she's around 25# now. Amazing how the little monsters grow.
Been loads of fun, this last month. Cleaning diarrhea out of the kennel when she eats something that disagrees with her. A couple days of vomiting this last week. On the up side, she's FINALLY stopped peeing in the kennel every day, which is, to say the least, a relief. (Interestingly, I discovered she won't pee on newspaper … keep cozy blankets in her kennel? Pee everywhere. Line it with newspaper? No pee. Only anti-paper trained dog I've ever seen.)
Her leg? Doing great. She's been putting weight on it for the last couple weeks, and I've started letting her have more than a couple feet of leash to run on. Now, all we have to do is find a way for her to burn off energy without running around the yard, jumping on other dogs … because damn, she's so wound up she's lost all conception of how to use her mouth gently. Ouch. Hasn't drawn blood yet, but I've gotten a bruised hand a couple of times.
Let's see … in the last month, she's grown freckles, discovered she can jump out of her little pen in the front yard, lost most of her baby teeth, and (just today) discovered she can chew entirely through a nylon harness strap. She still hasn't, however, learned how to chew her food. If I don't cover her kibble in water, she'll try to swallow it all whole, dry, and end up gagging the whole mess back up. Very pleasant. 
I think (if her elbow isn't permanently screwed up too badly) she's got some promise as a competitive weight-pulling dog. My lord … put the little beast in a harness, on a short leash, keep her away from where the other dogs are playing, and she'll damn near dislocate your shoulder trying to get to 'em. She also has hysterical fits in her kennel at feeding time, so I think if I hook a padded harness up to a small tire (for starters) and wave a chunk of meat in front of her, she'll be pulling cars in no time. lol
So, the plan now is to get her in for x-rays, hopefully get the screw removed, get her spayed while she's knocked out, and keep her mellow for a few more weeks while the screw hole heals up.
Sorry it's been so long since the last update, but no news is good news, right? (And apologies for the crappy photo quality … apparently my iPhone camera lens is hopelessly screwed up. 
)
check-up x-rays!
Just got off the phone with the vet a few minutes ago, and he's really pleased with what he saw. Said her bone had healed "splendidly," and we spent a while talking about whether or not to remove the hardware. Apparently he was ready to go in and start unscrewing & unpinning things, but I really don't have the money for that this month … and there's a fairly good chance it's unnecessary anyhow.
Basically, if I have everything removed now, it won't have a chance to cause her any problems later (when it'll be harder to remove). But it may never cause any problems to begin with, in which case she'll just end up having surgery for no reason. So, here's my current plan: She's not showing any sign of injury 99% of the time now; when I let her loose in the yard, and she really frolics her ass off, she'll limp a little, but after an hour's rest in the kennel, everything's fine. So, I'll give it a month, and if she's still limping after exertion like that, I'll at least have the screw removed, considering she needs to go under to be spayed as soon as I have the cash anyhow (I guess you could think of it as preventing problems from two screws in one shot? *groan*).
Explained that plan to the vet, and he said it sounded like a fine idea, and that her bone growth should be slowing down a lot at this age. (Thank goodness, she won't get much taller! From a little over 15# on surgery day, to 27# today … 12# in ~7 weeks?! Lordy.
So, I'm hoping to get copies of her xrays, if they can give 'em to me in digital format … I suppose I can add those to this update, in lieu of cutesie pictures.
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What a cutie-pie, good to see her all patched up.
21st June 2008 at 4:40 am | permalink |Awws
21st June 2008 at 9:28 am | permalink |Awww, she's cute. That's a kick ass cast too! Why can't I get ones like that when I break my leg? Grrr.
(Sorry for not donating. My mom is against the whole pay over the internet thing. Hahaha, guess I'll have to wait until I'm older!)
Glad to see she's doing well. =]
21st June 2008 at 10:54 am | permalink |Today I'm taking pictures of her "jails" … heh. Poor hyperactive thing is under major confinement for the next 6 weeks or so. Has to be in a kennel at all times when she's not supervised … and she's not allowed free run outside.
So I have a little outdoor pen for her, and bought her a bigger kennel to hang out in.
@Aimee: No worries on the donation.
Thanks for keeping an eye on her posts!
21st June 2008 at 12:50 pm | permalink |You should tell your mom that if you use paypal, the person you're sending money to doesn't get your credit card information and can't steal it.
21st June 2008 at 3:43 pm | permalink |My mother was gushing over how cute she is and was wondering what kind of dog Gidget is. Is she a pit or something else?
21st June 2008 at 6:39 pm | permalink |She's an American Staffordshire … almost a Pit, but not quite.
21st June 2008 at 7:13 pm | permalink |A terrier? Damn, as soon as the cast is off she'll probably lift right off the ground and run up the walls and across the ceiling.
22nd June 2008 at 2:31 am | permalink |She already wants to, that's for sure. I've had to keep her in the kennel most of the time, because she starts trying to jump on and off the furniture if I leave her loose in the house … heh
22nd June 2008 at 6:43 pm | permalink |Yeah we've had terriers in the past.. little bundles of energy.
22nd June 2008 at 7:18 pm | permalink |Happy to see she's doing great.
22nd June 2008 at 8:51 pm | permalink |@David: Holy shit, yes.
@Badsanta: She thinks she's doing better than she is.
@Everyone: Update tomorrow … I keep taking the memory card out of the camera to update, and then she does something cute again, and I have to put it back in … then I forget to take it with me when I go to work. *sigh*
But she's doing great.
Thanks again, everyone!
25th June 2008 at 2:41 am | permalink |What helped with the last terrier we had was a doggy backpack. Added a bit more oomph to the walks, wore her out faster so she was relaxed more often than not.
She wasn't even a full terrier, it was terrier/lab but still.. whoa. I'm sure Gidget's already ready to bust out of that cast and explore Alaska.
Glad to hear she's doing alright, looking forward to the update.
25th June 2008 at 3:52 am | permalink |@David: Well, the backpack idea isn't going to work as long as she's not supposed to be putting weight on it.
Oh, and it wasn't a cast … just a stiff bandage. It had to come off a few days after surgery, so she could start moving the joint.
Update coming …
25th June 2008 at 2:00 pm | permalink |Yeah that might be a bad idea until that's fully healed.
I just show our dog harley the backpack and she's like "WHAT? BACKPACK? BACKPACK = WALK.. FUCK YEAH… WHAT'S UP NOW? HUH? WALK TIME MOTHERFUCKERS >_<"
AT least that's what it looks like she's thinking o_O
25th June 2008 at 7:30 pm | permalink |@David: It's funny how they start anticipating things. I had to start 'randomizing' my morning routine when I'm on my way out the door, because my Malinois would start bouncing off the walls as soon as she realized it was "that time".
Sucks for me, because I'm such a creature of habit, I forget things I need to bring with me now.
Oh, and I FINALLY posted the update. heh
26th June 2008 at 3:03 am | permalink |The link to this page seems to be gone though, I had to get this from my browser history @_@
If she's in any pain you can give her a 1/4th of an aspirin pill, twice a day. We had a dog (a terrier actually, about the same size as Gidget is now) get a wound on her mouth. It was healing fine but she was in pain so I looked it up on the internet and found that out. It worked like a charm, she was like a new dog.
Cut a weenie in half, stuff the 1/4th of the aspirin into that and she'll wolf it down.
I'm glad she's doing well, she looks great
26th June 2008 at 9:49 pm | permalink |I didn't actually intend this page to get linked in the top menu bar to begin with. heh. It's linked from the top of the first Gidget post now.
But dear God, no, I do NOT want to make her feel any better. She's supposed to be under cofinement for 8 weeks, and she's already trying to bounce off the walls.
If she's in any pain at all, I'd HATE to see how wound up she got after an Aspirin. She'd probably tear the screw right out of her elbow, by taking a flying leap off the roof or something.
26th June 2008 at 10:17 pm | permalink |good stuff, gidge!
listen to mama, she'll make sure your leg's totally healed, and belly is full of the best food she can afford, before you can do your thing again, hopefully NOT breaking anything this time!
8th July 2008 at 3:35 am | permalink |@laughingwolf: It's just the "not breaking anything this time" part I'm worried about. hehehe
27th July 2008 at 5:17 pm | permalink |Awesome, new update. She looks great.
You should really give a choke chain or one of these http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/products/i-collar.php a try for the pulling.
I can definitely see why they're called terriers.. lol.
4th August 2008 at 8:34 pm | permalink |@DavidGX: Nono … I wasn't being sarcastic when I said she showed promise as a competitive pulling dog.
I want her to pull in the harness … but as for choke chains (which I've used to train all my other dogs), pits and staffies are renown for not giving a damn if they throttle themselves at the end of the leash.
Her breeder suggested a head-collar, like the Gentle Leader, for her. That's what she uses with Gidget's mother.
5th August 2008 at 11:17 am | permalink |What is really sad is that I've not seen a new picture of Gidget since this page was put up…What is she? 70 lbs now?
26th August 2009 at 11:35 am | permalink |No, she's about 35 pounds, I think. She's gotten a bit taller and filled out a bit more, but she's still really petite. Thank goodness. As active as she is, if she were 70#, I'd be wanting to slip tranquilizers into her food.
27th August 2009 at 9:51 pm | permalink |