My "little brother" Reuben

coppersmom · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:08 pm Post subject: My "little brother" Reuben

I don't know if yall remember my Mom's pom Reuben and his luxating patellas, but now he has another problem. Monday he wouldn't put any weight at all on his back right leg. At first she assumed that it was his luxating patella problem but he became aggressive with my Dad and then with my dog Brie when I took my dogs over to stay for a few days. And he is NOT aggressive at all. So she took him to the vet Tuesday and he has torn his cruciate ligament! He has to have surgery Monday and the vet is going to go ahead and fix the knee cap problem too. Poor little fella. So Mom is a little freaked out about the surgery, the pain medicine afterwards and keeping his wild self confined. Does anyone know anything about Deramaxx? That's the pain med he is taking now and I think she has chosen for after the surgery. The other choices were a morphine shot or a pain patch. Also, she has to get some weight off of him cuz he weighs 13 pounds. She's such a s**k lol. I told her she has to stop letting him eat the other dogs' food at the least!

Please keep us in your thoughts Monday! Neutral

Samsintentions · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 4265 Location: Texas

Poms are high energy dogs. I would reccommend her keep him in a small room. Or crate him as much as she can. One thing with ligament problems is that you need to keep them quiet and rest as much as possible.

With a little dog, it might be harder. But keep your hopes up and we wish the best!

coppersmom · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 11:36 pm Post subject:

I've told her over and over to crate train him but she wouldn't. Not even when he ate her house lol. So now it's too late to traumatize him by putting him in a crate, I guess?? I'm going to take over the ex-pen and we're going to set it up as small as possible so he can't do laps. The other thing is that he is also a velcro dog and follows her everywhere. That's how I usually end up on the floor with my dogs when they're hurting but my 65 year old Mom probably shouldn't do that.

I may also have to take her other dog home with me because they play so rough. She might hurt him or he might hurt her if she tries to tackle him. I guess we'll just wait and see how she treats him when he comes back smelling like the vets and the surgery.

Jamiya · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 5593

I suppose she could carry him around in a little backpack carrier or something. LOL.

coppersmom · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:24 pm Post subject:

LOL Jamiya--He would LOVE that!

Reuben had his surgery Monday and it went well. The only problem so far is that Mom is unable to give him his oxycontin (pain pill). It can't be crushed or chewed so it has to be stuffed down and I think she's afraid to do it. He was hurting pretty badly Tuesday and snapped at her so she took him to the vets twice for them to pill him. I did it today and he is feeling alot better. And he's only on that until Saturday. We put a little boy's sock on his leg to keep him from licking it and to keep it warm. The other thing is to keep their other pom from tackling him. Good thing Mom just retired!

honeybears · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 3626

Poor Ruben, glad to ehar he is on the mend, couldnt they ahve given another pain med that oculd be crushed? That has to be hard taking him to the vet just to be medicated

coppersmom · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:33 pm Post subject:

Honeybears, I'm going over there before and after work to give him his pill. He's not snapping at me at all...I just think Mom's scared to do it. By the time she tried a few times yesterday he was in quite a bit of pain so she just took him to the vets. He's a real sweet boy.