Entropion Surgery- Stella's Recovery

Our recovery consisted of the highest highs, the lowest lows and every emotion from fear to exhaustion to exultation and back again. But it's over.  I remember the night before surgery asking my spouse, "but how will we tell her apart from any other Lab without her signature runny eyes?"Her eyes are still runny, goopy, and now red, and less than idea, but it's over. We don't regret the surgery. We don't believe that we unfairly put our dog through this painstaking recovery. I do believe that Ectropic is better than Entropic and whether that means she'll have more eye infections, only time will tell. Our only recovery advice is, "just get through it. You're one minute closer to it being over." The three of us will have quickly forgotten (or repressed) what we endured and continue living our happy-go-lucky lab loving lives. Thank GOD it's over! Tomorrow Stella celebrates her 5th Birthday. Her entire recovery process has been a l

#BYECONE. Probably the best part of Stella getting her stitches out was the removal of the cone. Why? Freedom! No more banging into the backs of our legs! Cuddling! Done! The staff told us to keep it in case we ever needed it. It was filthy, bend, misshapen, our tormentor that began and ended this process.My husband slam dunked it into our garbage bins. Stella approved. Stella's stitch removal required the surgeon, and two techs holding her down. If you can imagine someone riding a mechanical bull while using tweezers to delicately thread a needle, this is what my spouse and I witnessed on this happy, happy morning. The surgeon explained that Stella's now, ectropic eye, is 100% cosmetic. I could sit here and say, yes, my dog is now more deformed than she was the month prior, but no one could have predicted such adverse results and I'd take cosmetic over ulcerated eyes any day of the week. Stella was so excited to get her cone removed, so very very excited that we w

One of the tougher parts of caring for an injured pup is having one person watching over the dog at all times. At. All. Times. Our dog essentially became our newborn. No showers until the other parent comes home, one person on duty, another off, barely any sleep and so on. I should also add that it was never explicitly stated, "you must be home to watch your dog 100% of the time." We were only gently reminded, urged and hounded that, "yes, dogs scratch their eyes while wearing the cone," "Some dogs will break out of their cone," "Most problems occur from dogs causing trauma to themselves," "Wow... with a dog like Stella, she'll find a way..." We weren't going to take chances with how far we came. No, she wasn't really interested in getting her cone off, it only scared her when she trotted around the house or ate so zealously that her bowl flipped over into her face. But, I strongly urge that if your dog is anything like mine

Our Surgeon's office is great in  corresponding through email. This is not only important since we live so far away but also because it helps us know that we're on the right track, which we weren't (but thought we were) before. This correspondence goes above and beyond in providing patient care so I commend and praise the doctors and staff for this. It's important that you establish this kind of relationship with your dog's veterinary office (and have the correct email!) As I mentioned, our confidence in the care we were able to provide was at this point shattered, but we were vigilantly compressing every two hours on the dot and knew that no matter what we did, one week from that horrible scab-ripping incident, this would be over. My spouse stayed home with Stella and drafted a thorough email to the surgeon, knowing that we needed assurance before heading into the weekend. He asked about a stray piece of skin that ended up being tied to a stitch, a piece of her e

Now we were presented with the necessity of soaking her eyes every two hours, keeping the open wounds clean and avoiding scabbing, a dog in pain, and a mixture of guilt for putting her through this, so naturally we questioned everything about doing this surgery. No it wasn't an emergency. I kept reminding myself that we were advised, "if you don't do this, then..,." although it provided me with little comfort. I'd never be able to fully know that what we did in the long run would pay off- if in ten years Stella can still spot a crumb on the floor, I'd know this was worth it, but now, there are so many variables causing a cloud of doubt with this procedure. At this point I felt like as good as we were caring for her, it wasn't enough. Either we couldn't provide the appropriate care due to the nature of her personality (or any dog's for that matter. I don't care how well behaved your dog is, this recovery protocol is nearly impossible) or it w

We had made up our minds to endure the hour trek to the Surgeon's, cone hitting everything in sight, an angry dog barking for her window to be put down, and me, angry that we would "just be wasting our time." Why? We're overly cautious. I can't tell you the amount of times in the past that we went back and forth for one ailment or another and ran her down to the vet, the ER, only to be assured she was fine. With that being said, you can't put a price on assurance and there was something that just irked us about her left eye. To go or not to go? Go. Always go. Stella's left eye looked much different to us than her right. When she figured out where we were, betrayal swept across that shaved face. She made us pay for it by causing a scene: pulling, yelping, pulling, repeat. We heard how much training she needed (no surprise there) but were devastated, shocked, surprised and angry with the state of her eyes. The ophthalmologist believed that not only