Hi everyone - our story and surgery experience too

[River525]

Hi to everyone.....we just found this site and are having fun checking everything out.  A little bit of history about us.....I along with my husband are the mom and dad to Brutus our 7 year old dachshund.  He is the love of our lives - trust me you can even ask our children, lol.  But in all seriousness we do love him dearly. 

Brutus was my birthday gift 7 years ago from my husband.  I had a choice between the cute baby dachshund or a diamond tennis bracelet.......as you can see I picked the best gift - BRUTUS!!  He goes to work every day with my husband and absolutely gets furious if he has to stay home by himself for even a minute.  Separation anxiety is a huge issue with Brutus. 

He is now about 2 1/2 months post op from surgery on his spine.  We came home for a Titans football game to find him acting strange and not racing to us when we walked in the door.  He walked to us but he was obviously hurting.  Scared me to death b/c this was always something I was terrified would happen.  This was on a Sunday night - we decided to go onto bed and take him to our vet in the morning.  Luckily the surgeon was there too and took one look at Brutus x-ray and said myleogram and surgery immediately.  We agreed having complete confidence with our longtime vet and this very qualified surgeon.  The surgery lasted forever!!!!! about 4 hours and when the surgeon came out after it was over his first words to us were he had never seen anything like this before -- UGHHHHHH.  Apparently Brutus's spine had been progressively getting worse over the years without showing us any signs.  He said usually when this type of surgery is done they are able to clean out the disc and that's that but with Brutus there was nothing he could clean out everything was rock hard and all he could do was scrape a small hole (so to speak) to let his spinal cord have more room.  I've attached a photo of him a few days after surgery showing his bruising, swelling and staples

I could go on and on and I am still trying to understand everything to this day BUT our baby is walking and pain free for now.  He isn't 100% and unfortuntaley we will never be able to board him in a so call regular kennel so our travelling days to Aruba, etc. are on hold at least for now or till we find someone we can trust to watch him while we do travel outside of the USA.  But that's ok -- more money to save for my kitchen remodeling job I want, lol.   

I guess that's it -- hope I didn't write too much I have a tendancy to get carried away when I talk about Brutus

[cheryl186]

Hello and welcome to our group!!!  Brutus is a very handsome gentleman and he looks very sweet.  Have you joined www.dodgerslist.com?  That is a site where you can get very helpful information on IVDD and what you can do for your pup...whether they have had surgery or not.  Information is there about holistic approaches pre and post surgery, or a conventional approach, etc.  My 4 yr old Zoe had back surgery in August of this year and they were and are extremely helpful to this day!! 

Again, welcome to our group and it is a pleasure to have you with us...this is a wonderful group and everyone here is very helpful and caring...we all love our babies; and it just seems we doxie parents have a very close bond to each other also.

ps:  I am so glad you picked Brutus over the Tennis Bracelet too!!!!!

[Kari]

Hi and Welcome! I'm so glad you found our site. Our Penny is 4 days post-op from back surgery so I can relate! We have such wonderful people on this site so please post as much as you want. We love it hear it...and we love pictures!

[Teresa]

Welcome to Wiener Writings. My name is Teresa. I live in S.C. and have Schatzi 3, who is a dark red short hair, and about 10lbs of pure spunk. My husband and I also have Molly who is a 7 year old English Bulldog. She and Schatzi are best friends.
We will never get tired of hearing Brutus stories, I promise. You can probably tell that from all the stories you have already read on the board.
You mentioned going to a Titan's game. Do you live in Nashville? My daughter is in her last year of school at Trevecca Nazarene University there. I don't know who will miss Nashville more, my husband and I or Meghan. I have a feeling it may be Meghan-she really has enjoyed her time there.
I can't wait to find out more about Brutus. I'm sure you have some great things to tell. By the way, I think you made the perfect choice for your birthday gift!

[Barb]

Welcome !!! Brutus is adorable - and all of us here relate to the fact that our furbabies our the loves of our lives !!!!  Look forward to hearing more about your baby and we love seeing pictures !