Niya’s Injury

Two weeks ago Niya broke her leg along the growth plate. 

We don’t know how. 

Niya was outside playing and then Mom heard several yelps. When she went outside to investigate, Niya’s leg was twisted in the wrong direction and she rushed her to the vet. 

The vet said for how the break is, she must have gotten her foot stuck in something while she was running and continued to move forward. 

Whatever happened, happened. Unfortunately there’s no going back and changing it. Though I wish I could so she wouldn’t have to go through the next seven and a half weeks of confinement while it heals. 

All we can do now is give her everything she needs to have the best possible recovery.

X-Rays 

What we thought was a bad x-ray was really not awful in the bigger picture. Her leg was that bad. 

I can’t really point out the spot, I didn’t fully see it when either the local vet or the surgeon pointed it out. But it is in the right hock.

Week One 

For the first week I slept on my couch cushions on the living room floor with her. Needless to say she loved having me right there and slept by my side until she discovered the space under the coffee table was den like. Then she slept in her new den. 

I’ve been working from home the whole time since it happened. I’m incredibly grateful I have a hybrid job where I can work in the office or work from home at my choice. It’s allowed me to stay home and be here with her when she needs me.

We had to rewrap her leg a couple of times during that first week and kept readjusting the splint. She became Barbie again with a pink leg wrap and a teal yoga sock for grip so her leg wouldn’t keep slipping out on my floor. 

She found her favorite sticks in the backyard and just enjoyed being outside when I took her out. 

Surgery 

We went to a board certified veterinary surgeon and she told us that Niya had a Salter Harris Type 1 fracture across her growth plate. The prognosis was good that Niya would be able to walk normally again. 

The surgeon did her thing and Niya ended up with three pins in her ankle holding things together while she heals and grows.  

The surgery was on a Thursday and we were able to bring her home right away. When they walked her out to the lobby, she was still drugged and delirious from the anesthesia, but she was on a mission to leave. She walked right past me. 

It wasn’t until blocked her path and crouched down in front of her she realized I was there. She was so happy to see me and tried her best to climb on my lap. She is forever my lap dog even though she is now at 50 lbs. 

Recovery

For the next eight weeks following surgery, she has to be kept quiet. Meaning no running, jumping, extreme play, jumping on the furniture, etc. 

I carry her pretty much everywhere now. From the house to her potty spot, back to the house. From x-pen to crate. From house to car. From car into the vet’s office. Since she broke her leg she has gained 7 lbs, putting her at just shy of 50 lbs. 

Even though that’s just a bag of dog food and technically not very heavy at all. I am becoming increasingly more tired and she is getting heavier and heavier. The days where I get more sleep, she seems lighter. But when I get less sleep it’s a struggle. 

She has gotten really good at being carried too. After I have her up off the ground, she drapes her arm closest to my body over my arm and I’m so grateful she figured that out. It’s easier to support her that way. 

It’s been really hard for Niya, especially when we got our spring snow storm. It was the first time she had seen fresh snow and she just wanted to run, jump, and play. 

It’s been equally as hard for me seeing her in so much pain and being unable to do anything for her beyond the pain meds I’ve already given her. All I can do is sit there and hold her paw while she breathes through it. 

Niya has a crate in the kitchen right next to my table where I sit and do work. It was one of those TikTok freebies I got and has been the best crate for this situation since the top has a lid that lifts open. I’ll write a review post on it here soon and link it back to this one. 

I also have my x-pen set up in the living room in a slightly larger space for her so she can roll onto her back and sleep like that. She loves laying on her back. 

One Week Post Op Check 

We had to bump her one week post op check up a day. The night before she started barely touching her toes to the floor when she had been touching just fine and I placed an emergency call into the vet. 

She had me check Niya’s temperature and pull the bandage off the toes to check if they were swelling in the cast. 

Niya’s temperature was fine. But there was old dried blood and bodily fluid discharge at the bottom of the wrap near her toes. Weighing the pros and cons of what she could do overnight versus in the morning, she told us to bring Niya in first thing in the morning. 

Once the bandage was taken off, the discharge near her toes was from a stirrup of tape. But once they cut back more of the vet wrap near where the incision was, there was also some old discharge on the bandage. 

The real issue was visible once the bandage was fully removed. There was a hole where one of the pins is and the pin is starting to back out. 

From looking at it, it didn’t look like it was a new occurrence and I think it had been happening for days. The skin was raised up in a little ridge around the hole, like how craters on the moon are depicted. To me that makes it seem like the skin has been trying to seal around it for a few days.

Our updated plan of care is to go to the vet every other day for a bandage change and to check on how the hole and pin are doing. And of course still keep her as quiet as possible. 

We just need it to last long enough for the bone to have healed with bone versus the initial fibrous tissue that will someday turn into bone. 

Overall we are just taking this a day at a time. That’s all we can do.