Mika

Mika seems to be in more discomfort now than he was before the surgery. 

His walking is slow and he is still learning to adjust his body weight. 

Good news is, he didn't bite his stitches out, but we still have to keep an eye on him. 

back home...

Mika came home today. A very clear difference from the last time is that now, he's much less happy. Guess he's in a lot of pain, probably more pain than before, but he's ok.
He's eating well and taking lots of tablets.


We have to confine him so he doesn't run around and we also have to make sure he doesn't take his stitches out, because he did at the vets' :S

We'll try to get a picture for you tomorrow. It's too dark to take any at the moment.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for his surgery :) I guess they worked.
 

Our little swimmer

We took Eva to a doggy gathering today at a restaurant. They had a swimming pool that was specially open for the dogs today. We didn't really expect to take Eva swimming, but somehow we did.

She's a natural born swimmer!! She was swimming the moment she hit the water - at first clumsy like an elephant, but then graceful like a ... sheltie?

Our little baby is swimming!

I wouldn't say she enjoyed the water because she would always try to get out, but she finally accepted it and swam around with Rosie.
It was good water therapy for her hind legs anyway.

Here's a video of them swimming.
Sorry about the weird color, it seems like the camera dial was moved accidentally so that it was videoing in a different color mode.

After swimming, a relaxing time in the restaurant.

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An update on Mika:
His surgery was successful. The vet called us last night to say that he was bleeding a bit more than usual, but still under the tolerance level. He is half bald now but when we went to visit him this morning, he was his usual happy self. Hopefully, if everything goes well, he'll be home tomorrow!

9 months old today!

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Mika's blood cell count is good which means that he'll be having his FHO surgery tomorrow afternoon. 

Please keep your paws (and fingers) crossed for him!

Mika is home

 

Mika came home today, but unfortunately, it won't be for long!
You see, apparently, the ball can only go back into the socket if you try within 24 hours, or at the most, 48 hours. It's too late for us to try and push back the dislocated bone.

Our only other option (apart from hip replacement, of course) is FHO (Femoral Head Ostectomy). That is where the femoral head is removed so that both bones are not connected. Some of our friends commented in our previous post telling us that they have known or owned dogs that have gone through FHO and came out ok - some even did agility after that!

Tomorrow, Mika will be going back to the vets to take a blood cell count to make sure he is healthy enough to have the surgery which will be on Saturday.

Mika is happy to be home and happy to be on three legs. He hasn't lost any of his naughtiness, which, for once, I'm happy to say is good. I'm so glad that he is so mentally strong and is such a tough boy! The morning after the accident, he was happily walking on three legs already when we thought he wouldn't even be able to walk! It just goes to show how tough some of these little guys are!! I think that I feel sorry for him more than he feels sorry for himself :)

Update on Mika

Thank you to all who were hoping that Mika pee-ed soon because this morning when we took him out, I swear, it lasted for at least 30 seconds! Your prayers worked!

His x-rays today showed that one leg is fine but the other dislocated leg cannot be fitted back into its socket.

This diagram on the left shows a normal hip where the ball is in the socket.

This is what Mika's hip looks like now

The vet hasn't been able to push the ball back into the socket.
One option is to get a second opinion and maybe try another vet to stick it in.
Another option is to remove the ball so that both bones are not connected.

However, he will still be limping.

The good news is that he can come home tomorrow!

He's such a tough boy and because we have to take him out to do his business, many cars have passed by him and he hasn't given them a second thought, which means that he isn't terrified of cars, considering he was hit by one... Which is great news.

Like Mother Like Daughter

As Eva grows older, we see more and more a resemblance with her mother.

Here are two photos in which they look very very alike.

Apart from the color (in which Hana is still darker), their expression is so similar! And of course, Hana still looks older and wiser!!!

Even Eva's favourite resting spot at home used to be Hana's favourite resting spot!

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Now back to an update on Mika.
First of all, I would like to say a big thank you to all those who came and commented yesterday and kept their paws crossed for him.

We visited him at the vet twice today. His blood test results came back to say his insides are ok which is good. However, he hasn't pee-ed yet for 24 hours!!! We have taken him out to walk and stretch his legs. He only can walk on three legs now.
He's been having injections to ease the pain and antibiotics. Tomorrow, he's going to be anaesthised so that they can do the xrays and also hopefully put his leg back in its socket.

Mika needs your healing prayers

Mika got run over by a car today and both his legs were severly injured. One might be dislocated.
He's staying at the vets now and has to take xrays soon.
Please send all your healing thoughts and prayers for him.

Eva's guide to happiness

 Life can be interesting everyday if you know how to enjoy it.

Follow Eva's step-by-step guide to living life to the fullest.

Step One: Get a twig or a stick to chew

Remember to enjoy it! GRIN for the camera!

Step Two: Grab something your humans have left around to play with.

In this case, I got a sponge

Step Three: Remember that dogs can't only play with themselves. They need some human attention too!

Grab your favourite toy and play with them!

Step Four: Always be happy when you are running

Step Five: Remember to SMILE!

Happiness is the key to success

(and beauty)!!!

The mailman came today!

Hey, wonder what this is!

*sniff* I smell....food......and toys!

And who could our mystery sender be?

*hint - look at the picture in the box

The Booker Man and Miss Asa!

 

Thank wooo all so much!!

Eva hogging all the toys for herself!

And the bones!

Here are all our goodies!

Don't worry about Mika. He's happily eating his peanut butter bone :D

 Dear Mr Booker and Miss Asa,

 We love love love all the toys! Eva is having a wonderful time now and she won't be sleeping anytime soon! The squirrel frisbee is her favourite!!! 

Thank you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!

Poll

After having so much feedback from everybody about Eva's sheltie quirks, I'm beginning to be curious on how many of you who own or have owned or know shelties who have these problems:

1. Barking a lot especially at silly things
2. Chasing cars, lunging at cars
3. Jumping and spinning in circles when they are excited
4. Being hand shy
5. Slightly wary of strangers 

It'd be great to get feedback from you on this :)

Here's another thing we found out about as Eva grew older:

Even though mama Hana isn't here to teach her of her naughty ways, she is EXACTLY like mama Hana in ALL her naughty ways!

• She chases cars (when at home)
• Barks at our neighbours cats
• Chews on pebbles and rocks

Do mama dogs teach their daughters from heaven? 

They are starting to look so similar too!

Reactivity to cars - progress

I'm pleased to say that Eva's reactivity to cars has decreased tremendously. She doesn't lunge at them anymore while on walks! A huge improvement. Now she just walks on heel next to me, and only looks at the car. No more jumping, lunging, crazy sheltie.
I never thought I'd get a dog that lunges at cars. I honestly believed it was only in stories. Laura and Mika don't care about the cars - they don't even give them a second thought. Our little miss sheltie has taught us a lot of stuff we didn't know dogs were capable of doing!

We actually took a video of a school bus passing us but it was pretty bad quality and very shaky, but I can say that she did really well too :)
Now, we just have to keep getting her used to fast moving objects and hope that soon she'll find cars less interesting.
We actually found that getting her NOT to sit was easier because then we won't have to wait for the car to go past. If we keep walking, the tendency to lunge is less.
Guess we won't be needing a no-pull harness :)
She's also slowly getting desensitized (at least barking wise) to the oven and the broom.
Glad to say our little pup is doing very well!!!

Eva meets herself

Oh gee, I wonder who that is!

Monday news

First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for your helpful comments in our previous post!

Rosie said she'll try and get a no-pull harness for me from England if we can't find one here in Malaysia.

This week, the humans said they will try to get me used to all the sounds and movements I bark at -
the vacuum cleaner, lawnmower, oven, plastic bags, the broom, and cars :)
Like they're going to succeed!!!!!
I'll keep you posted on my progress :)

For now, here are some of my dress-up Eva pictures!

The humans had to get me to do a stay because I didn't like those things on my head!

The Big Baddie

Meanie Pirate

Cutie Pie

Me, the princess on my throne!