What kind of pen

[Ksullivan]

It looks like Sully is going to be having ligament surgery soon. Our home is not that large, so we have not been crating him right now. What kind of pen do you use to keep them less mobile? Sully is a large boy, very long, but only weighs 148 pounds. I am so dreading this. He has a skin issue we have been trying to clear up before surgery, and I am leaving for Florida in a few weeks with my daughter to visit my Dad, and was hoping to wait till I returned for surgery to help Mike with him, but he is limping more, I have a call into Purdue to see when they can see him again.
Thanks for any info.

 

[YorkvilleNewfie]

We have a small house too (2-story, less than 1800 SF total) and I contained Mila in a 48x33x30 inch crate during her recovery from her TPLO. I just had to rearrange our living room to make room for it. Mila was 30 inches tall and about 130 pounds at the time and she did fine in that size crate, though her head did hit the roof of the crate. I know that there's one more size up in crates, but it would have NEVER fit in my house. Waaaay too big.

 

[Carlina]

I used a large x-pen in my living room with her orthopedic bed inside. She is not a very active dog and rested comfortably in it. I had a ramp on my front steps and one on my back steps to get her out. My friend also lent me an ex-pen for my deck so I could sit outside when she was able to go. They worked very well for my girl as I was recovering her for two summers.

 

[AngusMcDubhsMom]

We too have a very small house, open floor plan with no room for a crate, so when we needed to contain a Newf I stretched out the x-pen sides to basically enclose the kitchen area and put their bed in there. That way they could still see us but couldn't go far. We also put a baby gate across the exit off the deck so they could go from the kitchen to the deck, but not down the stair.

 

[Murphy]

I improvised and set up an enclosure just outside the door. Inside I just blocked off the living room which is very small anyway with 2 baby gates. He is afraid of them so I didn't need to worry about him trying to get out. Laid down foam covered by quilts. Plus he is very laid back anyway. :kgo_027: Keep us posted and good luck..

 

[NewfieMama]

Jen that's a great setup.

When Zuzu had her OCD surgery I used her puppy crate (same size as Mila's). I can't imagine her using it now - I'd probably do something like Jen's and confine her to a small padded room (!) or else an X pen if she's really not supposed to move around at all.

 

[Ksullivan]

Still waiting to hear from Purdue Vet. I just hate to see him hurting. He is on Rimadyl twice a day, but it doesn't seem to be much help, or maybe he would be worse if he wasn't taking it.
Sully has always just dropped when he lays down, I have always thought that could not be good on his joints, so I am going to look at an orthopedic bed this week also, I am sure his dropping will not be good for the surgery.
I love the most recent vet I have seen at Purdue, she is from out east, and has had Newfies all her life, her parents just got a new puppy that she showed me on her telephone. She seems very caring.

 

[NewfieMama]

Me again! Zuzu drops like that too, always has. We did a couple of things recently that seem to have helped (she does not need TPLO and if she needed the surgery, we'd do it without hesitation...she's sore and swollen but not torn enough to benefit from surgical repair).

- ortho bed - we got one orthopedic bed (XL) from LLBean. We also got an eggcrate shape, full size, 4" thick memory foam mattress topper from Overstock.com (about $80, free shipping) and an extra LLBean XL cover. Fits perfectly folded in half. So now each dog has an ortho bed and neither seems to have a preference.
- Adequan injections - she got one/week for 4 weeks and now is on 1/month.
- Trixsyn supplement - it is supposed to lubricate joints. She gets this in addition to her Cosequin DS.
- Switched from Rimadyl to Metacam - Metacam seems safer, fewer side effects, is once/day and she seems to do really well on it. She was on Rimadyl twice/day and I could see it "wearing off" before her next dose.
- Acupuncture/Chiropractic - it may seem silly to some but thousands of years of Chinese medicine can't be all wrong can it? Plus I'm a believer in Chiropractic as I've had it myself and it made a huge difference for me. Again, once/week for 4 weeks now we're going every 2 weeks with a goal of being at once/month by April. She is significantly more solid, structurally speaking, than she was when we started, and her adjustments are holding better from one appointment to the next.

Good luck with everything, I know how heartbreaking it is to see them suffer. I hope the surgery will fix everything - but if he doesn't need it please know there are other therapies that can help him get better!

Mary

 

[Ksullivan]

We got Sully back into Purdue this morning, his skin is 100% better, so the soonest they could get him into ortho was Feb. 29. They will see him that day, and the plan is to keep him and operate the next day.
Today while in Lafayette (our small town does not have a pet store) we got an XX Large pen at Petco, and an ortopedic bed. He is not laying on the bed. Tomorrow my cleaning lady comes, so I am putting the pen up after that, and putting the ortho bed in it. I had to have the Dr. talk to Mike about it being the best for Sully to keep him in the pen. Mike just doesn't want to cage him (that is his baby). She uped his pain meds also.
Wish we could get in sooner, but they are so busy. Of course people come from everywhere to be seen there.
Thanks for all your information, especially NewfieMom!!

 

[R Taft]

We also have a very small cottage, just us and the dogs.........

With us the dining table and chairs moved out and Katy's pen has taken up that space. She hates beds and it being Summer here, she is just on slate with a very large fan blowing on her. Mike made a 6'x6' pen out of sheep panel. She is not a happy girl

I do physio twice a day and she does swimming once a day. She is driven over to her swimming exercise like a lady.......I am working hard at her not loosing muscle tone. She seems to be limping less, just hoping. We are not doing the draw test, because we are not 100% sure that it might not cause further injury. my vet seems very on top of things and is happy to pass us on to Melburne if ned be. It is hightly possible Katy will be desexed in the next two weeks and we will take that opportunity to do everything that needs to be done for full ortho check-up