Jaspers road to recovery

WTH??? Walked Jasper to the vet for a weigh in….. and he gained weight yet again…… could be muscle weight as his front leg is getting stronger but its discouraging when we are doing everything and he gets on the scale and to see he has gained weight. We go on walks twice a day, he is still on the metabolic diet and we measure his food to what he suppose to get, he is outside running around and he is not “sneaking” or getting extra food. The kids are not feeding him table scraps WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??? Before his accident he was a heafty 80+ pounds….. the vet wants him down to 65 -70 pounds… we got him down to 67 and today he is 72….

Jasper had a great day playing ball, rough housing with his lil brother Rosco (9 month border collie) and going for a walk.   I love getting down on the floor and cuddling with him.

Today on of my mom’s friend came to visit ME (not my mom but ME). She was so impressed with me.  Even though I don’t like my picture taken I let her take lots of pictures of me. She was so nice even thought I tried to play shy.  Miss Debi has Goldens at her house and she knows just how special we are, she kept saying I look like her “Brutus” he sure must be handsome if I look like him.

This is what she wrote on her facebook page. “I got to visit JASPER today. What an amazing dog!! He runs, plays with his ball, goes up and down stairs like he has four legs. Jasper is one happy dog.”  She forgot to say that I was handsome and intelligent, I will forgive her this one time :)….  Here are some of the pictures she took of me today…..

 

Jasper cheated on his diet……. Ok I allowed him to cheat on his diet.  He loves to clean the peanut butter jar.  I was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to hang on to the jar.  He use to hold it between his front arms so it would not roll away…. looks like he figured it out!!! I love him so much

 

Before I start I will say Jasper is doing amazing. As I write this he is chewing on his kitty’s head (dont ask because I have no idea why the cat allows him to do this and why he likes to do it).

 

 

I often wonder if Jasper ever misses his leg.  Or does he even understand why he is missing it?  Did I make the right choice or should I have taken him to see the specialist to see if we could save his leg?  Then there is always the “What if’s” and the “I should have’s” ……. Like I should have made sure our company shut the gate when they left, I should have made sure the gate was closed before we let Jasper out, and what if something worse happened to Jasper.  And what if I made the wrong decision for him.

AND THEN……………………….

I look at him and I see how happy he is, how he flies when he runs, how he can out run his little brother and get the ball 1st.  How he is still the same Jasper and I realize that I made the right decision for everyone.  He may be missing a leg but we still have him. We still have his kisses, we still have him dropping his ball on our lap and giving us the biggest doggy smile as in saying “lets go play ball”, we still have tons of Jasper fur every where, and we still have the best dog any family could have.   My daughter still has her  independence, her companion, her confidant, and best friend. The other kids in the house (I am also a foster parent) has someone to cuddle up to when they feel they have nothing in their lives, they have a friend, some one to go play catch with out in the yard, they learn that having a disability does not mean being out of the “game”. WE STILL HAVE JASPER AND HE STILL HAS US!!!

 

I MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE!!!  

 

 

 

When Jasper was about 8 weeks old my daughter who has had uncontrollable seizures since she was a newborn, had a really bad seizure while laying on the floor playing with him. Jasper started flipping out, barking like crazy, running in circles and whining. Over the next few weeks my daughter had many more seizures and Jasper did the same thing.  So I did a lot of research to find out why he was doing this. And then we brought him to one of Brittanys neurologist appointments and she just happened to have a seizure in the office. The doctor was amazed and helped us find a place to get him trained as a service dog. We all spent 6 weeks in Nevada with him while he was getting trained and they tweeked the way he alerts us. He now alerts to her seizures up to 15 minutes, usually about 10 minutes, before she has one.  He still flips out and barks like crazy but now he comes and gets one of us and runs back to her and sits with her until the seizure is over and she is coherent. If they are outside on the leash he stays with her until she is coherent.  But he lets her know that she needs to find some where safe to sit down or to tell whom ever she is with that she is about to have a seizure.  Due to her other medical issues (High Functioning Autism) she is not outside alone she always has a caregiver with her.  Before Jasper came into our lives Brittany slept in my room on a twin bed, so that I would hear her if she was to have a seizure. He has given her some Independence and me a normal life of having my own room. ….  Jasper is far more than just a dog… he is my daughters best friend, he is her lifeline to normalcy, he is my fur kid. He is loved so much.

 

BUT WHAT WAS OUR HAPPY “NORMAL” LIFE CAME TO SKETCHING HALT  

On Monday morning Feb 9,2015 Jasper was hit by a car. We had unexpected company late the night before and when they left, they left our gate wide open even though there were signs posted to please close and latch the gate. So Monday morning when Jasper was let out to go potty, he found the open gate and decided to go exploring. He made it up to the highway was hit.  We found him 15 minutes from the time he was let out. So he was only out for a short time. We rushed him to our vet and on inspection and xrays found nothing broken, alot of road rash, and a laceration to his front right leg that required 5 stitches. BUT he would not bear any weight on the R front leg. The vet told us to take him home and love on him and maybe he will start using his leg… We brought him back on Wednesday for a check up and the vet did some testing and Jasper had no feeling from his shoulder down.  We were given options to take him to specialized vet for more testing or we can move forward with amputation. In my gut I knew he was going to lose the leg one way or another and why should we prolong his recovery any longer so I made the VERY hard decision to have his leg amputated. On Friday Feb 13, 2015 Jasper had his R leg amputated.  When the vet called to let me know how the surgery went she said we made the right move with amputation that there was major artery damage, the muscle was completely severed and there was major nerve damage.

 

We are now 7 weeks post op and Jasper is doing amazing.  He is the same Jasper as before, he doesn’t seem to mind that he is missing his leg, nor does it slow him down.  He loves to play ball, he rough houses with his lil brother Rosco (a 8 month border collie), thinks go bye bye in the car is the best thing in the world. And of course he still gives wet slobbery kisses but we don’t mind them…much!  He is back to alerting when his kid has seizures and continues to sleep in her room with her.

Before Jasper’s accident he was a hearty 80+ pounds (the vet did say his weight is probably what saved him) and after his amputation the vet wanted him to be between 65-70 pounds preferably closer to 65 pounds… After 6 weeks of being on his diet (7 weeks post op) Jasper went in to be weighed today ….. he is 67 pounds