potential new lease on life...

i have been pretty sleep-deprived lately due to what i fondly refer to as 'the patty situation'. patty has had a couple of surgical procedures on her foot lately and consequently, we haven't been able to exercise her and she has to wear an elizabethan-collar (e-collar) on all of the time (which means at night when she decides that she wants to go to the bathroom at 4am, the cone gets jammed into anything in her way - and let me tell you, this is loud). i know that i shouldn't make any comparisons here, but i feel like i have a new appreciation for new mothers and fathers.

so let's have a little photo-montage of 'the patty situation'.

here she is, all healthy not long before 'the accident':


doesn't she look great?

here she is again, keeping busy on her nasty rug (note the back foot you can see is the one that has been affected by nerve damage):


then what happens? she decided to chew one of her toenails off on her lame leg. i don't have any pictures of that. take my word for it, you don't want to see it.

turns out she chewed so much that the bone was exposed on her foot. they tried to save her toe by sewing up the skin around it. here she is recuperating after that procedure:


her sutures didn't hold and back to the vet we went. we scheduled an appointment for toe amputation. on the day of surgery, patty was a real trooper. here she is after that surgery, all groggy looking:


it's been over a week since her toe amputation and the vet has been hinting at what the future might bring for us... leg amputation. it's kind of a bummer, but we think it is likely patty's best option. we don't know if she was chewing on her leg due to the weird sensation that she might be experiencing there due to nerve damage or if she was bored or what. whatever the reason, it's not good for her. we were worried about being able to exercise her just a week before this all happened since she started dropping her foot completely while walking, causing it to drag on the ground.

although it sounds pretty grim, leg amputation might be her new lease on life. if this can allow her to walk without dragging her foot and could potentially eliminate the weird sensations she might have been having in her foot, than it would be good for her quality of life. we're going to talk to the vet about the specifics on friday... well, i won't be there (i have a dissertation proposal to defend!), but steve will be.