| Ramses' Medical Notes |
| To look at Ramses, nobody would ever guess the health problems he has had. He was a strong, vibrant, intelligent, happy German Shepherd. We had not a clue that anything was wrong until a couple of days after Christmas 2002; that morning, out of the blue, when we took him outside he could barely walk. We rushed him to our vet, who ran a series of tests on him and did x-rays. The results were a total shock to us all. . . severe hip displasia in both hips. Ramses was a very "stoic" dog when it comes to pain, as he never whimpered or lets on that anything is wrong. Even when at the veterinarian's office while being examined that day, he only made the slightest sound. I could tell by the way he held his ears and by the look in his eyes when he was uncomfortable. Before he could have surgery, he needed to be neutered, usually a very standard procedure. Well, Ramses had a severe reaction to the sutures, hemmoraged, and had to go back in for emergency surgery. (The name of this type of suture is Dexon, so you may want to request that those not be used if your dog ever has surgery.) Ramses came very close to dying then, but thanks to the skill and compassion of our vet, he came through just fine. |
| We took him to Perdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana for his total hip replacement surgery on his right hip in May 2003. They have the best in canine orthopedics and called me each day he was there to give me up-to-the-minute news on how my Ramses was doing. This caring bedside manner made it a whole lot easier on my family, since we were all a bundle of nerves the whole time. Below are pictures of his radiographs showing his hips before (on the right) and after surgery. His right hip is marked with an "R", and the little squiggles around it are the staples used to close the incision. The "replacement parts" show up pretty clearly, so you can see how deeply into the bone they are implanted. |
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| When he came home, he was on complete crate rest for six weeks, until he went back to Purdue for a follow-up exam. He also couldn't walk around, even to eat or use the bathroom outside, without us having to use a sling to help support his back half. Now he could physically stand and walk on his own, but the sling had to be used as a precaution, since even the slightest slip or stumble could have resulted in cracking the seal around the bone before it had a chance to heal, which would have meant even more surgery. After the follow-up exam, which he passed in flying colors, he still had more crate rest. He slowly had to have a bit of exercise each day, like 10 minutes a day to start with, until he finally built up to regular activity. I am really one who likes to be on the safe side, so it was a long time before we let him have free reign to run and play. The hardest part was that he really missed playing with his big buddies, especially Harlan. To see him run and frolic around later on, you would never believe that he had this surgery. There was absolutely no limp and he ran and jumped just like any other dog! We gave him glucosomine to help his joints. It had been just over a year since his surgery and everything was going great, then we came to the lastest chapter of this health problems. Ramses started having seizures and had to be rushed to the vet's office. They did a new battery of tests, which showed that all of his internal organs couldn't be healthier. He has epilepsy with cluster seizures, which means when he has one seizure, he will have a series of them on the same day. The seizures are very hard to watch, as it is frustrating for me not to be able to do anything to stop them; I hold Ramses' head and keep him from hurting himself, telling him that I am right there and that he will be fine. When the seizure is over, we wait and watch for the next one. He was on phenobarbitol, which really helped cut down on the frequency of seizures. Our Ramses passed away around 8 pm on October 17, 2009. He lived a good long life, and cheated death for most of his life. He suffers no more, but we miss him more than words can express. I'll always love you Lil Rams. |