Carmie Yellow Labrador Retriever Female 3 Years Old ID #3160

April 14, 2023

Carmie’s rehab is going very well. She had her 6 week check and x-rays toward the end of March and the vet said everything looks great. She is allowed to take longer walks now and do stairs. She still isn’t allowed to rough house with her canine siblings but she really wants to! Carmie walks about 3 miles a day. She has a longer morning walk and another walk in the late afternoon or evening. She is doing well on the harness and enjoys meeting neighbors and smelling all the smells. She continues to do very well in the house. Over Easter, we were able to observe her around some young children and she was great (as we expected) – gentle and sweet. She is scheduled for her final ortho vet visit the first week in May.

March 10, 2023

Carmie continues to improve in her rehab from her second TPLO surgery. The vet is pleased with the way things are healing and Carmie is now allowed to do short walks of increasing length. She has the energy to go further than we allow her to, but we are building her strength up slowly. We have been working on her leash walking skills and she is improving quickly (except when she sees another dog, cat, squirrel or bird!) She will have x-rays at her next appointment and hopefully be allowed to walk a little further.

Carmie is still happiest hanging out with us or her best buddies.

February 19, 2023

Carmie has really been progressing well with her rehab for her first TPLO. As of the beginning of February, her walks have increased in length with no issues and she is ready to go even further. She had her 6 weeks check up with the surgeon last week. She was very pleased and said everything is healing properly. Carmie is using her repaired leg well enough that the surgeon was able to perform Carmie’s second TPLO surgery last Thursday.

The surgery went well and Carmie came home the following day as scheduled. She has been a little more energetic and not quite as cooperative with the icing and PT this time. She wants to play with the resident dog and go for walks. Of course, she cannot do either of those things. Poor girl! We are now using trazodone periodically to settle her down so she can rest and recuperate.

While Carmie was in for surgery, the vet found a small mass that concerned her. She did an aspiration of the mass while Carmie was under anesthesia and the cytology came back as a cyst, possibly infected. We are keeping an eye on it but have not noticed any changes. The vet will recheck at her next appointment in 2 weeks.

Snuggling with foster dad.

Carmie still does great in her crate overnight, but prefers her mat. She is super affectionate and sweet. Her final checkup for the second TPLO is scheduled for the beginning of May.

All dressed up for the Super Bowl.

January 9, 2023

Miss Carmie had her 2-week post-surgery check up at the end of last week. The vet is pleased with her progress. Her incision has healed well and her range of motion is very good with no signs of pain. She is allowed to start taking short walks (5 min/3 times per day) and build up to 10-12 minutes a few times per day over the next month. She also has some other activities she can add in, such as, walking on mild slopes, figure eights/circles, and walking backwards. And… best news of all…she can stop wearing the dreaded cone/inflatable collar!

Carmie is super excited to be able to go on walks and her gait looks basically normal. She is now off of the pain meds unless needed. She continues to sleep downstairs in her crate because she is not allowed to do stairs. She sleeps quietly all night. Eating is her favorite activity with snuggling a close second – she is most certainly a lab!

Her next appointment is at the beginning of February and she will get x-rays at that time. Depending on her progress, Carmie will be ready for her next TPLO surgery at that time.

December 29, 2022

Carmie is fully recovered from her spay. She had her staples out and x-rays of her hips/knees taken on December 1st. The results of those x-rays showed arthritis in both knees, a torn CCL in one knee, and possible torn CCL in the other knee. These were clearly old injuries that she had suffered while on the farm. Her hips look fine.

Best friends! Nap time for Carmie and Tucker 😊 Probably after an exhausting game of bitey face.

Hanging outside on a beautiful day.

Our vet suggested meeting with an Ortho for a consult to see if Carmie was a candidate for surgery. We were able to get an appointment for Dec 15th. We had a nice long meeting with the surgeon. She really took her time explaining things to us and looking at Carmie and her x-rays. Because Carmie is so young, the vet feels that she would benefit from a repair in both knees. The surgeries would be staggered, meaning she would have her second knee done when she is partially recovered from her first surgery (approx. 4-6 weeks). Once she is able to put her full weight on the repaired knee, the second can be done. Since the recovery time is 3+ months for one knee, we can overlap her recovery and hopefully have her back to “normal” in less time than if we waited until she was completely recovered from the first knee before we did second. This was the same surgeon who repaired our former foster Rubble’s CCL so we were very comfortable with her, the procedure, and her recommendations.

Carmie at the vet after surgery.

We were able to get in the OR schedule the week after our consult. This was good news/bad news – the surgery was right before Christmas (yikes!) but I have off the entire week between Christmas and New Year to care for her. So, Carmie had her TPLO surgery to repair her left CCL on 12/22. The surgery went well and Carmie did great. She stayed overnight as is common practice and came home on 12/23. She had a good weekend and was even able to open her Christmas presents!

Her incision looks great. We do PT exercises with her leg/knee 3 times a day and ice afterwards. The hardest part is keeping her at rest. I am not sure who is taking this extended timeout from playing harder – Carmie or resident dog, Tucker. We will continue to update you on Carmie’s progress. Her first follow up appointment is 2 weeks post-surgery.

Lucky keeping Carmie company.

November 29, 2022

Carmie has spent much of the last 2 weeks recovering from her spay and complications. The weekend after her spay, we noticed that her incision was not looking good so we took her to the ER thinking it was possibly becoming infected. Carmie ended up needing emergency surgery for bleeding and had to stay the night for observation. It was very scary but the ER vet and the nurses who monitored her overnight took great care of her. The staff said she was a good patient through it all.

Carmie has been spending her days resting which is actually going better than we thought it might. She does want to play with the resident dog but they are easily redirected. She has an appointment to get her staples out later this week. Since her recovery was extended due to the complications, we decided to delay her hip/knee x-rays – we will reschedule when the vet sees her for follow up.

Carmie is still doing a great job sleeping through the night in her crate. She naps in the crate with her door open sometimes or on her favorite mat, but her favorite place to sleep is snuggled up beside one of us. She is sweet as can be and so patient with the cone and us checking her incision. She is definitely feeling better every day 😊

Hopefully her restrictions will be lifted at the end of the week and we can start getting back to normal.

November 10, 2022

Carmie is an absolute doll! She is smart, playful and loving. She has been super easy to transition from the farm to our home.

We have really been working on her leash manners and she is definitely improving. She doesn’t pull too much; she just walks under your feet sometimes. She now eats her dinner without an audience – we had been sitting with her while she ate, but that is no longer necessary. She eats in the laundry room and the other dogs eat in their usual spots in the kitchen. I keep them separated for meals – she doesn’t seem to have any resource guarding issues but our younger pup can be funny sometimes.

Carmie likes to be with us when we are home, but she is starting to stay on her mat more and more instead of following us everywhere. (I even went to the bathroom by myself today!) She is asleep on her mat in the living room as I type in the kitchen, but I know she is there because I can hear her snoring… and she snores quite loudly!

Carmie is also starting to explore the yard more and more on her own and doesn’t mind if the other dogs are with her or not. She sleeps through the night in her crate without making a sound and spends 2-4 hours a day there depending on our work schedules. She goes right in when we say “crate up”. 😊

Carmie loves to play with us and the other dogs. The dogs get along very well together and she seems to enjoy their company.

She is very attached to my husband and son and enjoys a good snuggle with them in the evening when she gets tired.

Here she is waiting patiently for dinner with her best buddies Lucky and Tucker.

Carmie is scheduled for her spay 11/16 and follow-up x-rays on her knees/hips on 11/23. I will update after Carmie’s surgery next week.

November 1, 2022

Carmie grows more confident and comfortable in her new life every day. She met several more family members over the weekend and did very well with a house full of cheering football fans. She seems to love everyone and can’t get enough attention. She loves nothing more than to be with you. She plays well with our young pup and tries to engage the older pup, but he isn’t interested.

Carmie went to the vet today. She was a perfect patient. She weighed in at 90 pounds, so we will be trying to slim this girl down 5-8 pounds. The vet noticed issues with her knees, possibly from an old injury. She would like her started on Dasuquin right away and wants to x-ray her knees and hips. Carmie gets around fine as far as we can tell and enjoys fetching, but not for a long period of time. We have observed her sitting and standing slowly and awkwardly and her previous owner said she may have had hip issues over the winter. I will update when we have more information.

We got a little bit of a surprise this morning when we realized that Carmie is in heat. She isn’t thrilled about her fancy pants but tolerates them. I ordered her a larger size (in 3 pretty colors!) so maybe she will be a little more comfortable in them. Her spay is scheduled for mid-November, so we will keep an eye on things and hope to be able to keep that appointment.

Overall, she is just a big love. I can’t say enough about her sweet personality.

October 29, 2022

Carmie continues to do well and is settling into our routine nicely. As you can see from the pictures she has claimed her favorite mat (unless we are sitting on floor, then she prefers our lap!) She will still get mouthy when she is in the mood to play, but is gentle and listens to a firm “uh-uh”. Carmie has mastered our carpeted stairs and is now comfortable on our hardwood floors. She seemed unsure of both at first, but quickly followed us and the other dogs and is now fine. She has also started exploring the backyard on her own instead of needing us close by.

She met Grandma and our neighbors and was super friendly and didn’t jump. She is very interested in the other dogs we pass on walks, but we have not introduced her to any yet. Her leash manners need some work – she doesn’t pull too much, but walks back and forth in front of us or into us. We will work on that!

October 28, 2022

Meet Carmel Cream (Carmie)! This former breeder came into our care Thursday.

Carmie did a great job helping foster dad navigate on her car ride back to our house. We even stopped for a bath on the way home at the local pet store. She was a little nervous but cooperative.

Her introductions to resident dog Tucker and permanent foster Lucky went well. She was more interested in my husband and I than the dogs, but did initiate play with Tucker a few times when we were near. Both Carmie and Tucker are 3-year-old and active – they are wrestling under my feet as I type this. 😊

Carmie ate her dinner and breakfast just fine. She knows her name and “sit”. She slept through the night in her crate after about 15 minutes of restlessness. Carmie was also very good about letting foster dad give her a mani/pedi last night.

Stay tuned as Carmie settles in!