Mojo in one of her fashionable t-shirts - we call it her "First Day of School" shirt.

Some of you may have noticed in the latest pictures of Mojo (especially the Snowjo pictures) that Mojo’s stump was getting swollen and red at the end. For about a month we had been draining large amounts of viscous, blood tinged fluid from it and started working her up to see what was going on in there! Infection – no. Inflammation – yes. Essentially Mojo had developed a hygroma at the end of her stump. Hygromas are swellings that normally occur at the point of the elbow where large dogs will put a lot of impact on them when lying down with a thump. A swelling develops to cushion the point and it becomes a problem. Mojo’s “hygroma” came at the tip of her humerus where her break and amputation occurred because she was using it so much – dragging herself across the floor with it, trapping DeeDee between her front legs and propping herself up from a lying down position with it. After much research and really wanting her to keep the stump (perhaps even for future prosthetics) we decided the best thing to do was amputation.

Mojo and Indy playing the day of surgery - see the swollen stump?

We scheduled Dr. Van Gundy to come into our clinic to perform the surgery. And as I was getting ready (mentally preparing myself for the procedure) we received a call from Stacie, Dr. Van Gundy’s technician that they could come early, the next day if that worked for us. Well, of course that was better for Mojo and with tears in my eyes I said sure. I am not one who likes to be surprised like that. I need to prepare to keep myself in Vet mode and hold my Mom mode down. The surprise put me directly into Mom mode and I was frankly worried about her…just like all of you are when one of your pets need surgery.

Mojo at home after her surgery - she still has on her boo boo bandage from her catheter

The big day came and Mojo did great. We arranged a play date with Indy that morning before surgery. Their last one for 2 weeks while Mojo was healing. They had a great time as always. Mojo woke up from her surgery vocally. I had forgotten from the times we had sedated her that Mojo did not do well with narcotics – she gets super whiny which is a side effect in some dogs. But she was completely pain free thanks to the infusion drain Dr. Van Gundy placed where we infused lidocaine directly into the wound. You could pat over the entire area with no reaction. Michael stayed home with her the next day and she did really well.

In order to protect the incision Michael went to Goodwill and bought a variety of t-shirts and she looked great in each one. She had some minor complications post surgical – mainly building up fluid at the incision site (she’s really good at that) and being itchy where her hair was shaved. We pulled the drain 6 days after surgery and the fluid is almost entirely absorbed. She does get some sharp pains occasionally which I’m not sure where they are arising from but my best guess is from the large nerves that were cut to remove what was left of her leg. She’s been maintained on pain medication (avoiding the narcotics) and is healing well. At the end of the week she’ll be able to have play dates again and go for longer walks and runs! Maybe even a snowshoe next weekend!

Close ups of Mojo's fun after	surgery tees

I wanted to thank all of you who sent your best wishes from Mojo’s recovery. You guys have been so great following her saga and we love her so much. Next update – physical therapy on 3 legs.