Friday February 22, 2008 Is it my lot in life to have dogs that need some medical intervention?
When we brought Rosalynn home almost two years ago, I decided that I would put her into agility training since I didn't get around to it for our other pup, Lycos.
Back in mid Jan, we were at her agility lesson when she came off the A-Frame obstacle and started limping. I brought her home and decided then that if she was still limping the next day, I'd be taking her to the vet.
That was our first vet appointment....they couldn't pinpoint where the injury was so they sent us home with anti-inflammatories and recommended that I bring her back three days later if she still was limping.
On to the second vet appointment...this time they were able to localize it to her right front elbow, which is never an easy injury to treat in dogs. Sent home this time with crate confinement orders for the next 10 days. Now, if she was a really lazy dog, that probably wouldn't be an issue but we are dealing with a very young border collie pup who is rambunctious and always full of energy. I'm sure that this was driving her nuts!!
At the end of Jan, we went on vacation to Las Vegas (our yearly trip!) and when we came back, she was still limping, even after the crate confinement. I made yet another vet appointment. This time, the vet wanted to have X-Rays done which we did. He found a bone chip in the elbow and what looked to be the beginning of arthritis in a 2 year old dog. He decided that it would be best to send them out to a radiologist for a complete review and then we'd see what we were dealing with. Back home, this time with 3X a day painkillers and more crate confinement.
The radiologist reviewed her X-Rays and determined that my girl had torn the tendon away from her elbow joint which led to the bone chip we saw in them. The two vets then decided we needed to have a surgical consult to see what our options were.
We had the surgical consult today and she's going to have to stay on crate confinement for quite a while. Our best option is elbow surgery to stabilize the elbow joint which should slow down the traumatic arthritis (inflammation) that is already showing in that joint after only one month. If we leave it, she will continue to limp, the arthritis will get only get worse faster to the point where she may go completely lame in that front paw and not ever put any weight on it. And the third option I don't even want to think about....
So now, not even two months after our other dog had surgery for cancer, we will get her in sometime next week for the surgery (it costs a pretty $$). After that, it will be complete crate confinement for 6-8 weeks. She won't even be able to sleep on her bed at night upstairs outside of the crate and I will have to walk up her up the stairs and outside for her potty breaks because all it needs is one wrong movement or jump or something to derail what the surgery was done to correct. Even with the surgery, that elbow won't be 100% perfect and it won't be the same as the left elbow but it will help in terms of the rest of her life with regards to slowing down the degeneration in that elbow and with pain management etc. Needless to say, agility is definitely out of her future now, she's going to have to be retired now.
Please keep my girl in your prayers....
( Feb 22 2008, 03:58:43 PM PST ) Permalink