They did the surgery yesterday, the vet said it was a clean tear, and "fresh"... apparently they don't tend to see these injuries this fresh because most people let their injured dogs walk around limping for weeks on end. The doctor did say that Katie's other knee has a fair amount of slop in it too, so they're already bracing us for the likelihood of going through this again in a couple of months on the other knee. The good news is that during the initial exam the vet thought Katie's hips were bad, but after anesthesia and x-rays, she said the hips look okay. basically just age-relative degeneration in all the joints, and the Lyme disease probably doesn't help with that.
We went through this about 12-13 years ago with one of our Boston terriers, and at that time it was an 800 dollar procedure. Needless to say this is basically breaking the bank in an unexpected way, so I've actually gone to our friendly credit union so that we can still pay our regular bills. Going through this again on the other knee? not sure that makes economic sense, but what the heck can you do otherwise . . . let the dog limp around for the next five years? oh well. it's only money.
Prognosis is actually pretty good that she'll hunt again, and this year--no reason not to expect a total and full recovery. As PW said, good thing it happened this time of the year, since I'll be spending all summer rehabbing her: leashed walks, eventually swimming, etc. I'm just hoping the other knee doesn't blow out the night before grouse season.
Other than that, she's at the vet's for two nights, so we'll pick her up Thursday.
that's about that. I do really appreciate everyone asking about her. Other than the money part of it, I feel okay about it. We got her in quickly, she didn't tear it and re-tear it by running on it for a long time, so I'm hopeful we'll be back in business come August or so. we'll see. Keeping our fingers crossed.
The pics are from a pretty decent web site at http://www.thepetcenter.com/sur/ACL.html.
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hey, it's always good to do your homework after the fact! the surgeon who did Katie's knee was up until recently the head of vet services for the army in D.C.--and elsewhere on their website they tout her as "President Clinton's veterinarian"... don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. here's the info:
http://www.colonialvet.com/doctors.php
read the last entry for Dr. Yanoff.
"so we got THAT goin' for us."
Thursday update--just got off the phone with the vet's office, and they've decided to keep Katie an additional night. She's apparently having problems negotiating the vinyl floors on three legs, so they want to give her one more night there with the physical therapist etc. monitoring her activity. so that's that. we'll call in the morning to see if she can go home Friday.
Friday update: Kate is cleared for release today, and I'll be picking her up at 4 pm. that's about that.
Sunday update:
She got home Friday night, and it's been slow going ever since. she seems to be in a lot of pain and so is on the doggie equivalent of hydrocodone. We've got nice weather here right now and my daughter's ninth birthday party, so I'm actually on the way down to Ithaca to pick up an ex-pen for Katie so that she can lay out in the sun. Be back later.
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