Gracie is an 8-year-old shepherd/retriever/chow mix. About 65 pounds. On Thanksgiving 2017, she was racing around the yard in a zoomie mood, full of joy. Then all of a sudden “YIPE!” and she could not walk on her right hind leg. This is a very important piece of the decision making puzzle: Gracie is extremely…
Tag: medications
TPLO Surgery Story – Bennett
Late November 2016 My family and I (all 8 of us: 3 kids, 3 dogs, my husband, and I) were enjoying a movie in bed one Friday evening when all of a sudden we noticed our 6-month-old yellow Lab, Bennett, limping on his hind leg. We assumed his leg had fallen asleep so I took…
Conservative Management with Lupus – Kaylie
My 9-year-old 64 lb Kaylie became critically ill in June 2015 and was diagnosed with canine systemic lupus (which acts very much like human lupus) but luckily I found a wonderful internal medicine vet who is very knowledgable in this area. Through immunosuppressive drugs–Prednisone and Imuran among them–she has been in remission since mid-summer 2015,…
Debridement Surgery – Shadow
My Australian Shepherd, Shadow, is 7 years old now. He has always been a very active dog, so needless to say, the last four months have been crazy. On October 13, Shadow was hit by a car; luckily the guy was barely moving 5 mph or this would’ve been way worse. Shadow’s right front leg…
TTA Surgery – Simba
Simba got his surgery done at a vet that specializes in knee surgery so we decided to do his TTA surgery there. Simba stayed over night at the hospital and came home with us yesterday. He is not eating his food (Simba is on a raw food diet) but ate a small amount of tuna with…
Panzer – Lateral Meniscus Tear
Panzer completely ruptured his ACL in his left leg in Sept 2014. Panzer is a 5-year-old Doberman who weighs around 105 lbs. He’s lean and loves to run the fence line and turn on a dime…thus the ACL tear. His surgery was a success! He gained back all of the muscle in his left leg…
Right Knee TPLO – Betty
Four weeks ago my 6-year-old Greater Swiss Mountain Betty, who is very active and very healthy, tore her cruciate ligament and began limping. We love our dog very much and of course took her to a vet who did x-rays and an exam and recommended a surgical hospital that had board certified surgeons who taught…
Angus – Bilateral TPLO (or not?)
Well here it goes. Our 8-year-old black lab mix, Angus, has always been a very high energy athletic dog. A few months ago, he turned up lame on the right side, not putting his foot down, etc. We didn’t witness the event that caused this, but it was likely running through the yard doing his…
Torn CCL and Meniscus Repair – Neo
About 1 month ago, my 8 year old Border Collie completely tore his CCL and Meniscus to his right rear leg. Neo already had 1 big strike against him. He had broken his left leg when he was a puppy and developed terrible arthritis in that leg. We had a stem cell transplant in 2010…
Conservative Management for a Dog with Pre-Existing Conditions – Sadie
Sadie is my daytime companion. My husband is Sadie’s favorite person at night when he gets home. Two weeks ago today we took Sadie to see the vet. Our dog was limping she somehow bad hurt herself Friday while turning around in the house. Sadie has some pre-existing conditions epilepsy and hypothyroidism. So the vet…