Hey thanks guys...sorry I didn't come back to update. It has been a wild week.
DeDe is the little one that I was so worried about getting spayed because she almost died as a pup and has had a rough start. She was my sister's pup from the breeding of her only female, who should've only been a pet and spayed at 6 months. DeDe was the product of an irresponsible breeding and I took her from my sister and raised her. After I almost lost her at 8 weeks we got extra close and she just never left me.
Around the time of her spay (I posted a thread because I was worried sick about her going under) the vet was doing bloodwork and noticed her left knee felt funny. He couldn't feel it pop in and out, but the kneecap seemed out of place. Well...long story short her kneecap WAS out of place, completely turned on the inside of her leg...and her patella was permanently "stuck" outside the groove. He's not sure if this was a birth defect from the womb or genetic...or both...but either way it was bad and we knew it needed to be fixed. My vet consulted with his orthopedic surgeon friend and I had to wait for an opening in the schedule for surgery since he was so backed up from the holidays.
Wednesday was little DeDe's day and she had it done. Her knee was so bad (even at 8 1/2 months old and only 3 lbs) that he had to perform a tibial head transposition, along with the wedge trochleoplasy and the joint imbrication. He basically had to reform the knee entirely. His first attempt at simply deepening the groove resulted in the patella popping right back out immediatley because it was already formed "stuck" out...so he had to result to the other measures and actually put a wire and pin in her leg to hold the knee in place while it heals.
After the surgery she seemed to do fairly well but she kept vomiting her meds up...I ended up not giving her another dose and taking her in first thing the next morning. The vet did another full blood work up on her to make sure she was not in kidney failure or something terrible like that...everything was fine and he was able to extend her leg without pain...so he sent me back home after giving her a shot of her antibiotics, a shot of nausea meds, pepcid, and iv fluids in case she was a little dehydrated from the vomiting...and some A/D recovery diet.
I was supposed to start her meds again the next day (Friday), but when I gave them to her that morning she immediately vomited them back up again, even though she seemed to be in better spirits. SO back to the vet again and this time he switched her antibiotics to Baytril. She did have a little bit of vomit that evening after eating her A/D a bit too quickly, but it wasn't bad. Finally today she has been fine and no vomiting...eating well and actually getting up and fighting me to play (haha)...being typical DeDe. So thank God we are finally on the right track to recovery. She also put a little pressure on the leg today and walked a few steps, which is good. I am still doing warm compresses and today I started her first step of physical therapy (just extending the leg a little). Friday she goes back to get her sutures removed and he is going to teach me how to do all the physical therapy. It was not fun trying to get her not to chew on her outside stitches...I have an E-collar for her but I hated to use it because she was so uncomfortable when she tried to sleep. So I've been staying up with her every night sleeping in the chair in the living room with her in my lap. I sleep with one hand on her so I know when she moves, haha.
We have had a rough few days but things are looking up now. Maybe we can both get some much needed sleep tonight...I'm hoping at least. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.
