I took Betty Boop to the vet this morning because she has been having mucousy poop. They did a CBC which was all normal. Her poop was free of worms. He gave us Biosol-M.
Last night, we were playing fetch. I threw the ball down the hallway and she has to round corners to get the ball. We have done this a million times before. She didn't come back very quickly the last time and when she did, she just stood there with her back right leg up, putting no pressure on it. Right then, I said "OH NO"! I knew what was going on because I have read so much on this forum about it. She got better within 15 minutes. I was hoping that she would never have this problem.
I told the vet about this and he felt of the knee and said it was loose. He graded it a 1. He said the knee pops back into place fast. He told me to keep an eye on it. He said he would like to do surgery if it goes to a 2 (where the knee doesn't slip back into place very fast). He said he wants to catch it before surgery would have to be done on the bone.
He showed me a dog leg and what LP actually looks like in its stages. At Stage 2, surgery would involve making the "indention" a little deeper (I call it the knee cup) where the knee lays inside and holds it in place. Then he cuts a small strand of ligament and places it on a side of the knee and it would give it extra support and hold it in place. He said it is major surgery, but would not be as extensive as waiting until later and operating on bones and using pins. Also said, recovery time would be less than 2 weeks and she would be wanting to be up and around before then. He said if I waited until a later stage, it would require pins and if those pins didn't stay in properly, the knee would be in bad shape again. The vet said he has done this many many times without incident and has had good success.
The cost of Stage 2 surgery is $350.
Is this post confusing? I tried to explain it as simple as I could. Does anyone have an opinion on this?