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Originally Posted by nina marquis  MY 5# 5 year old hurt herself jumping for her favorite ball. The vet wants surgery but also said that anesthesia could kill her. Does ANYONE have any ADVICE? I'm desperate. |
You really need to understand why, and I am assuming here it is a general vet and not an ortho specialist said your gal could die under surgery. That is such a serious statement that unless there was a competing life threatening condition which a torn ligament is not; even if worse came to worse with a torn ligament and she lost the use of a leg - she would quite frankly still be alive! Many dogs live quite happily on three legs.
And for the record surgery any surgery carries a usually very very small risk of complications which usually hugely outweighs the health benefits of having that surgery.
You need to see a specialist and if you have a teaching hospital relatively close I would get the referral there to an ortho and once appt booked I would call up that general vet and ask her/him just what they meant by kill her? Why would they say that?
For example when my gal had an aggressive fast moving cancer and we saw the oncologist she was very very clear about her condition - but she also said we better hope that she does not require surgery as she is so weak that she would not survive a surgery. So you see there should have been at least one good reason offered. The specialist was correct in my opinion.
Let me know if I can help further.