Well wishes for Sophie please...
 

So after the last fiasco with her belly issues and that all settling down I said I didn't want to go to the vet until her annual check up in October...well she has other plans tonight.

Back story...she has surgery on both on her knees for luxating patella September 30, 2013 and her recovery has taken a little longer than planned but she has been doing well.

She was just out back with my dad's dogs and started running to bark at the neighbours' dog. I saw her stumble a little and went to pick her up and bring her back to me because she can be a little butthead with recall. I put her on the ground and she refused to put her back leg down. It has now been an hour and she still hasn't put it back down and seems in pain if I stretch it out.

A quick google search confirmed a few possibilities that I was already concerned about and now I am petrified.

My husband is blaming me because I let her outside...but honestly I didn't do anything we wouldn't normally do. I had been out all day and she was in her ex-pen for 8 hours so I brought her outside with me and within 5 minutes this all happened. I already feel guilty and wish I had left her in her pen but what kind of life would it be for her if I never let her out of that thing? We have no reason to keep her locked up or restricted activity so I hate that my husband is blaming me for it.

I already have an appointment set up with our vet at 7pm tonight (thankfully our vet has amazing hours) and am just waiting for my ride since my husband has our car in a town 40 minutes away at work.

I just want people to send us lots of positive vibes that she just sprained something and there are no more surgeries in her future. She will get whatever she needs but it will strain us financially as we haven't even finished paying the $5000 from her knee surgery off.

Please let everything be okay..

Sorry to hear that but hope it will not be too bad.
Sending all the good vibes I can and wishing her well.
I know husbands don't always understand things happen.
After so long I would have thought it would be good for her to get out.


Dawn.

Wishing you the very best. Hope it turns out to be something minor, but you are right to get it checked out. Things do happen fast with these little rascals!

Will be eargerly awaiting the vet's assessment this evening!

I will be sending you well wishes for little Sophie.....these rascals can creat havoc in under 2 seconds! Hang in there until your suspicions are confirmed or denied and then go from there.....cross your bridges as you get to them.....

Keep those positive thoughts coming.

The vet took an x-ray and she is showing signs of a torn CCL. They are sending the x-rays to her orthopedic surgeon to see what he thinks and what his course of action will be. Surgery could be in her near future again...

The current plan is to keep her in her pen, no leash walks or running and Metacam and see if the rest and medication takes some of the swelling away and she starts using it again. She is starting to occasionally toe touch now and is still in good spirits - she just inhaled her Stella and Chewy's with her Metacam (she usually only gets it in the mornings and dry at night but I want to make sure she takes the Metacam and feels loved).

I have spent the majority of the 2 hours at the vet crying. I keep thinking about all the what ifs - like I shouldn't have taken her outside or I shouldn't have let her run around. I don't know how we will be able to afford another surgery and I know nothing about CCL things.

Please pray that the surgeon doesn't think it needs surgery and that with rest she is back to normal. I feel like a major failure at the moment..

I will definitely keep you and Sophie in my prayers. You are NOT a failure. You are a very devoted mom who was allowing your little girl to enjoy herself. I don't have experience with LP surgery, but Sophie's surgery was a long time ago, long enough (I think) to not be restricted from living a normal life. From what I've read from Ladyjane's posts, CCL tears aren't unusual with dogs who have had LP. I hope Sophie heals without surgery. She is very lucky to have a mom who would do anything for her.

Praying for no surgery, and I agree... not your fault at all. Sometimes things just happen...

Small update: Sophie is still not using her leg at all and we are still waiting for the plan of action from the vet.

I am extremely nervous as I know if one leg goes the other is likely to follow shortly after and another surgery will be needed. I don't know how we can afford one more let alone another one shortly after.

My husband is still not talking to me and when he does talk he is saying I should have left her inside and that this is my problem so I have to figure it out. I am already an extremely anxious/depressed person so not having a support system and Sophie being locked in a pen is literally starting to kill me. I don't know what to do and I don't know why my husband just can't accept that even the vet said it could have happened anywhere and it just a ticking time bomb.

Prayers going out to your furbaby and also you. This group is perfect for support through the bad times...

Praying for both you and little Sophie. Accidents happen and it could of happened when she was in his care as well as your own. Don't feel guilty you are doing all you can for her.

I am so sorry you are having all this worry, and I hope things improve quickly so she doesn't need further surgery. Accidents happen and we all wish we could have a do-over, but this is not your fault.

Keeping you and lil Sophie in my thoughts and prayers. Sorry DH is putting added stress on you, they can be such butt heads sometimes.

Thanks everyone. We are getting tired of our vet giving us the run around. We hadn't heard today from them about the plan of action so we called them to see what was going on as her leg has started to swell. Apparently they either hadn't sent them yet or never followed up - the vet we saw that night just graduated this spring and admitted he wasn't experienced with knee problems...so why someone else hasn't taken over, I don't know.

Anyway, we have been waiting for 3 hours for them to call back after they called the surgeon and still haven't heard anything, so we called them again and all they said was they hadn't heard anything yet.

So we did some research and found a different vet and booked an assessment appointment with them for Sunday - the plus side to this place is they are open 24/7 unlike our vet so if she has the surgery there, she will never be left alone. This place will cost more, but we just want something to be done and to get a second opinion from someone with experience.

Wish us luck. We have determined if it is anything to do with the ligament for sure, she will get the surgery. She already has early arthritis so I don't want to give her anymore reason to get it worse...plus she is not improving. She is going crazy in her pen though, so today we set it up on the grass to let her get some fresh air.

Oh..and my husband has come around. He admitted that he was just frustrated that she was going to have to go through something painful again, that he is worried about her going through the recovery and surgery again and of course the financial strain. But he agrees that it could have happened anywhere and that she is worth the strain if it means she will be happy.

How frustrating to have the vets not moving ahead with a diagnosis. It's good that you have found another vet, and I wish you all the best. Poor little Sophie has gone through so much already, I hope she gets relief soon.

Great your found a 24/7 vet. Mine is also 24/7, it's a true blessing if you have one. Too bad the other one wasted so much of your time. I hope you get the report on lil Sofie ASAP. It's so stressful to us when our babies are sick, we feel so helpless, then to see baby is suffering, adds more stress to us. Happy that DH came around and is off your case. Keeping lil Sofie in my prayers.

Thank you again.

Well our vet called this morning and she definitely has a ruptured CCL and the recommendation is definitely another surgery.

The problem is whether we want to still get a second opinion or not. I am annoyed with our vet but I will give them credit for how good they were with Sophie after her knee surgery. We could go in for questions at no charge right until she was cleared at 6 months, and since I have anxiety I am comfortable enough with them.

They are bringing in a surgeon on Thursday for another dog and said that we could have it done for Sophie then, if we wanted to.

The reason I am hesitant to take her to the other vet now though is since we now have an estimate, I am really concerned about spending another $500 at the other place for new x-rays (they won't use her current ones) and consultations.

I really do not want to go through this recovery again, but every time I pick Sophie up and she gives me tons of kisses, I know I would do anything for her.

Well, surgery is booked for Thursday of this week.

I am so nervous about having her put under and doing the recovery again. I have sewn her some more crate pads and a new crate bumper thing so that her legs can't get caught in the bars (we don't have a soft sided crate).

We also ordered her a canvas pen though so we can let her get some fresh air but still be confined.

I am so nervous...but hopefully all goes well and she is back to new in a few months.

Good luck. Hope all goes well and Sophie makes a full recovery. I'm sending prayers for your sweet girl who has already gone through so much.

I'm sorry Sophie and you have to go through another surgery and recovery period. Sending best wishes for everything to go smoothly Thursday, and for her to recover fully.

Praying all goes well for Sophie on Thursday and that she has a quick and seamless recovery. Hugs to you...

I hope this surgery frees Sophie from all of her pain and from any further problems with her knees. You are a great mom. My thoughts and prayers are with you and Sophie.

Poor Sophie, I hope she recovers quickly.
Let us know how she is doing after the surgery tomorrow. Thoughts and prayers with you and Sophie.

I hope that you realize this is nothing that you caused by letting her out to run. This is why the ortho surgeon I go to does not recommend LP repairs on adult dogs. When they have LP the knee is slipping in and out and causing a strain on the cruciate ligament. You can repair the knee, but the ligament already is damaged. You have no way of knowing how much damage is done. He said that often after a dog has LP surgery, they will tear the ligament; so he advises no repair on the knee unless/until the ligament tears and then both are repaired at the same time. I know it does nothing for you to know that now, but it might help another person.

Hope all goes well with the surgery tomorrow!! Prayers for Sophie...

sending good thoughts

I have been thinking about you and Sophie. I am praying for her surgery and her rehabilitation to go well.

Sophie's surgery went well today. The last update we had was at 8pm and that she was resting and wasn't interested in food yet. They said not to worry about that though as sometimes it takes some time to get them interested in it again.

I miss her so much tonight, she is normally glued to me so I am finding myself constantly going to pet her or talk to her. If everything goes well (and she decides to eat) she will be home Saturday afternoon.

So glad her surgery went well. Sending prayers for a Saturday homecoming!

Happy to hear that Sophie's surgery went well. Wishing her an uneventful recovery.

Sending good wishes to Sophie for a full recovery

Thank you so much. I wasn't aware of this when we had her surgery done. I think I learned about it from one of your posts a few months later to someone else - so hopefully that statement is seen by someone else who is dealing with an adult needing LP surgery. I did have a lot of regret at that point, but I have come to terms with it and being able to watch her for the last couple of months run and play without having to stop for my husband or I to massaged her knee back in place, or her falling over because they both popped out at the same time. She had been dealing with it for her whole life as she was born without a groove at all for the patella to sit in. I still wish we had known more about the risks.

Thanks for all the well wishes from everyone else too!

She began eating shortly after the last post I made. They had been trying to hand feed her and watch her eat but apparently my little diva wanted to eat alone because they said as soon as they left her alone in the room, she ate the food.

I am nervous about bringing her home. Last time I rushed to get her home as soon as possible but this time I have left it up to the vet to decide when they feel she is ready to be home. I miss her a ton, but I am so worried I will screw up somehow and hurt her other leg (I know there are chances of the other one being hurt in the future).

We've got everything set up for her. We turned the ex-pen into a 1 foot by 2 foot pen instead of a 2' by 2' so that there is enough room for a pee pad and a bed but she can't move around too much. I am sure it will be full size in a few days, I just don't want her going crazy in there right away.

I am debating about a stroller. I go back and forth between thinking it would be nice to be able to take her outside for some fresh air/short walks to keep her from getting bored and thinking it would be a waste of money and I would never use it/be embarrassed to use it. If anyone has any opinion on this, I would really appreciate it. We definitely don't have a giant budget right now, but it anyone has had experience with one and thinks it would be worth it, I will order one as soon as possible.