Limping

On 2/8/08, I decided to take Hickory in to the vet.

I'd started my day by taking Holly in for something, I don't even remember what anymore, and found out that our cat, Banjo, wasn't getting better (renal failure), and had to put Banjo to sleep. Her sister, Cricket, had gone to the Rainbow Bridge a year & a half earlier after several years of kidney problems, until her heart finally gave out. Both are buried in our backyard, next to a special pecan tree that is a seedling from the one at my ILs, with a spot reserved for our remaining cat, Domino (another foundling like Hickory).

I guess we'd noticed Hick limping slightly for a few days, but he plays rough. He and Holly go tearing down the porch steps to look for the coyote, and other critters, that sometimes come to the back fence. It didn't occur to us that it might be something serious.

After Banjo died, I noticed Hick holding his back right leg up so I decided I'd better get it checked out. Our usual vet wasn't in, so we saw another we'd never seen before (she hasn't been there long). She felt everything and decided it was a groin pull and gave us meds and said to restrict him. I'll admit we didn't do a great job, mainly kept him from going down the porch stairs. But Hickory seemed to improve.

Over the next several weeks, the limping would sometimes return, but again, we just figured he was maybe re-injuring it.

Finally on 4/7, I took him in again. The vet, our usual one, Dr. Laura, said she'd like to x-ray him and check it over. The next morning I dropped him off, but nothing showed on the x-ray (I know now that cruciate injury doesn't...but at least it wasn't something else...something worse). She gave us some meds and said to RESTRICT, and for us to check it in a week.

This time we restricted! We took him out only on leash, only one stair out into the garage and then around the side and into the backyard. After a week, it was maybe a little better, but by now we could tell it wasn't "right".

Went back on 4/16, and Dr. Laura talked to me about the cruciate injury and drawer disease and all sorts of things I'd never heard of. The only way I could remember cruciate was that it sounded like "cruise ship"! She told me there were two vets who could repair it, if that's what was wrong. One would be cheaper, but wasn't Board certified. The other was Dr. Dew, the Board certified ortho vet. She said the surgery could run from $1500 to $2500 whichever vet we chose.

I figured we might as well meet with the Board cert. one and then go from there. We scheduled an appointment for 4/28.

That night I started doing some online research, and it all fit. Hick had no doubt injured his ACL and would probably need surgery. With the injury comes increased chance of arthritis. I decided I didn't want to wait, so the next day I called and got the appt. moved to 4/21, and we left the 4/28 on the schedule in case we needed surgery.

Monday, 4/28 we took Hick to see Dr. Dew. The clinic name is Azzore, and besides the LR area, he also goes to NW AR and Memphis. I'd gotten the CD with the x-rays to take along, but he didn't need to see them. He just held Hick's knee and said, "yup, that's what it is."

He told us about two types of surgery we could have, and we decided to do the TTA (Tibial Tuberosity Advancement). Dr. Dew said he'd done about a thousand of them and had very good results. Considering Hickory is only 2, we really feel we owe him the best we can give him.

TTA is not cheap. Our expected bill will be about $2600+ for the ortho vet and between $300 and $400 for the overnight emergency clinic stay. From what I've learned since getting on the yahoo group Orthodogs, it's best for the dog to spend the first night with a 24 hr vet.

Hick goes in on Monday, 4/28 by 9 a.m., and we get to pick him up before 7 a.m. the next morning. It will be a very, very long 24 hours.