My initial paralyzing fear of scorpions has passed with the regular inspection by a pest control professional and the girls are settling in well and have thanked us a thousand times over for installing a pet door which allows them in and our at their leisure!
One weekend in late January, Jet and I took the girls out for a walk, only to have Daisy present with an all too familiar lameness. Years ago, when I was living in Australia, our family dog had this very same thing, so immediately I recognized the symptom and felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. But before jumping to any conclusions, we decided to watch her for a few days to see whether it disappeared, and then take her to the vet if it didn't. Over those next few days, we noticed that she was favoring her back left leg so I took her into a new vet in Vegas. It's the same one our dog walker uses, so he came recommended which is always nice when you move to a new place.
My suspicion was right, but we needed to clear it up with a specialist consultation as it was the sort of problem that needed surgery. So after another consultation with her regular vet and the surgeon, my initial reaction was confirmed. Luxating patella and a possible torn anterior cruciate ligament. Unbelieveable. And all we were doing at the time she started showing symptoms was walking around our neighborhood! This is a problem that is presenting more and more because of inbreeding, and as Daisy is a pure AmStaff, it wasn't a surprise to the vets.
A luxating patella, from what I understand, is when the groove in the head of the femur is too shallow to prevent the kneecap from moving laterally. This then puts pressure on the knee joint and creates the ligament problem inside the joint itself as the ligament should be locked in place with no side to side or front to back movement. It's this ligament movement and ultimately a tear or rupture that causes the pain. Apparently some dogs can have a luxating patella and it will never be an issue for them. Daisy wasn't so lucky.
Yesterday was the big day! We had to take her in between 7am and 8am, with a nil by mouth policy in place for her from midnight the night before. She looked at me with that innocent, trusting face, and I felt just terrible. But the surgeon promised to call with an update as soon as surgery was finished, and true to his word, I got the "all clear" call at 12.30pm!
Surgery was straight-forward and successful. He went in and cleaned out the joint, then did the surgery where he corrected the angle of the joint and he created a deeper groove in the femur for the patella to sit in. The operation is called "TPLO" which stands for "Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy". What they do is instead of repairing or replacing the cruciate ligament, they cut the head off the tibia and change the angle so there is no pressure on the joint and femur and tibia are alining straight (as they are supposed to). The head of the bone is reattached to the rest of the tibia using a metal plate on the inside of the leg. It's really amazing, and the surgeon was telling us that he had done this surgery on a police dog who had just returned to duty with a totally successful surgery.
After one night in the ICU (and apparently lots of love from the vet nurses), we picked up Daisy this morning and although happy to see us, she was quite heavily sedated and very, very sore. She is such a hyperactive dog that there was no way that we could keep her calm without some pharmaceutical assistance! We bought her one of those blow-up neck pillows so that she won't lick her sutures but so far, she hasn't needed it. She is totally out and sleeping peacefully in her crate.
Princess Daisy in jail!
I have been taking her out every couple of hours for potty breaks, and although she does what she is supposed to, she seems to be happy to go back into her crate and go to sleep again. We have one step at the back door, and she can't negotiate that yet which is no surprise. She gets her front legs outside then realizes that she can't bear any weight on her back legs so she just stands there until we lift her rear and place it on the same level as her front legs. She's a smartie!
My past experience was a little different, in that the surgery was the more simpler version where they recreate the action of the ligament with coated wire. This seemed to be less intrusive and had the scar in a different position. It also wears down over time, where the TPLO surgery is permanent and once the bone fuses back together with the help of the metal plate, there is no way that it will move or wear down. With the amount of pressure that Daisy puts on her legs when she is running and playing, strength and permanency is key.
We have already had one call to the surgery! She had a drop foot when we got her home. The toes on the leg that had the surgery were curling under and she was walking on the top of her foot. Apparently this is normal for the first couple of days, but if it continues, we will need to take her back in. But as far as Day 1 is going, she is fine. Using her leg as she feels comfortable, and sleeping a lot! Tomorrow is Jet's day off so we will both be here to help her which will be much better. I hope to update the blog daily with her progress... Daisy has a lot of fans!
And Charlotte? Her publicist issued a "no comment" statement as she was sunbathing at the time of this post as she hadn't yet had a chance to talk to her sister!!!
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