Thursday, July 01, 2010
Turkey leg
As I'm still unemployed, I figured now would be a good time to drop about $1500 on my dog. She started limping about a month ago and I figured it had something to do with her foot because she'd done this before and it was because in between her toes was infected.
Unfortunately for both of us, she had torn her CCL (basically the dog version of an ACL). When I found out, I googled dog knees and read up on the different treatments. I didn't bother going for conservative management because I think she had already passed that point with her limping and I wasn't going to take her to a whirlpool everyday or anything.
I felt like a bad person when I asked my vet how much I could expect to spend, but I had to. They actually low-balled me by about $300 (or more because I still have to go back at least 1 if not 3 more times in the next 2 months). So Layla had traditional surgery where they put an implant in her knee to stabilize the joint. Apparently the rest of her knee looked pretty good and there weren't many sign of arthritis so that's something.
When I picked her up yesterday she looked pathetic. Her left leg is totally shaved with a big scar and stitches around the curvy part in front of her thigh. It looks like raw chicken with a slice in it. She looks weird too because there are bruises from the surgery but also her skin is slightly patchy so it looks even worse. There is also a small shaved part on her front leg where they put the morphine drip in. She's walking around pretty well though and seems to be feeling ok too.
The other thing that sucks is that she has to take an antibiotic that's huge and I can't hide it in cheese or anything because of its size, so instead I have to shove it in her mouth and get that sticky gross dog saliva all over my hand. The other pills are easier to hide in stuff so those aren't bad. Hopefully her recovery goes well. It should be interesting to say the least. I'll post a picture soon if I can find my camera.
Unfortunately for both of us, she had torn her CCL (basically the dog version of an ACL). When I found out, I googled dog knees and read up on the different treatments. I didn't bother going for conservative management because I think she had already passed that point with her limping and I wasn't going to take her to a whirlpool everyday or anything.
I felt like a bad person when I asked my vet how much I could expect to spend, but I had to. They actually low-balled me by about $300 (or more because I still have to go back at least 1 if not 3 more times in the next 2 months). So Layla had traditional surgery where they put an implant in her knee to stabilize the joint. Apparently the rest of her knee looked pretty good and there weren't many sign of arthritis so that's something.
When I picked her up yesterday she looked pathetic. Her left leg is totally shaved with a big scar and stitches around the curvy part in front of her thigh. It looks like raw chicken with a slice in it. She looks weird too because there are bruises from the surgery but also her skin is slightly patchy so it looks even worse. There is also a small shaved part on her front leg where they put the morphine drip in. She's walking around pretty well though and seems to be feeling ok too.
The other thing that sucks is that she has to take an antibiotic that's huge and I can't hide it in cheese or anything because of its size, so instead I have to shove it in her mouth and get that sticky gross dog saliva all over my hand. The other pills are easier to hide in stuff so those aren't bad. Hopefully her recovery goes well. It should be interesting to say the least. I'll post a picture soon if I can find my camera.
# posted by rjhackman @ 5:51 PM 
