TPLO. No, it's not the resurrection of a 1970s band. It's the preferred surgery (no doubt by the surgeons) for dogs with torn ACLs, one of whom is now the dog of our house. This has been our huge distraction of the new year.
On December 31, the dog got out the front door when one of the kids was opening it while I was saying "Do NOT open the door!" Fortunately, the dog always runs to the playground up the street, which is where we were heading anyway, so I just grabbed the leash and we went on our way. We found her there quickly, where she played a game of chase with the boys, and then she came running for me, which she always does when she's done running. It was then I noticed she was running on three legs. I knew she'd never done that in our six years of having her, so I called the vet from my cellphone and got an appointment for that day. The vet took one look and handed me the orthopedic references sheet while they took the dog for xrays.
Due to the holiday, the ortho's first appointment was the next Monday, January 5. The dog was still not putting the leg down at all, and when we saw the ortho, it took him five seconds to tell us why. Her ACL was completely shot, and in a dog, that's what keeps the leg together. Without it, her bones were literally sliding in different directions when she tried to put weight on her paw. So we had her operated on the next day. She was too big and too active for the "old" surgery. And of the two "new" choices, TPLO made the most sense, though also the biggest dent in the savings account.
I hated leaving her at the vet's. The whole time we were there she was clearly in pain but kept trying to subtly leave the building while she thought no one was watching. But I knew I was making a decision that would cause the dog horrendous pain on an already hurt leg, and it was hard to feel good about that; how can you possibly explain that to a dog? You can't.
And boy, did she let me know it when it was time to pick her up. She was happy to see me but way, way happier to see the door. The surgery went well, and while the stitches looked massive, I was impressed with the clean incision site--almost no blood visible at all. It has stayed that way, which is amazing, though we're only four days post-op.
The recovery is harder in many ways than the actual surgery. She needs to be in a crate for two weeks, and an E-collar ("E" for "Elizabethan") to keep her from licking and infecting her incision. The first e-collar was hard plastic and really caused her to panic, especially in the crate. By the next morning, I was at our regular vet's, getting her a sedative and a fabric E-collar.
When I got back, I realized my error. She was so doped up when I left her in our bedroom, I hadn't bothered crating her. She was really sleeping, and had hardly moved al night. Once we were all gone, though, she totally panicked. When I got back, everything that had been on our cedar chest was on the floor, and my husband's valet was tipped over. She has been alone in the house plenty of times and never been destructive...lesson learned. Sedative and crate it was, though the fabric E-collar was a huge help.
Meanwhile, we live in a split level and she is not allowed to climb stairs for five weeks. I hope we all make it this long as she has a real loathing of being carried. It was one thing when she was so hurt she couldn't put her leg down, but now that she feels better, she is not dealing well with the carrying at all.
And that's where we are, here four days post-surgery. Her swelling was always minimal and is almost gone. Her bruise is getting redder but otherwise her leg looks as normal as a shaved chicken leg on a dog can. She is already trying to walk on it and while it is not at all normal, it's pretty darned close. She even ran down our only carpeted steps after me today when I was taking down the laundry.
Oh, the laundry. The reason I was taking the laundry downstairs is because the sedative we got for her (acepro-something) has the wildly unpleasant side effect of making her incontinent with her feces. She is leaving droppings everywhere and has dingleberries hanging off her behind for the first time ever in the time that we have owned her. She is hating this too and is trying to drag her tush across the rug to "help". This is not helping me in the slightest. (Combine this with my son's throwing up virus today and we are having quite the body functions day around here, especially with the carpet cleaning smells on top.)
The acepro worked in many ways--she was much calmer, not whining constantly to get out of the crate. The soft collar was also a godsend. I am sorry my son was sick and I couldn't get to the pet shop to get marrow bones or kongs or anything to keep her occupied.
What I did not like about the acepro is that it does not split well--it makes a lot of powder and it's hard to get a clean cut. That meant that I overdosed her inadvertently last night and she was really out of it. And the "pooping in the house" thing is really intolerable with two small kids running around here.
The first 48 hours post-surgery were hard. She only stopped whining when she was eating, and she is so set to "active" that she kept trying to get away to just move her body. I hope this helps in the end but I know it's potentially really destructive for now. She would only calm down when my husband or I laid down with her. She didn't mind the cold compresses, especially if she was getting a belly rub at the same time. She is great about being touched in a firm, massage-y kind of way.
She's been good about the pills, and there are a lot, but they are always in peanut butter or ham, so what's not to like? And we got her some canned food, which we usually don't, to ensure she would eat (and she is doing fine in that department. Currently she's on two different antibiotics, Deramaxx (painkiller/anti-inflammatory, I think) and a morphine derived painkiller too, the name of which I forget. Since she was already on four meds and had been crate trained, I didn't get the sedative at first. Big mistake. I should have asked for five, to get us over the hump if needed. It was needed, and five would have made it easier and bought us time before I could get a full dose. And honestly, I think five might have done it entirely for her. And me
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