Torn ACL *3/6/10 8wk Check Up*

[chocolatepuppy]

koko, I don't like the TPLO either. Too scary for me. My local vet actually did the surgeries. I called it rubberband, but am sure it was fishline, like you're saying.

[kokopup]

You ask a surgeon advice on what to do and they will always advice the more
involved surgery. They don''t have to live with the outcome if things go wrong.
It just puts more money in their pocket if things do go wrong. With TPLO
they cut through the bone above and below the knee and then put it back
together with pins. I did not like the Risk that gave no better outcome.

[chocolatepuppy]

You ask a surgeon advice on what to do and they will always advice the more
involved surgery. They don''t have to live with the outcome if things go wrong.
It just puts more money in their pocket if things do go wrong. With TPLO
they cut through the bone above and below the knee and then put it back
together with pins. I did not like the Risk that gave no better outcome.

I was thinking that same thing.

[Seravieve]

We went and picked up our Eli at ~1 this afternoon. He did very well through the whole ordeal. We got to see the after Xrays and it looks like Dr V did a great job with the bone cut! When he realigned the bone before attaching the plate, the bone is actually touching along the whole cut, so it should fuse well.

He is confined to the living room now, resting comfortably in his soft LIME GREEN cast on his favorite doggie bed... Although he'd rather be following us around of course. This will be a LONG 8 weeks of confinement.. sleeping on the couch and all.

Once he has recovered from the surgery, we will be looking into his abnormal EKG and determine if he does have cardiomyopathy. He had several irregular heartbeats during the surgery, not back to back - just intermittent, so Dr V wants to use some monitor thing on him and record his heartbeat for a few days.

[chocolatepuppy]

I'll bet it's good to have Eli home. Good luck with the confinement.

[kokopup]

I''m glad that Eli's surgery went well. I have a hard time believing that the Vet can make a diagnosis of Cardiomyopathy, just from irregular heart beat. That can be caused by many things other than Cardiomyopathy. Surely you would have seen other symptoms before surgery that would have red flagged a serious problem. I'm hoping your vet is wrong and Eli was just reaction to anesthesia.

[Seravieve]

Yea, I think so too. He just said it's a possibility and something we should definitely look into. Especially since its SO common in Boxers.

Here he is last night.. shaved butt and all! =)

[kokopup]

Eli looks like he is just cooling it after a hard night on the town. I hope his recovery time goes well. I kept Koko in a crate and she adapted to it very quickly. I know the crate was needed after a week , because she would have been hard to keep down and not moving around to much. I believe Koko
felt more secure especially during the time she had pain. When we let her out to potty she always just went back in an laid down. We didn't even have to close the door.

They shaved Koko's hindquarter for both surgeries. Her's looked very strange because her hair is so long. I could not understand why they shave so far up when the knees were all that they operated on.