An update:

The Orthopedic surgeon specialist was wonderful. A very caring, dear man. He gave me few options for Graham, we could either try to keep splinting him, which is obviously not working, or we could do the surgery. The surgery is the only option, because his leg is in very bad pain and it will not stay alligned.

First of all, the injury is in his "ankle" or their technical term is a carpal hyperextention injury. The surgery is what they call carpal arthrodesis which means they are going to fuse together his bones, ligaments, muscles in that ankle. The bad news is that he will never be able to move that joint again, it is permenantely going to be straight and he will not be able to bend it for the rest of his life. Doc said that dogs really adjust well to the change in their ability to move, and that his gate will be slightly different, but not so bad that he makes people do a double take when they see him walking.

Bad news:

·Agility is over with for good. I have already called his agility school, and through tears, said my goodbyes.

·He will never be able to jump more then half of his height again.


·He will have to learn to maneuver with a permanently stiff leg.

.It is a very long recovery.

·And of all the joints that he could have dislocated, this is the most complicated and complex to fuse together (not to mention, the most expensive)

Good news:

·Of all the joints that he could have dislocated, this is the easiest for Graham to adjust to the fusing of his bones. Dogs do not bend that ankle joint nearly as much as they bend (and need to bend) all of the other joints.

·Graham will heal.

·Graham will not lose his leg.

·We have our house savings to help with the cost. Without our house savings I don’t know what we would do…we just don’t make that much money to pay for this surgery.

I am not complaining, Graham is worth every penny in the world, but with the 3 vet appointments that I have had sofar, the cost has been $800, and when they gave me the quote for the surgery I was shocked. I expected it to be around $1000 or $1500 tops....I was wrong They gave me a worst case scenario. Worst case scenario will be a total of $3700 for the surgery, and best case scenario is $2200 for the surgery, and they need an $1800 deposit on surgical drop off, with the rest due at pick up. If I did not have my house savings, I don't know what I would do. That is a huge sum of money, and it's all due so soon. I wouldn't have any way to raise that amount. As much as I hate to take out our already small house savings, my God am I happy that I had it.

Graham is going to have his surgery this coming Friday. He will be at the hospital for at least an over night stay. He will have his leg in a cast for 8-12 more weeks, and he will have 1-2 extra incesions for a bone graph needed for the surgery.

I will update you on his post surgery healing. Graham and I thank you for your prayers, and we both love you all bunches.