Kirk's Hips =( **8/26 GOOD update!**"

[pnance]

I'm glad to hear he's doing well despite the bumps.....Nikka had a complete hip replacement (she was 1 1/2 when we adopted her and had such severe hip dysplasia her hip was completely out of the socket with no hope of getting it back in permanently). We had the worst time trying to keep her quiet (even with Ace) and off that leg for the 2 weeks recovery time. The funny part is we fought her for 2 weeks, tried every trick in the book to keep her quiet and off that leg, then finally the day came when the vets said start letting her use that let again...we were thrilled.. so we let her out in the yard to use the facilities without a leash and she refused to put her foot down. It took us another week of battling to get her to use that leg.....

[Kater]

Kirkie is 7 months old now. It has been 6 weeks since his first TPO and he seems to have healed well. However, we won't know exactly how well everything is going until we take some more xrays. At least it appears that he has no loose pins or anything major! Xrays will be taken before he goes under the knife again and they operate on his left hip/pelvis. I'm nervous about what the xrays might reveal because my Dad broke some of the post op rules and took him on a few walks. My Dad has since stopped, but he walked him just 2 weeks after surgery and did not tell me about it. I just have three words: stubborn, old man.... *deep sigh* That is in the past, and although I was absolutely seething, there is nothing I can do now. I've just had to let it go.

Anyway, I gather that the 2nd TPO is pretty uniformly the more difficult of the two operations. This time we do not have vet students rotating through our hospital (I work at the clinic where Kirk will be operated on, however the surgeon is an orthopedics specialist and not one of our clinic's vets), so I will stay with Kirkie overnight Thursday night and possibly Friday night as well. We have a second building behind the hospital with a furnished upstairs apartment. At least then I won't have to drive into work Saturday morning! ha ha ha

But really, I'm quite nervous. I am on a TPO group on yahoo and since I joined I have been hearing how hard the first couple days are after the 2nd TPO. Please keep us in your prayers!! I need to bathe him tonight since he'll probably have stitches in again for 10-14 days. Hopefully I can get some pics tonight, but I can't guarantee it.

Thank you in advance for your prayers. I cannot wait until this is all behind us!!