We’re at the Vet with Rumble. Her CCL got nuked: it’s not often you get a photo of the very second before the injury (lateral body slam), 8 days ago. We’re weighing the surgery options. Hip x-rays right now to see if her hips can support the knee fix (if we do one). At 11, weighing the risks of surgery vs the deterioration of the knee and pain, is hard.
UPDATE: Hips look good. She’s a good candidate for surgery. Surgery scheduled for 12/11/20.
We discussed many approaches.
He does not feel the splints are useful. To be effective in keeping the knee stable, they’d have to be very tight. We’d end up with muscle atrophy and possible skin wear.
We both agree that a TPLO is way too much for an old girl. I won’t consider that.
We both agree the lateral suture technique is best suited for this girl (for young and middle-age dogs, TPLO IS 100% my fix of choice) but I need to thin her down a bit (weight reduction commencing now!) for a lateral suture technique!
He favors a “wait and see in two months” approach to see if scar tissue develops sufficiently to stabilize the knee, and go from there, but agrees that two months in the life of an 11 1/2 year old is a lot (my argument).
My thinking:
- Dan is recovering from neck surgery, and will be very limited until at least Feb. having two in recovery is better than one at a time.
- Two months puts her even closer to 12. Age is a enemy to surgical healing.
- waiting two months allows for two months of scar tissue to develop, and scar tissue just builds on itself. Might as well minimize that as much as possible to make the surgery easier.
- I hate for her to be in pain. The sooner she is out of pain, the better.
- she just had a geriatric panel a couple of months ago. It looked great. We’ll do another the day of surgery, but we have the knowledge that she is in good shape now.
- She’s on a anti-inflammatory now, so her pain will be controlled, and inflammation reduced. I think there is no reason to wait.
