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Cruciate Ligament Ruptures


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Hey Kelly_Louise :rofl: Happy New Year - i hope you had a good one, glad to hear that Chloe is doing well. Cute pics of her!! Her leg is growing its hair back nicely, Mallee's looks much the same but from her waist down both sides.....lol......she looks like half a plucked duck!! Mallee sits exactly the same way Chloe does with both legs straight, before the operation she never sats like that, either sat up or with her legs stretch out the back of her, so i think it may just be a comfort thing?? :laugh:

Mallee has been going well, have much of the same feelings you do about whether or not she is improving, and then when you start to really worry she will do something little that she either hasn't done before or that she is doing better! We have been letting her out of the cage alot more but she is still in there the majority of the day, i can't wait until she can come out of the cage and spend more time out of it than in it!!! She is rolling over every now and then, standing and sitting alot better and not as shacky! The other day while we had her out she some how grapped something she should not have had, and as quick as anything stood up and walked out the lounge room into the dining room :rofl: - i nearly died, but she walked really well - she probably did about 20 steps, and she has now done that twice since, so we really have to be super alert, and watch her all the time while she is out!! We have x-rays either next week or the week after, so hopefully her pelvis will have healed by then and we can start her on the rehab and swimming, and hopefully out of the cage (well atleast while we are at home)!! Fingers crossed!!!

Hope you had a great christmas and new years - hugs to Chloe - let me know if you took her back for check up. Are you doing any sorts of exercises with her yet, or just still her toliet walks?

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Thanks for keeping us up to date everyone, I do enjoy reading about progress no matter how small. People now have to ask me which one of Duncan's legs was fixed, they can no longer tell :laugh: . Try waiting for the coat on a Rough Collie to grow back, my poor boy's "pants" were SO lopsided for a long time.

Cheers,

Corine

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Hey Antoinette, hope you had a good holiday break as well... Happy New Year! It's great that Mallee is doing so well. She now seems to have the confidence to get up and walk for a fair distance, which is good. I always think that if it was so uncomfortable for them, they wouldn't do it. It's a big change from the last time we heard from you, so you should be very happy! But I'm still a nervous wreck, so I'm assuming you must be twice as bad!!!

No Chloe hasn't been back to the vet yet. In a couple of more weeks she will go and have her first lot of x-rays. Here's hoping that they will be good. She is going well except that her other unoperated leg is getting pretty bad, although she is still determinedly using it. But she's struggling getting up and down again and is now relying alot on her unproven 'good' leg. The surgeon told us that this would happen around about at this point in time, so I'm not worrying too much. Just trying to keep her quiet and not use it too much, with painkillers if necessary. She is having a bit more exercise now. She wanders around slowly after my Mum in the mornings. She is out of her pen on lead with my parents most of the day, and they allow her to get up and move around slowly as she likes... they just follow her. When she has had enough, she packs herself up and takes herself back to her pen. So it's only in the backyard, but she's allowed to move around a bit more of her own accord under supervision.

Unfortunately she has a bout of diarrohea (SP?) at the moment. She also had one about a week and a half ago. Lasted a day and then went away. We are trying to figure out what the triggers are. But this morning she is alot brighter.

Corine (Happy New Year to you also!), you make me laugh so much... I am sitting at work imagining Duncan with his un-fluffy pants on!!! It's too funny!!! :rolleyes: It's great that you stop by and give us a bit of encouragement every now and then!!!

Talk soon guys!

PS. Antoinette, anymore pics of Mallee?

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How's everyone going?

I left Stella today for a thorough exam, her leg is BAD again:( shit, shit, shit so unlucky.

Maybe they will cut it again, or may be there's an inflammation. It looks a bit unstable and definetely sore and hot. The vet will call me later...

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Oh Koza, that's no good! Has she had multiple reactions to the sutures and have they used a different material each time? I'm not soure what they used to stitch Duncan up but he has metal holding his Tibia together, the "after" x-rays freaked me out. The surgeon explained that he normally only uses a 3 pin plate for a CWO but Duncan's bone needed so much patching they had to use a custom 6 pin plate!

Let's hope this time they have it right with Stella :rolleyes:

Cheers,

Corine

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I know this sounds bad but how much does the op cost?

Wags injured his knee just prior to his Perianal Fistula op and they manipulated it during surgery. Max Zuber (Wags Vet) reckons it is his cruciate but we are tring to build up his stretch with small walks. He is banned from Dog Parks (still bu this time not immune related).

Just trying to work out how much I have to save for this op. Unfortunately I am not confident the build up approach is working. He is great for a few days then he favours the leg again. Pain is not apparent but I think he masks it well. The good news is his butt is good :rolleyes:

The thought of crating horrifies me as the others will tease him and he will be so depressed after months of battling the Fistulas. Plus he gets jealous that the others go away to Dog Parks and he is bored around the block. Poor darling only seems to go to the Vet in the car now days.

I reckon I own Gladesville Vets now between Wags and Mia ;)

Any rough guide to cost would be appreciated.

I also could be homeless as my OH has no idea how much we have already spent on Vet bills over the past 6 months :laugh: He had a coronary re Hypo allergenic biscuit price (that was the cheap part).

Thanks in advance for your help.

I must admit the stories have given me hope that the op is worth it and there are options for Wags - poor darling is so wanting more fun

Karen

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Hey Everyone,

Well, Mallee had her x-rays done yest. Not quite the news we were wanting to hear, but i think we may atleast be half way there!!

I'll start at the front and work my way down - We got Guy (our new specialist) to x-ray her elbows as they have never been redone since the bilateral ulna osteomony, and we have been quite worried about them as she uses them so much since the ops on her back legs, and they have healed 100% and look great, no more signs of arthritis and we can just forget about them for the moment as the op was very successfully - YIPPEEE!!! :laugh:

Her back legs, which are of the most concern, have not yet quite gone as well. The left side looks great, the bones have refused, and there has been no movement of the pelvis on the left side at all, and Guy is really happy with that!! But, the right side is not as good. Guy seems to think that not long after the last surgery was preformed that the right side of her pelvis has again collasped a bit, nothing to really worry about, but it has moved about 1cm or so inwards. The right side has not yet fully refused (partially only) but there is new bone formations there so thats why he is of the opinion that the movement took place sometime ago. It has been probably 2 months (op done on 13 Nov) since the op was done, so she is probably on track time wise, i think that we were all just hoping that as she is only a baby her bones may have healed quicker. The few of the screws have back out a bit, but again he said that should not cause any problems - even if they come all the way out he would only ever remove them is they were causing her pain

We asked what type of problems we could expect from the pelvis, as it is not the correct shape for a pelvis anymore, and he seems to think that the only probs we could expect would be that she would not be able to give birth to pups (as if we are going to bred with her!! so not a problem) and that it could give her some problems with doing number 2's, so have to watch her bone intake and such. Again not much of a problem considering what she has been through.

The down side to it all is that it is going to be another 6-8 weeks in the cage, and walking with the sling. As he said he is being over cautious, which in a way suits us, as if anything further goes wrong with her pelvis there is only one option left and we don't like that option at all, so we will stick with her being in the cage, and being walked in the sling for as long as she can cope, poor baby only 9 months old and has spent far too long in that bloody cage!! But, it is for her own good!!!

We can start walking her around the yard further and allowing her to sort of go a her own pace around the yard, again still in the sling, but definatley no running and jumping chasing butterflies (one of her fave past times)

After coming home, we were a bit "Oh my god she is so delicate again", but i think that is just because of the right side, there is bone fusing happening just not as quick as we would have liked!! Guy said that we can try to stop stressing over her, but as most of you know it is really hard!!!!! I just can't wait for it to get better for her and for us, more for her. But all being said i think he was happy with her progress, and did say that he is pretty confident that if we did not take his advice that she would be fine to walk with out the sling and no damage would be done, and that he is being a bit of chicken about it all, but as previously said, we are happy to go along with it all as long as Mallee can cope mentally, and she just wonders us with how well she has cope with all of it, i think she has just accepted that this is her life for the moment and deals with it well. She is still really happy and as long as i think we keep up all the games we play with her and pay her attention she will be fine!!

Kelly - How is Chloe going - do you have to go back for x-rays or anything? Hope all is well with you guys.

Sorry Falgall cannot tell you what the costs of the operation you are after costs?? Hoepfully someone will give you a ball park figure - hope all is going well with you and Wags. I know what it feels like to own a vets also....lol.........we were joking with our surgeon that we should have a carpark named after us!!!

Koza - how is Stella going??

Anyway guys i will leave it there for now - my boss is hovering around so i had better go. Will post fresh pics of Mallee as soon as i can. Her hair is growing back nicely - although i wonder about her poor front leg it has been shaved soooo many times for all the needles she has....lol

Take care all

:rolleyes:

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OMG I was so hoping that all was well with Mallee

Thank goodness her front legs are great now :rolleyes:

I can not believe what your poor baby has gone through.

Does the breeder know all of this?

It must be so hard for all of you with all the crating. But the positive outcomes make it worthwhile. I truly am thinking of you all and hEAPS of positive thoughts going your way.

I know it is hard to ball park figures but I was trying to tuck some away. My vet when asked said we will discuss that if we have to do it. But I will ask more when I take Mia back for her Mange checkup in a couple of weeks.

I reckon you should have the reception area called Mallee - as a tribute to her patience never mind the bills. :laugh:

Karen

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Hey Falgall - thanks for your reply and thoughts. It has been a hard road, and we were hoping for better news but we will do what it takes for her to get well and recover.

Yes, we informed the breeders - not much help there, i don't think that they really wanted to know but we kept them informed of everything that was going on until the tried to shift all the blame onto us by saying we have feed the wrong food, and exercised her too much, but we know in our hearts that is was nothing that we have done, she has only eaten the best food (better than what they started her on), and her exercise was alway watched closely and restricted as we were well aware of joint issues in large breeds. By going of what the vets and specialists say there would have been nothing we could have done to prevent this from happening - i think it just came down to bad genes. It was the breeders first time breeding so i would have thought they would be happy to hear from us, but not all breeders i suppose think the same! Anyway not worth worrying about now, should have done more research before picking her, but she must have come to us for a reason and maybe this is it, as we have been more than willing to give her every chance of a happy pain free life, as she deserves!!

She has been one patient puppy, it has been hard on her at times, but i think she understands whats going on, probably more than what we give her credit for. :rolleyes:

They continue to surprise you with their intelligence hey!!

I have my fingers crossed for you and for Wags, he has had a rough trot also, poor little mite!!!

Take care and keep us posted as i am sure you will!!

Antoinette

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Sorry to hear the Breeder did not care

You would think they would have been glad of the feedback to avoid problems in the future :thumbsup:

Strange

But as you say she was meant to be with you.

I tend to agree they know you are trying to help them. If I were Wags I would have been so over people poking around my sore butt esp prior to the op when it was so sore and tender. In fact all this has made him become more confident and allows me to handle him so much more. He was always a nervy boy and would run from brushes, camera, baths etc and jam himself in a tight corner somewhere. He now lets me brush him check his butt wash him - though still not keen on cameras (no idea why). So maybe even before he had the outward signs he was feeling sore or ill?

I still hope Wags can avoid the op but if he has to have it then I am pleased that this forum is here to alleviate my concerns and pick up some tips.

I would love to see more pics of Mallee if you have them :)

Take Care

Karen

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OK here you go (lets hope it works)

Latest X-rays - showing no femoral head in hip/pelvic joint. If you look closely you can see that the left side where the plates are has rejoined but the right side still has gaps!

post-22-1137129330.jpg

Edited by malleerr
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Oh Koza, that's no good! Has she had multiple reactions to the sutures and have they used a different material each time? I'm not soure what they used to stitch Duncan up but he has metal holding his Tibia together, the "after" x-rays freaked me out. The surgeon explained that he normally only uses a 3 pin plate for a CWO but Duncan's bone needed so much patching they had to use a custom 6 pin plate!

Let's hope this time they have it right with Stella :thumbsup:

Cheers,

Corine

THe first time it was not clear why the string broke, so they used same material, but thicker (nylon). Second time it was obvious it was dissolving. Now they put polyester. Stella is in good mood generally, and I'm so glad I got this cage before! She's so safe and calm in it. I put a big pillow inside, so she feels like on a lounge, she likes it, poor thing.

Solly is very upset though.

The x-rays are very impressive! OMG

Hope you go well!

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I know this sounds bad but how much does the op cost?

Ours was 900 for the first, 200 for the second and the 3-rd was free, and I get 70% back from insurance, so not so bad. In this respect.

If you plan the op, maybe get him accustomed to the crate now. Stella is a very free-running dog (she's a dalmatian x) , but the idea that Solly can't get her in the crate and that her bones are safe there made her extremely excited. They fought for the crate initially :thumbsup:

So you never know, it may be not so bad.

Edited by Koza
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