[Dailydrool] Watson's legs...

[Katie Strobel]

Hi everyone,
So we went to the orthopedic specialist yesterday in Longmont,
Colorado. I was suprised by how much I liked this lady - and how
knowledgeable she was about basset legs in general. We had three
different people look at Watson - first a nurse-type vet tech came in
and bribed Watson with baby food to take his vitals and get the back
story. Then a guy came in who I think must be like a resident or vet
student. He messed around with Watson's legs, and had us walk around
the clinic to see how Watson walks. Then finally Dr. Fick came in and
did the same stuff except she also took us outside and had us run
Watson so she could see how he lifts up his left leg every few steps
when he runs.

She said that something was lost in the communications between her and
our regular vet and that she was never worried about hip dysplasia but
she just wanted to see the alignment of the entire leg and that
required a hip x-ray. So, she also said that when she did the very
scientific wiggle test with his back legs, she couldn't get his
patellas to luxate. What she was concerned about was his cruciate
ligament. She said on the x-ray there is a lot of inflammation around
his knee joint and such a concentration of inflammation around one
joint leads her to believe that he has a partially torn CCL ... which
is like the ACL in humans....making sense so far? She drew us a
picture and that helped explain things. However, she also said that
when she was wiggling his legs around she didn't think the ligament
was completely torn because it did not display the classic bone
movements that dogs have when they have completely torn their CCL.
Still she recommends surgery to fix the partial tear before it becomes
a complete tear.

I asked her about supplements and surgery site arthritis and she said
that either way he will have arthritis but that if we wait, he will
get arthritis in his left leg before he's two. He's a year and a half
old now. She said even if we choose to wait more than a month
arthritis will start to show up there, so we should have either one of
two surgeries within the next month. Apparently there are two
surgeries that surgeons use to fix torn cruciate ligaments. In the
first surgery, she drills a hole in his tibia and loops a suture
through the tibia and around the femur to mimic the ligament. This
surgery is about 600 dollars cheaper than the other one, but
eventually the suture breaks or deteriorates and then they rely on the
scar tissue to hold the joint together or they have to go back in and
fix it again...which would then eliminate all progress they've made
and double our costs...

The second surgery, which she recommends, is more expensive but also
more effective. She says that the tibia in a dog is slanted and the
cruciate ligament helps the femur from sliding too far along the
slant. Without the ligament, the femur slides all around there and
creates pain and instability. So, this surgery, called a TPLO, is
where the cut part of his tibia and flip it over and then plate it
into place so that there is no longer a slant and the joint is more
flat which stops the sliding around of the femur on the joint. She
says that its about 90% successful and that if for some reason there
is a problem with the plate later on, they can go back in and either
remove the plate or switch it out and the bones will have grown
together so they will not have lost any ground.

Each surgery requires 6 weeks of cage rest, rehabilitative therapy,
and obviously pain for a while. She assures me though that after the
surgery he will be free from any discomfort he feels now, and that it
will prevent him from getting arthritis in that joint so early in his
life. Along that same line, she said that the longer we wait the worse
it will get, and that if we wait until he starts to limp, it will be
harder to fix and less effective and just result in more pain to him.

Anyway, I know this is long - just wondering if anyone has any advice
about what to do now? Has anyone else's hound had CCL surgery?
Especially the TPLO? The specialist said that she always has a hard
time convincing an owner of a young active dog whose not exhibiting
any signs of pain to have such a surgery. She seemed very nice and
realistic which makes me think that Watson needs the surgery. Anyway I
am so sorry that this is so long, I'm just confused and worried that
I'm going to make the wrong decision. We have the money for the
surgery - because we finally relented and got the care credit vet bill
card so if we take the cost of the surgery out of the scenario, what
should I do?

Thanks for any advice and I am so grateful for the help I've recieved
so far - I know that the drool will have the right answers.

Katie and Watson (momma do you have enymore baby food? that stuff was gud!)