Good News

Rainy Day in MA, but....Freedom!

Hi everyone,
Well as many of you know back in October after a romp at the doggy park Casey came up limping. At first it was difficult to see which leg it was. After going through ACL surgery you tend to always look at that surgical leg, but we soon realized it was the left. We took him immediatley to the orthopedic vet whom at that time sedated, manipulated the knee and x-rayed and found nothing. Sent us home for 3 weeks thinking it was a muscle pull or soft tissue injury. After 3 weeks we saw no change and were sadly disapointed thinking it must be the ACL. My gut said it was and I saw the same type of behaviors and limp as round one with the right knee. Well we went back and the ortho said the joint was stable, but felt effusion. He told us it was a partial tear and the plan was to wait until March to schedule surgery as we live in MA and the winters are long and hard! Well with CM and walking we waited. After January I noticed the limp was gone. Weeks continued to pass and come March I just couldn't call to schedule his second would be tplo. With no limp I figured something got better! So we went today to confirm if the knee was still stable. The ortho manipulated the knee and found it is stable and no swelling or nothing. Just like nothing ever happened! We are overjoyed. The truth is he may still have a pull or a tear, but he may never need surgery or maybe in the future. In the mean time he can resume his activities although we are going to not going to resume high risk activities! Ball and walks it is!

Other good news is that Casey has continued to lose weight! He is 94 lbs now! This guy 3 months ago was 105! Ortho and we are exstatic about that. A loss of 10% body weight is a huge help for those knees! So we dodged the surgery bullet! Hopefully forever, but at least for now! Finally Casey can be a dog again! After his tplo last year he was cleared for one and a half months before he came up limping. Poor boy has had nothing but confinement for this year....now that is over! Yeah!

I am glad this blog has helped others. I appreciate your comments that many of you leave! I do this for myself, but if it helps others as well then that is just even better!

Wishing all the pups on Orthodogs a speedy and healthy recovery. If not for that group it would have been a tough year. They have taught me so much! Thank you guys!

Signing off for now...Melissa & Casey!

And So We Wait...

Well we are longingly waiting for winter to end. The plan was to schedule Casey for TPLO agin this March of 2008 after our winter had subsided. Well during this time we are being careful with Casey, no ball or rough play, but still walking him daily to protect the muscles from atrophy. Well somewhere in January the limping stopped! He has not limped since! I was suppose to call for to schedule his surgery on Feb 1st, but I can't seem to bring myself to schedule it since he is doing fantastic. You would never think he had anything wrong! I am thrilled. Maybe the CM (Conservative Management) is working for him? My husband and I did decide to schedule another ortho consult in March and then if the knee is still showing a postiive drawer sign and effusion then we will schedule with that in mind. So we wait! In the mean time it hasn't been too agonizing for me as the weather has been so intollerable that he isn't missing out on much outside time anyway, but he is miserable! Still getting into things if we don't gate him in our living room. Not sure what that is about except boredom, but not much I can do with mother nature!

So when we learn more I will post again. Thanks to all whom read this and I hope you all find it informative and helpful!