Poor Puppy!

Well, our dog is far from a puppy but she certainly acts like one! Her 8.5 year old body often fools itself into thinking that it is 8.5 months! We were running outside on Friday morning and she tore her ACL in her back knee. OUCH! We took her to the vet on Friday and they said that the only way to heal is by doing surgery. Sooo, she's at the vet right now for x-rays and to start the morphine patch. She'll come home tonight and have the surgery tomorrow followed by **eight** weeks of recovery. No jumping, no running, no horsing around. . .eek! This is going to be really hard for all of us! She has to be confined to her crate for a few weeks unless she is under close supervision. She has a tendency to bolt for the door whenever she hears a noise outside.

Well, that is why I haven't posted much this weekend. I feel so awful about this and so sad for her. She broke my heart this morning. She was begging me not to leave her at the vet by herself. I'm off to buy a few toys and lots of chewies! Not to mention, this is really, really discouraging for our finances. We thought we were doing so 'well' for once and now we are hit with this surgery ($$$) 8O

[SueC]

Poor dog! Dogs seem to be more resilient than we are, so hopefully she will surprise you with her recovery. It is so hard to see a normally active dog laid up. When our dog was fixed (he was 5 months old) I almost cried when they brought him out of the vets office. He had a cone on his head and was so drowsy he couldn't hold his head up.
Did they give any long term prognosis regarding your dog getting back to running? I know my dog would be heart broken if I went running without him!

[DCJenn]

The Vet

Ah yes, the Vet. I swear we are personally building a wing on the vet's building. Between Rascal's diabetes and Petey's tendency to eat anything, Trouble's getting fixed and Darla's annual check-up- this year has been a doozy.

I always feel so badly for them when they hurt themselves or get sick. Poor Rascal, before we had the Diabetes diagnosis- he gave me this look like "please help me" . I was a mess.

I'll be sending good thoughts your way Claudia!

Jenn

OUCH!

Claudia,

Wow...your poor dog! I remember when we first got Molly, she got out and managed to get her foot caught in a trap? or was perhaps grazed by a car? In any case, her foot was open and appeared broken. We took her to the emergency vet at 11pm and paid over $300 for the x-rays, etc. The verdict? Her leg was broken, but couldn't be put in a cast because of her open wound...which they didn't want to suture ... I can't remember why.

At the end of the day, the prescription was to keep her still for 6 weeks and the cost was phenomenal.

I feel for you and your dog.....the financial hit can be a real pain...but it is worth it to get her back on her feet again.

Let us know when she is having the surgery and how things go

Kris

Thanks everyone! Jasmine had her surgery this morning! Everything went really, really well! The surgeon said that it went as well as they had hoped . . .if not better! The good news is that he said it appeared to be caused by an injury and not her old age! He said that the chances are lower now that she will tear the other knee! Sooo, all is well. She is spending the night there tonight and I'll pick her up tomorrow morning. I bought her some bones this afternoon. I can't wait to see her! The house is so lonely without her!

Kris, *how* did you keep Molly still for 6 weeks? Give me some tips, please!

that's good news!

Claudia,

I'm so glad that her surgery went well...what a relief for you guys!

Keeping Molly still It just didn't happen. How do you keep a dog from being excited and jumping around? We tried putting her in her kennel, but she just pawed away at the doors and we were afraid that she would hurt herself more...so we let her come out and lay around the house....and she really just slowly got back into using her leg herself when she was physically more comfortable....

How is Jasmine doing now? Poor thing!

Kris