Update On Our Dog

On Monday, I told you about our dog getting hurt when she fell while running up our back porch steps. She spent Monday night at the vet's office and first thing Tuesday morning she was sedated so that they could do xrays and a thorough exam. Well, the news was not good. Both of her back knees have torn ligaments. She cannot stand, bear weight, or walk. The only option is surgery.

When the vet called to give me the news I just started crying. This is our beloved family pet. She's in a tremendous amount of pain and the only way to fix it is surgery. The cost?...$700 per knee! That's not even counting the xrays, exams, meds, etc. When all is said and done, the total cost will be around $1800. That's $1800 that we do not have. But, this is our beloved family pet! We have no choice but to figure out a way to make it happen.

Both knees require surgery, but they can only do one at a time. They operated on the right back knee yesterday. We have to wait 2-3 months for that to heal and then they will perform the surgery on the other knee.

We actually brought her home last night. It's going to be a very long and challenging recovery and a lot of work for us. She is still unable to stand or walk on her own. We have to physically get her up and take her outside to the bathroom. I can't do it on my own (she weighs 76 lbs). We have her set up on a pallet on the floor, lined with disposable pads and sheets. (I have a feeling that we will be needing new carpet after this is all over)

Besides the difficulty of getting her up and outside, there's medications to give, range of motion exercises to do on her leg, and getting her up to try and start slowly walking her. Right now, the walking part is just impossible. She's on heavy-duty pain meds for the first 4 days and she simply can not, will not, use her back legs. She's pretty out of it. She tries to get up or switch positions and it's so hard - she just looks like she doesn't understand what the heck is going on. I don't know if dogs get bored, but I worry about her just laying around like that. At least we put her right near the back door. I raised the shade on the door so that she has a decent view of the outside. And, (my husband laughed at me for this) but I left the television on for her last night. Not that she's watching the tv, but maybe just the sounds of it will be somewhat comforting. Maybe it will make her feel like she's in her normal environment.

It's all so stressful! Her pain, the money, figuring out how to take care of her...all of it! I can't really even talk about it without tearing up. I know some people don't understand this kind of attachment to pets, but she is truly a member of our family. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and I will keep you posted on her progress.