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So sorry to that Miso is having problems. We are all pulling for you and Miso. **Hugs and chocolate for you, treats and pats for Miso**
thanks so much you guys! i really appreciate your supportiveness. and input. i was starting to think i was going nuts when every person i spoke to out here said “just put her down, thats too much money to spend on any animal” when i didn’t feel the same way. i look forward to hearing from the doctors wednesday or thursday for the surgery options and then getting my girl on her way to feeling better. having lots of rest and carpeting 24/7 has helped her immensely- she hasn’t even needed a rimadyl since last week, so thats a good start! 😀
keschete: what a story! power to you guys for managing to save that little peanut! i wouldn’t let anyone make me but her down for just a bum leg. the doctor was impressed how hardy she was everywhere else, just not those little leggies.
i had a situation with how i got my last dog two years ago.( i told this tale elsewhere but couldn’t find it) we stopped by a kennel and they had a little papillon pup that they had for many months that they were going to send her back to the breeder to be euthanized because she was constantly and hopelessly sick in their care.( that was a long sentence, hmm.) we absolutely fell in love with this little crazy girl the moment we saw her and we just couldn’t leave her to an awful fate. they told us we could just take her as they were sick of paying for the vet fees and didn’t want to further pay out the airfare. so we took her home. anyhoo, we spent many, many months taking her to the vet weekly, never her letting get cold, damp, go outside or anything before she finally got better.
it was hell and so expensive, but just like you said, i would do it all again, as i couldn’t imagine life without her! she is such a ray of sunshine, there would be such a hole in our lives without her. every day we always say to each other how much we love her and how glad we are that we got her. now she is strong as an ox, minus some dental issues due to her short muzzle and sensitivity to dust and certain fragrances. squee!
also, i am very grateful to have a padding of windstones around me, as they are a great source of funds in situations like this! 😆 thankfully i have quite a few by now, so i can stand to lose a few to help fund her surgery. : ) we should have the official word any day now! once i know something i’ll post the scoop! off to bed with me for tonight! thank you guys!Me four I hope everything goes well for both of you. Keep us informed as to her progress our prayers are with you.
thank you for all of your good thoughts and support for my poor girl! i finally have a little news. it honestly took til the end of last week to get all this together, but i still have one more call to make tomorrow morning.
one of the best area orthopedic surgeons took a look at her x-rays and thought she was an extremely difficult and unusual case, so much so that he had to see her in person to get a better idea of what was going on in the joint. this fellow was over an hour away and since they are a 24/7 clinic its 220 bucks to just enter the door! (moreover i heard of some bad behavior by their staff to where i would not feel comfortable dealing with them ) i asked the vet i saw initially for his in house orthopedic surgeon ( who is better anyway) to still take a look and give us a plan( we wanted as many opinions as possible so we could get the best results). he also said, whoa i need to see this in person. he finally managed to get us squeezed in last thursday morning and he was really amazed at how crazy her knee was. he told us that despite the x-rays, that she DID have ligament damage; it was torn, but not totally severed, but still needed to be repaired. the x-rays showed that the knee cap was permanently to the inside, but by physically feeling how the leg moved it was undeniable that she needed ligament work too. she has had lots of bed rest with no improvement, so that shows the ligament will not heal on its own ( it often can in small dogs).
he felt that the joint was still repairable, but it will be nowhere near perfect again. he said she’ll be getting just short of a whole new knee- patella luxation surgery and cruciate ligament repair to be done at the same time. he quoted us 1500-1800 to do the surgery and that includes all the follow ups, meds and therapy by the surgeon. even though that’s a ton of money, that does include it all and i know some ligament repairs can be up to 3000 alone. x.x
he did make me feel better in that he assured me her problem was “1000% irrefutably genetic, inevitable and NOT your fault”. i have felt so awful that i did something wrong, but he assured me that the way she was born was just an inevitable set up for problems.
we have been successful in losing weight; she’s lost about a pound n a half so far solely from portion control, so that is encouraging! 🙂 i guess my thing now is how functional will that joint be after all the money, pain and stress on the dog? no way to know til we do it, and rehabilitate her as best we can for best results. i just don’t want her to still be suffering or frustrated. also, her other knee was diagnosed as being terrible as well, and how long will it be til that knee goes? or do we rush to do surgery on that one as well so we don’t pay double and have the more invasive surgery for ligament damage?
i was recommended by the wheelchair/walker folks( i had a super conversation with them) to get the opinion of a physical therapist of how much range of motion that we would get back at best with the surgery+ therapy and see if there is any hope of saving the better leg with a theraputic regime and weight control. ( i expect to talk with him tomorrow) they also recommended that the use of one of their walkers would help protect both of the joints after the surgery from too much weight being put on either of them, which makes sense.
so, that’s where i stand right now. next, to find a nice bushy money tree! the government check will help immensely with this- i can’t wait. i guess the surgery is truely the only option for her as the case is so bad, ( therapy alone won’t fix it) so the next nexxxt step is making the big the appointment and time off work to be home with her. sigh. its so scary!! i don’t want anything to go wrong or not be successful!
any tales of particularly successful/helpful therapy techniques? i know it varies by the case and condition.
i’ll stop rambling now cuz this is a rediculously long post and i’ll just keep going at the point! 😆 sorry!! thank you so much for your patience, advice and support. its a frustrating time right now. and thats just the dog situation!
my mom is ill too with something ( looks like hypothyroid or cushings disease, but is mysteriously different) so that has been adding to the confusion. she tested negative for thyroid and got an MRI of her adrenal glands and nothing was there, but that is a whole other subject. anyone with experience with those illnesses or very similar i’d love your input!! this has been a real mystery so far. ok, NOW i’m stopping! lol! off to bed! thanks!tf, first of all, good wishes coming your way from me and my zoo here in NJ! I know all too well what it’s like to be faced with what seems like insurmountable obstacles with our furkids!
On the wheelchair/walker idea, a lot will depend on Miso’s temperament and attitude about being restrained. A lot of critters adapt amazingly well to the chair; and some don’t. But since she is only 3, and the little dogs generally tend to live longer than our big ones, if this is something she’ll accept, it’ll be very helpful in letting her be mobile without pain.
I have a Great Pyrenees, (and you can’t get to the other end of the doggy spectrum from Miso much more than that! 😆 ) and we see a lot of subluxations on these guys. A couple of things can be done to help. First off, keep the floor surface in mind. A lot of these injuries are related to slips. So runner carpets for hallways, stairs etc. are pretty much a must have. Keep her nails clipped short and any feathering on her feet clipped back so she has more grip on the floor where carpeting isn’t happening. You’ve already cleared one hurdle by putting Miso on a diet; less weight=less strain on all joints, so diet is gonna be a biggie, unfortunately.
Consider crate training her in advance of the surgery if possible. She will need to have her movement strictly limited, and better to teach her to accept this now rather than stressing her further after the surgery, if it happens.
A lot of times gentle stretching and manipulations can help an animal to regain movement/flexibility. Perhaps a visit/chat with a vet physical therapist will provide exercises? I do have a dear friend who adopted a stray cat who had had a broken femur that had displaced, and fused back together side by side. Mushie walked with a noticable limp when Claudia got her, and she also couldn’t jump very well. It took months of stretching and working on Mush, but it paid off, and she is now 19 years old, ruling the roost in FL with an iron paw, and no trace of the limp or break. But again, it took months—nearly a year of stretching and manipulating her leg every single day.
There is hope, and given her age, I’d go for the surgery if you can. She has the potential for a good long, high quality life ahead of you and her!
Good luck, and keep us posted!!thanks tasgrs! yes, i have started with some of the very helpful things you mentioned and oh what a difference they made! we keep her feet trimmed, and she is in her own room with a very plush carpet we got just with her in mind for traction and if she falls. we have all hardwoods otherwise, so that i am sure didn’t help in the progression of things initially. the carpeted room helped so much she didn’t even need rimadyl after taking a weeks worth to get the initial inflammation down.
my sis just the other night suggested just what what you said:get her acclimated to getting crated. she is a lazy girl anyway and sleeps most of the time, but she also loves a crate that i have for her, so i will move that in her room today. thanks!
i am extremely open minded to the wheelchair, but the problem is she can’t lay down in it and i simply can’t be here 24/7 to watch her in it. she does have at least 10 years of life ahead of her, so its only fair to give her the best shot at it and see that the surgery goes well and especially the therapy afterwards. she LOVES having her legs rubbed, so i absolutely can’t wait for someone to show me techniques that will beneficial to her. i can tell she would really respond to it. thanks so much for the input and understanding! everyone on my end here thinks i’m insane for even entertaining the idea of surgery, so that really helps! so, now to come up with 1500-1800 bucks in a hurry….hmmmmmmy god you lucky duck you have a great pyrenees! oh i want one soooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! waaaaaaaah! they are totally my soul breed, other than papillons, who i also love dearly. we have abstained because we are on the second floor which would be impossible for the dog to get outside to go potty as its bones are developing. we when we get a house we are getting our pyr, once the fencing is up. (if the economy and life will EVER let me get a house >.< i need a sugar daddy) honestly, despite the size i have found that pyrs and chin are rather similar in some certain areas; they both have that great dirt shedding, odorless coat, stubbornness to the CORE, selective hearing, have to be taught or shown the benefit/point in doing something for you rather than standard training, etc. we figured the chin would be good training for the pyr in getting us used to a despicably stubborn dog! 😆 i have instantly connected with every pyr i've met, to where some owners who had trouble controlling theirs we ready to hand em over to me! lol!
oh i love the breed so! lucky lucky you! someday, i will have one, and every day til then i will dream of that day. siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.The pyrs are a challenge some days. 😆 But overall she is a wonderful dog, and I’ve been very lucky with her. I managed to put an obedience title on her by the time she was a year old. She’s the only pyr from her breeder’s kennels in over 20 years of breeding to get a CD title. I just found that working with her from the very beginning and not thinking about the breed traits (too much…. 🙂 ) was the way to go. She’s a total couch potatoe; she runs around the yard for about 15 minutes, and then she’s done for the day.
I wouldn’t say she has an odorless coat, though. She can get pretty doggy if I don’t have her bathed every couple of months. And shed? Oh my….twice a year it looks like a fur bomb went off in the yard….and house. AACK! 😯 The vacuum cleaner kinda chuckles weakly. I end up combing the rug before I vacuum with a slicker brush. 😛
We live in a ranch style house, so stairs were never an issue, and have a good sized fenced in yard. I would dearly LOVE another pyr, but unfortunately I’m getting to the point where if something should go wrong, I can’t pick her up and carry her, or to get her in the car if she is incapacitated. 🙁 She weighs about 110 lbs. and is just a bit more than I can carry anymore.
But she isn’t terribly stubborn, doesn’t bark at air molecules (like some of them do. 🙂 ) is totally wonderful with kids and cats, and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. I’ll look and see if I have pictures on the pc that I can post a little later.tasgrs plese tell me more about the wheelchair/walker. My chow is 12 1/2 years old and has arthritis in his butt and some days can hardly get himself up off the floor, which unfortunately is ceramic tile throughout the house, and when he walks his right rear leg looks crooked. He is on rimadyl but it isn’t doing much good because of the location of his arthritis. His vet says the only thing it really does for him is to help the pain. I would appreciate the information and possibly where to find one big enough to hold an 80 lb dog as I have never heard of this before.
darjeb, try this:
http://www.dogkarts.com/
If you google canine wheelchairs, there are several other places, but this one looked pretty complete.It’s just so hard when our beloved furkids get older. And no matter how long they live, it’s never enough. So anything that helps increase their comfort and longevity is a wonderful thing, as far as I’m concerned. Have you considered acupuncture for your chow? I have friends that use it along with supplements, and report great results.
darjeb, definitely check out and talk to these folks! http://www.eddieswheels.com/
they have excellent, affordable, light chairs or should i say, WALKERS. using their style of walker, or “wheels” as they call them, the dog can still use his back legs if the want to, and even go to the bathroom while wearing it! the walker allows the dog to build muscle tone in the legs, using them as much as they care to, without putting the full body weight on the legs and straining damaged joints. people sometimes even just use them for super safe physical therapy after joint surgeries or spine trauma. i spoke with them myself on the phone extensively and they are incredibly knowledgeable in all regards to conditions, effective therapies, alternative medicine, good vets, etc. they have youtube vids of dogs using their walkers too so you can see the dogs go go goooooooooo! check em out, really! 😀
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