I talked with our vet Monday morning, regarding our decision to forgo surgery and see what happens keeping Sadie on restriction for 8 weeks. He was not in favor of this at all. He even said that he feels that making the decision to postpone surgery is the same as making a decision not to do it at all. His reason was that her arthritis would progress so far that many benefits of the TPLO would not affect her. I told him that I did not want to do TPLO because I feel it is just too invasive, and asked if he knew about the brand new Tightrope surgery. He said he was aware of it, but thought it was basically a "glorified banding technique" which has historically not worked for large dogs. But, if we were interested, he did know a doc who was performing the surgeries in a neighboring city. Yes I was interested! So the next night, Doug and I took Sadie to see "Dr. V" in Fishers.
Long story short, we liked him a lot, asked many questions, got estimates for everything related to the surgery and gave it a lot of thought and prayer. It is still expensive, but only half of what TPLO would be and sounds like it is a great alternative. Dr. V thought Sadie only had a partial tear, which is good.
I have her scheduled for this coming Thursday. She will be on extreme restriction for 4 weeks and then can start some light daily walks. After 8 weeks she can take some longer walks and after 12 weeks max, she should be 100%! This is a new surgery and so no long-term promises can be made, but with all my research and "gut" feel, this is the best option for her. She's only 4 years old and we hope to see her back to running and jumping and frisbee catching for many more years.
Thanks for all the support regarding this. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to talk to you about it. It feels good to have the decision made. Now we need to pray for a successful surgery and speedy recovery. I'll keep you posted!
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4 comments:
Good luck! We'll be thinking of you all on Thursday! Will you have to miss Real Moms?
Thanks Chris. The drop-off time is between 6:30 and 7:30 am, so we will be back with plenty of time for Real Moms. :-) And actually, I might reschedule for next Tuesday now, so we'll see!
That has to be hard to make a decision when they are telling you one thing and you feel another way. Glad you stuck to what you thought was right. I hope he comes through this GREAT!! Please keep us posted.
Danny
I'm glad you found a good solution for Sadie. I can tell how much you love her! I hope everything goes smoothly and will keep her in my prayers.
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