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Casey's Story - by Brenda Osbourne | |
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Casey first injured herself in January of 2001. We'd had a miserable ice storm and our entire yard was a sheet of ice. All of the dogs were having problems negotiating the frozen yard for potty breaks but little Miss Casey wasn't letting the slick surface slow her down. She ran after a squirrel, who had the nerve to be stealing sunflower seeds out of the bird feeder, and she slipped on the ice. Her leg went out from under her and ended up going through the ice. She came back holding her leg up and whimpering, which Casey never does, the whimpering that is. She's as tough as nails and up until that point I'd never heard her cry in any way. She held her leg up for the rest of the day and limped for about the next two days but seemed fine after that. We just assumed she had pulled a muscle and was now okay. About a month later, Casey was laying at our feet while we were eating dinner and decided that one of the cats needed some chasing so up she flew and she didn't quite make the corner. She slipped on the hardwood floors and again, her leg came out from under her. Same leg, same routine. She came back holding it up and whimpering. The next day she was still holding it up and because it was the same leg, she got to go visit the vet. X-rays revealed nothing and physical exam only showed some mild tenderness but no drawer sign. After a couple of days she was fine again. Our vet at the time suggested if it happened again that we might see an orthopedic specialist. Well it did happen again. A few weeks later. Another cat chasing incident. So we made an appointment with our local ortho surgeon. The appointment was a couple of weeks away and we began to keep Casey restricted. I knew nothing about canine orthopedics back then but our vet suggested that we keep her as inactive as possible just in case it was an ACL injury of some kind. So we started just doing leash walks with her. We got her on supplements and switched her diet to a natural one. We walked a mile with her every night and fortunately, although I didn't know this at the time, Casey's trotting behavior was actually good for her. Casey never walks. She trots the entire time we're walking. It's a slow trot but she has just always walked that way. We also had to go up and down several hills during our nightly walks, which again, I had no idea were that good for her. The weeks passed and off we went to the ortho specialist. He visited with both me and Casey together. Did a physical exam, ran some blood work and then asked if we could leave her so he could do some x-rays. The physical exam showed nothing and more specifically no drawer sign. Our ortho surgeon is about 1.5 hours out of town so I left her and went back a few hours later. X-rays revealed a small amount of fluid in her knee. Given her history of a recurrent injury and her extremely active life style, the surgeon suggested further testing. He was convinced that Casey was showing signs of a very early ACL injury and was 100% sure that if left untreated she would eventually completely rupture the ligament. I had to leave Casey with the surgeon so he could do a nuclear medicine bone scan on her. She had to stay for about 3 days, which was the hardest 3 days of my life. I went back to get her and found out that the bone scan had revealed that the problem was indeed in her knee. It also revealed her small avulsion fracture in her toe, which was just an incidental finding. The surgeon's recommendation was to do surgery to prevent Casey from completely tearing her ACL. And he actually recommended TPLO for her since she was so young and so active. Casey is a small dog, about 17.5 inches at the withers and about 34 lbs. He checked with another surgeon, who would actually do the TPLO, to see if Casey's bones were large enough for the plates. This other surgeon had just started doing TPLO on smaller dogs and it turned out that she was just at the lower end of the size range for the plates. I knew nothing about TPLO back then but this surgeon had said that it was the best and we were determined that Casey was going to get the best treatment possible. Fortunately for Casey, and for us, the TPLO surgeon is extremely busy. Our appointment with him was several months away. We were told in the mean time to keep Casey restricted and as inactive as possible. So the days passed. We kept doing our daily walks with her. Restricting her yard activity, doing obedience with her to keep her happy, added some supplements to her diet and just dreading the day that we had to see the second surgeon. That day finally came and off I went with my little girl. It was a 5 hour drive and I cried almost the whole way there. It seemed like such a traumatic procedure for a dog who seemed fine. But again, I had been told it was the best and she certainly deserved the best. |
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