Gracie has been back to the vet due to her right front shoulder being more and more painful. Though I was trying to avoid surgery, my vet suggested I take her xrays and get the opinion of an ortho. surgeon. So on Wednesday, Gracie and I took a long trek (1 1/2 hours) to see 2 different ortho surgeons, both in Pa and get their opinions on the situation.
The first doctor said she definately needed surgery, that the bone had flattened out too much and he suspected there was a "mouse" (fragment of broken off bone) causing additional pain. He manipulated her left shoulder while telling me it usually shows up in both shoulders, and we discovered that that shoulder was affected as well.
He said he would do the right shoulder, and while she was under anest. he would xray all her other joints. She would be in recovery for 6 weeks, then probably needed the second shoulder done. So, now I'm standing there thinking to myself... 12 weeks recovery for a puppy. Wow, that's asking an awful lot of her.
Then off for another 45 minute ride to the second Ortho surgeon. She looked at the xrays, examined her and when she manipulated the left shoulder, she too said that both shoulders probably needed to be done. She said the way she does this is to put her under for the surgery on the right shoulder, doing xrays on the left side as well, and if it needed surgery, she would do both at the same time. She would send me home with detailed instructions (after a 2 day stay at the hosp. ) showing me exactly how much exercise she was to get each day for 2 weeks, then at that time, she'd be back for exam with her and she would probably be allowed to do most things she usually does. She believes less times under anestesia the better and explained that if she needed both shoulders done, only doing the right one would probably take the left shoulder from being a mild case to being an acute case due to weight bearing on the left more after surgery on the right. She'd rather have her recover once than twice. That from the first day, Gracie would be asked to use both her front legs only as directed by her, but using them from the beginning was very important. She said that she has discovered operating on both at once if needed was the best way to go for the dogs and she does it all the time now. So, I now had to make a serious decision.
I decided to go with the second doc. Reasons being she would tend to heal better if she doesn't have a "good" leg to run around on. She will have less recovery time, and she will go under anestesia only once if both legs need doing.
Called my vet, she got a little snitty because I went to a second opinion, and chose not her choice, but called me back later and straightened things out.
She admits that both are top of their field and she's comfortable with either.
She is concerned about Gracie's "psychy or emotional well being" having no good legs up front for a while and is calling my ortho doc to discus this today. She called her ortho doc. and discussed his eval of Gracie, and she now has more understanding of the situation and she wants to hear my ortho doc's reasons for doing both legs at once. She warned me that if she agrees with what my ortho has to say, that's fine, but if she doesn't agree about doing both at once after talking to her, she wants me to know I should not do the surgery.
We'll see. I hate the thoughts of going against my own vet, but I do believe going under once and recovering once is in Gracie's best interest in the long run. Maybe I'll be looking for a new vet?
Hopefully all will go smoothly. Gracie's surgery is scheduled for Monday.
Please tell me what you think, I'm open to your input.
Please keep her in your thoughts.....
The first doctor said she definately needed surgery, that the bone had flattened out too much and he suspected there was a "mouse" (fragment of broken off bone) causing additional pain. He manipulated her left shoulder while telling me it usually shows up in both shoulders, and we discovered that that shoulder was affected as well.
He said he would do the right shoulder, and while she was under anest. he would xray all her other joints. She would be in recovery for 6 weeks, then probably needed the second shoulder done. So, now I'm standing there thinking to myself... 12 weeks recovery for a puppy. Wow, that's asking an awful lot of her. Then off for another 45 minute ride to the second Ortho surgeon. She looked at the xrays, examined her and when she manipulated the left shoulder, she too said that both shoulders probably needed to be done. She said the way she does this is to put her under for the surgery on the right shoulder, doing xrays on the left side as well, and if it needed surgery, she would do both at the same time. She would send me home with detailed instructions (after a 2 day stay at the hosp.
) showing me exactly how much exercise she was to get each day for 2 weeks, then at that time, she'd be back for exam with her and she would probably be allowed to do most things she usually does. She believes less times under anestesia the better and explained that if she needed both shoulders done, only doing the right one would probably take the left shoulder from being a mild case to being an acute case due to weight bearing on the left more after surgery on the right. She'd rather have her recover once than twice. That from the first day, Gracie would be asked to use both her front legs only as directed by her, but using them from the beginning was very important. She said that she has discovered operating on both at once if needed was the best way to go for the dogs and she does it all the time now. So, I now had to make a serious decision. I decided to go with the second doc. Reasons being she would tend to heal better if she doesn't have a "good" leg to run around on. She will have less recovery time, and she will go under anestesia only once if both legs need doing.
Called my vet, she got a little snitty because I went to a second opinion, and chose not her choice, but called me back later and straightened things out.
She is concerned about Gracie's "psychy or emotional well being" having no good legs up front for a while and is calling my ortho doc to discus this today. She called her ortho doc. and discussed his eval of Gracie, and she now has more understanding of the situation and she wants to hear my ortho doc's reasons for doing both legs at once. She warned me that if she agrees with what my ortho has to say, that's fine, but if she doesn't agree about doing both at once after talking to her, she wants me to know I should not do the surgery.
We'll see. I hate the thoughts of going against my own vet, but I do believe going under once and recovering once is in Gracie's best interest in the long run. Maybe I'll be looking for a new vet?
Hopefully all will go smoothly. Gracie's surgery is scheduled for Monday.
Please tell me what you think, I'm open to your input.
Please keep her in your thoughts.....
