First of all I want to say thank you to everyone for the PM's and the nice messages and good thoughts. They really do help me think clearer. So we finally got a hold of someone at UC Davis' affiliate at UCSD and the earliest they can see us for a consultation would be July. We don't have until July so I took some of the advice from the PM's and called Murphy's original breeder. She does not believe in surgical intervention for ACL's and always takes a homeo-pathic approach. She has had several people return the dogs for torn ACL, but has not had a lot of these in her lines. She is a very experienced breeder and has only had about 5 cases of ortho problems. She kept Murphy's full sister and she scored great on hips, heart, etc. She hasn't had any ortho problems at all with Murphy's sister. There were only two in his litter so that is all she can go on. She did state that if she were us she would stop all surgeries immediately. She is sending me a bottle of something that she gives to her horses. I have to inject Murphy with it subcutanously with 3 CC's a week for the first month and afterwards once a month. She said one dog that was returned to her couldn't even walk. After a few weeks of this injection she walked around the entire property and lived for another three years. She said it wasn't pretty to watch her walk, but she had a happy life.
Trust me it isn't pretty to watch Murphy try to walk either, but he has been doing it more lately. So Murphy is scheduled for surgery next Thursday and he will be gone for a month of rehab. Do I try the breeders approach or do I go the surgical route? My husband is leaning towards surgery and after talking to the breeder I'm leaning towards trying her methods. She said she has recommended it to other breeders as well and they all swear it works wonders. She was completely sympathetic and understanding but said objectively it is time for me to stop putting this dog under the knife. I think if someone doesn't stop me I will continue to go for one more surgery hoping this will be the magic one that gives me back my dog. I KNOW I'm being selfish about this. I really don't want any other dog but him. Does that make sense? Any thoughts?
Trust me it isn't pretty to watch Murphy try to walk either, but he has been doing it more lately. So Murphy is scheduled for surgery next Thursday and he will be gone for a month of rehab. Do I try the breeders approach or do I go the surgical route? My husband is leaning towards surgery and after talking to the breeder I'm leaning towards trying her methods. She said she has recommended it to other breeders as well and they all swear it works wonders. She was completely sympathetic and understanding but said objectively it is time for me to stop putting this dog under the knife. I think if someone doesn't stop me I will continue to go for one more surgery hoping this will be the magic one that gives me back my dog. I KNOW I'm being selfish about this. I really don't want any other dog but him. Does that make sense? Any thoughts?
