I am really torn and starting to get really frustrated by all the different medical opinions I am getting. The original surgeon still thinks murphy's luxated patella (which has already been surgically fixed) will get better once he builds up muscle mass. The second opinion I got thought the right leg was 100% and the left needed another luxated patella surgery after rehab. So we go to a third doctor for the rehab. The rehab is to build up the muscles before we decide what else we need to do. She is actually a vet and part of a 31 vet practice that deals with surgical referrals only. They do not see regular patients, they are just there to provide rehab and surgical specialties such as heart, ortho, eyes, etc. She is the rehab specialist. After 6 weeks of rehab Murphy has started to get worse and by worse I mean cannot even get up to go to the bathroom. He goes where he sits and stays in it. After rehab he is so tired that he cannot even walk to the front door. He has to sit on the driveway for 2 hours while I wait for my husband to come home and carry him in the house.
The Rehab facility suggested x-rays and consult with their ortho surgeon. We agreed. There prognosis was very grim. The surgeon didn't want to touch him because he didn't believe anything would work and could not guarantee the results. He said the right leg is starting to luxate from the rehab which he is over compensating for. The left leg he saw the crack in the implant but said the worse news was the implant was in the complete wrong place "which you would not expect to find it in". He also stated there was an inch of missing bone between the tibia and where it should be connected. He thought the entire implant needed to be removed a large wedge of bone graft would need to be put in place and "major hardware" implanted to support the leg. He said the chance of this working was less than 25%. He suggested I take the x-rays back to the original surgeon and see what she wanted to do since he was not interested in performing the surgery. They stopped all rehab while I "make a decision". They said he did not seem to show signs of pain, but was probably experiencing discomfort. They said it was more a quality of life issue and that his quality in going for a walk one or twice a day in a wheel chair did not seem sufficient to them. It was really as if they were trying to give me permission or to lessen my guilt to put him to sleep. Needless to say I cried and cried. My husband seems to think we should have the original surgeon that messed up fix things or alternatively just let him live his days in a wheel chair. We are talking about a two year old dog. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.
The Rehab facility suggested x-rays and consult with their ortho surgeon. We agreed. There prognosis was very grim. The surgeon didn't want to touch him because he didn't believe anything would work and could not guarantee the results. He said the right leg is starting to luxate from the rehab which he is over compensating for. The left leg he saw the crack in the implant but said the worse news was the implant was in the complete wrong place "which you would not expect to find it in". He also stated there was an inch of missing bone between the tibia and where it should be connected. He thought the entire implant needed to be removed a large wedge of bone graft would need to be put in place and "major hardware" implanted to support the leg. He said the chance of this working was less than 25%. He suggested I take the x-rays back to the original surgeon and see what she wanted to do since he was not interested in performing the surgery. They stopped all rehab while I "make a decision". They said he did not seem to show signs of pain, but was probably experiencing discomfort. They said it was more a quality of life issue and that his quality in going for a walk one or twice a day in a wheel chair did not seem sufficient to them. It was really as if they were trying to give me permission or to lessen my guilt to put him to sleep. Needless to say I cried and cried. My husband seems to think we should have the original surgeon that messed up fix things or alternatively just let him live his days in a wheel chair. We are talking about a two year old dog. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.
