Friday evening Winston seemed very sore on his left (the tightrope side) hind leg. By late night he was only toe touching. The temperature outside had dropped dramatically (down to 15 according to our digital weather station), so we figured the soreness was due to the change in the weather since that always seems to affect him. We put the baby-gate up across the stairs and decided to watch him to see if he got better in the morning.
Saturday morning he struggled to get off the bed and ended up going off like "super dog" (back legs stretched out behind him) and didn't walk on his left hind leg at all. I had to support him as he went down the stairs. He's not used to depending on his right hind leg (the TPLO side). We went outside to go potty on the leash and when he came back in he refused to go up the stairs. I brought a bed down to the entryway so that he could get comfortable. I gave him some trammadol left over from his surgery and he ate breafast lying down. Josie had a 7:00am appointment with Dr. Courtley, our regular vet, so she and I left for the appointment and we talked about Winston's situation. He's not an orthopedic surgeon, so he suggested waiting until Monday to see the specialist. That's exactly what I was thinking.... if we took him in, no matter where we went, we would be told to go back to the surgeon.
When we got home, I took his temperature (I'm always concerned about an infection with the tightrope...) my thermometer isn't digital, so I'm not sure of the exact temp but it was around 101.1 or 101.2. No fever. Hooray!
Winston rested all day, eating lunch lying down. I gave him trammadol at 2pm and then again at 10pm. It seemed to help because by evening he wanted to go upstairs to eat dinner (standing up) and by bedtime he was walking on the leg again though with a significant limp.
This morning he is still walking on it, and he isn't struggling as much to stand up today either. It's possible that he strained it playing in the yard on Friday and we just need to take it easy for a few days. Now that he's getting around better I'm debating the need to take him in for a check, so we'll wait another day or two and see how it goes.
If I could go back in time and do things over knowing what I know now, we would have done TPLOs in both legs instead of trying the tightrope procedure. That's just us with a huge dog.
Dianne
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your story from last October, since our 1 and 1/2 year old Pudelpointer has been also diagnosed with R and L legs having torn or partially torn ligaments. You've been through alot, and youre pets are lucky to have such caring owners. It was helpful for me to read your thought process since I am struggling with questions/concerns you raised about chosing between the Tightrope and the TPLO (and our doc's are recommending another one TTA) Thank you for taking the time to write about your journey. It's helping me in the decision process. Anna