Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Bea's Knees


If you've been following the blog, you'll know that about 2 months ago Miss Bea blew one of her pretty little back knees out. Left hind for those exacting folks. :-) As a result,
we had to find a vet who does a fair amount of orthopedic surgery. Our family vet does not. Around the same time my Websters friend Carol had her beautiful husky Anyu do the same thing. Her vet does do the surgery and what could be better than a personal recommendation. Anyu had her surgery and is recovering beautifully!

So Bea and I headed off to see the vet yesterday for a consult and x-rays. She talked to me the whole way there. She wanted to let me know that she was excited about a car ride, lonely that no one else was coming and what the heck was this deal with being in the crate in the back seat. I turned up the radio. I think we had maybe a two minute stretch where it was quiet. I had to leave her as the leg and hip x-rays require her to be put under a light anesthesia and kicked around town waiting for the call to come and retrieve her.

Once back at the vet's we went over the x-rays. She does indeed need a ligament replacement and while she has maybe 20% that isn't ruptured, that will not hold out for much longer. We scheduled her in for the 14th of September, she'll have surgery and stay overnight for observation.

I can say that it was a very quiet ride home. The meds certainly conked her out for the day. I came home and placed her on a chair, with a favorite blanket to nest in. She slept for hours. No Busy Bea yesterday instead we got Blurry Bea!

PS: That black spot, it was me and my feeble attempt to get rid of red eye. I guess I got rid of the chairs red eye too!

5 comments:

Cindie said...

Oh poor Bea but she'll be a really busy Bea after the surgery and recovery time.

rogueknitter said...

Best wishes for Bea's surgery and recovery. Anyu thinks Dr. Frank and his friends have a great crateside manner.

Life Looms Large said...

I'm sorry about Bea's knee. Sounds like you have a good plan to remedy the situation though. Fingers crossed that the surgery and recovery go well!

I'm curious about what her symptoms were. Bailey has been having some issues with limping and our vet has ruled out Lyme and stuff like that. So I'm thinking it's something orthopedic. I'm not sure where I'll go to get it diagnosed, but I'm wondering what Bea's symptoms were like.

At least you tried to remove the red eye!! (It seems like it got removed....and removed from the chair.) I don't know how to do that yet. I ended up posting a Bailey pic complete with red eye. Ooops!

Fingers crossed for Bea!!

Sue

Theresa said...

Sue,
Bea had been favoring this back leg a little on and off for a while and then one day she became the 3 legged dog. I carefully palpated her leg to make sure nothing was broken, including those ticklish toes and nothing screamed out as being tender, so we let it ride for a few days to see if maybe it was just a sprain. The leg never came down and she was unable and unwilling to bear weight on it. I thought it was going to be a luxating patella
which is a knee cap that slides around and requires the muscles tightened on either side to keep it from floating. Instead this is the cruciate ligament which travels under the cap and attaches the the upper and lower bones of the leg together. In humans I think it's known as an acl injury. Anyway, once the ligament is gone it's gone. They replace it with nylon cord. If the lameness on Bailey is in the rear leg(s), have a simple x-ray and it will tell you what is going on, be it the knee, the ligament or arthritis.
Hope that helps!

Everyone thank you for your best wishes to Bea. I'll be sure to put your names on her get well card and give copious amounts of get well treats all in your honor. :-)

Life Looms Large said...

Thanks for the scoop on Bea!!

Bailey just has intermittent limping or slowing down on walks. The vet has palpated his legs, hips, back but we haven't pursued it with Xrays. Perhaps we should. It would be good to know what's going on so we know how to manage or treat it.

Thanks again for the food for thought! And definitely give Bea some extra treats from me!!

Sue