just found out my foster, chuck, has some pretty serious surgery on the way
just found out my foster, chuck, has some pretty serious surgery on the way
he's got hip and knee problems, so he's being referred to an orthopedic surgeon. i think it may be why he was dropped off at the shelter in the first place (the former family may have realized how expensive it would be to get him healthy again). fingers crossed we can get a treatment plan started next week. ❤️🩹
Got TPLO surgery done on my Chessie a few years back. I was unconvinced at the time that it would be useful long term, but it was a massive success with her. We got another 6 years of hunting and playing that she wouldn't have gotten without it.
It's not cheap, but if the dog is relatively young, I think it's worth it.
he's only six, and he's a wonderful dog! he loves playing fetch (which we've halted for now, unfortunately), and i think he'd make an awesome dog for some lucky family with a few kids out there. the rescue coordinator is already looking into getting him in the books with a specialist.
My only caution is that the recovery is pretty hard. Ours had a bit of a nerve issue afterwards from the spinal tap that shut her rear end down entirely, so she couldn't use her good leg to get around. We ended up having to rig a sling to carry her rear for her when she needed to move. I was worried it was going to be permanent but she eventually got everything back working, but it took a couple months.
One of our dogs required three surgeries. First one knee, then the other. She was like a new dog, able to run full speed again. Then one of the implants got infected, so it had to be removed. We decided to do both at the same time (figuring if one got infected, the other one would, too). Fortunately, it's OK to remove the implants once the joints have had enough time to heal up.
It was all super expensive and highly inconvenient, but she's still doing great and running around like a happy goofball. So it was all worth it.
If there are any stairs your dog needs to go up and/down think about installing some kind of ramp until the dog is doing better. It helps a lot.
i hadn't thought of a temporary ramp! we could definitely put one out front for him during recovery.
thankfully i'm not responsible for his vet bills (the rescue pays for all of that), but i'm not sure i'd be able to afford it on my own if i were. sounds like he's gonna have a lengthy stay with me.
It's awesome what you're doing for Chuck! If he hasn't been taught any low key games, this is a great time to teach him some so there are familiar activities he can do while recuperating. Hide and seek with treats hidden for him to sniff out can be a good way to exercise his brain and tire him out, though use caution if he's highly food motivated. Three card monte/the shell game is another good one to practice, which you and he could play without him having to move much at all except to point at the shell with the treat.
thankfully he's pretty content just chilling most of the time and chewing on whatever toy i give him. he does love to play fetch, but it doesn't appear that he needs it, so we stopped once i found out he was limping.
That's good to hear, and hopefully he'll get to play fetch in comfort again soon!