Abbey's Knee Surgeries

Hi Guys!
Wanted to give everyone a bit of a doggy update.

Abbey, our barely 2 year old Rottweiler, started limping on one back leg about 3-4 weeks ago.  It was just a mild limp so we decided to give her a few days (like we always do when one of them does this) before we took her to the vet.  And it slowly got worse.  While were were snowed in, she started limping BOTH back legs and we noticed that she was holding her hips strangely.  As soon as the snow melted enough for the vets to re open, we made her an appointment.  She was due for her annual check up so we just had the vet take a look at her while we were there.  The vet's first thought was Lyme but her bloodwork came back negative for that so the vet said that either she just pulled something or she had a bad injury.  So she sent us home with pain killers and anti-inflammatories and said if she wasn't better in a week to bring her back for X-rays and an orthopedic exam.

Sure enough, she wasn't better in a week so back to the vet she went.  I dropped her off expecting a hip dysplasia diagnosis but what we got was a bilateral cruciate rupture.  This means basically she tore both of her ACL ligaments at the same time.  Odessa did this several years ago but she had one go first then about a year and a half later she tore the other one so having them both go at once is a new experience for us.

So we called back to the vet a couple of days later to speak to the surgeon about what kind of surgeries we had available and how they would be done.  We spoke to him several times over a few days about the possibility of doing both knees at the same time but we ultimately came to the decision that they needed to be done separately to mitigate the risk and that TTA was the best procedure for her.  I've left a link here to a website that explains exactly what that procedure is and what the others are if you are having the same issue with your dog.  Odessa had the Ex-Cap Suture procedure on both of her knees and is just fine but she is much more mellow and less energy than Abbey.  She was also older than Abbey is and was overweight at the time of her first surgery so after some weight loss and some hydrotherapy, she had done just fine.   Because of Abbey's activity level, along with the fact that she is very, very clumsy, the surgeon felt that the TTA was better for her.

 So she will have her first knee done on today (Tuesday the 16th).  Keep an eye on our Snapchat for updates.  Her second surgery will be 4-6 weeks after that depending on how well and fast she heals with another 2 or so months of restricted activity after that.

The vet that we are using is Dr Henry in Lynchburg, VA at Peaks View Animal Hospital.  Our original quote for the 2 separate surgeries was $2527.11 for the first knee and $2127.11 for the second knee.  He does offer some second knee discounts and since he happened to be there when Abbey had her x-rays, they went ahead and did her pre op x-rays so that saved us a little bit as well.

I will do some follow up posts after she has recovered from her first and second surgeries with how everything went, how much we paid, and how her recoveries are going.

Below is a a video of Abbey walking before surgery.

I will be posting videos of every few weeks until she is back to normal on our YouTube channel.

Thanks Guys!!