Sad news

Today is the 8-week anniversary of Bocán’s TPLO surgery to repair the ruptured CCL in his left rear stifle joint (the equivalent of the ACL in the human knee). For several weeks now we’ve been walking him several times a day, and a little further every few days. He’s shown steady improvement; we got him up to a little over a mile on Sunday.

His 8-weeks post-op exam was this morning, and as I’d hoped, his repaired tibia has completely healed and the meniscus (and other soft tissue surrounding the joint) is healing well. We got a bright green light to ramp up his activity, and even let him sleep on our bed again!

He hopped into the car and driving home, I was so happy!

But, when we got home, he was reluctant to get out of the car, and when he did, he was walking oddly. As soon as we got in the house, he collapsed on the kitchen floor. When I got him to walk, he was holding his RIGHT leg up and hopping very reluctantly on his recently repaired left leg. He made it about four feet and collapsed again. My heart skipped about twelve beats as it dawned on me what had happened, and then it sank like the Titanic.

Ann and I took him back to the surgeon tonight, and he confirmed our fear; he completely ruptured the CCL on his right rear stifle joint, and the only recourse is a second TPLO surgery.

We’re the sort who always looks for silver linings, and we found a few:

• At least he didn’t do this a few weeks ago, before his repaired leg had healed.
  
  
• He was a trooper and recovered quickly, so he will do so again.
  
  
• We know the drill, and we still have all the borrowed equipment. If it had to happen, perhaps sooner is better.
  
  We would always have been fearful of a second CCL rupture, and now it’s happened. If he’d only had the one injury and repair, we probably would have restricted his activity, and would have been reluctant to let him jump or turn hard when running. What fun is that?
  
  But now, the other shoe has dropped! Once he has recovered from the second TPLO surgery (around the Spring Equinox?), the surgeon says we may allow him to do anything he’s comfortable doing, including leaping for the frisbee, and even COMPETITIVE AGILITY and FLYBALL. We were discussing both of these activities last summer, just before the first CCL injury occurred.

• Another “good” thing; most dogs who sustain CCL injuries suffer slow tears, often enduring months of sporadic lameness and minor improvement. This causes significant wear on the joints and usually leads to premature and severe arthritis. Both of Bo’s ruptures were in single, traumatic events, and getting the TPLO surgery soon afterward drastically reduces the joint wear. So, if we can keep him healthy after these issues, we should all enjoy another 6 - 9 years of creating new, wonderful memories.

We don’t know when the second injury occurred, but it was likely when he jumped into the car. He probably used the right leg for most of the lifting, and it just couldn’t take it – whatever issues led to the first injury also contributed to this second one.

His second TPLO surgery is scheduled for Monday, December 21st, the Winter Solstice. The surgeon is unavailable for a few weeks after that, so we decided to do it ASAP – and Mondays are “TPLO days” for this surgeon.

We hope and will strive for another speedy recovery, and look forward to seeing him back to mile-long walks by the Vernal Equinox. Perhaps we’ll be playing frisbee by May or June, and looking into agility training by the 4th of July? A true "Independence Day" for Bo will be running off-leash!

We're all a little depressed tonight, especially Bo ~ he's back in the cage for many more weeks. So different from the way the day started out...

Thanks for your continued positive thoughts, interest and kind words. If you could please send a little more our way next week, it will mean more than you could ever imagine!

PS - That's his LEFT leg up in the picture (taken tonight) ~ notice how well the fur has grown back!