This is starting to take it's toll on the wife and I. My wife took the week off of work to stay home with Brandi. Monday her staples pulled out again. When she was in the kennel it was almost a daily thing for them to come and re-staple her incision. So she had to wait until I got home to load Brandi into the truck as she cannot lift her an no way can Brandi even attempt to get in the truck. She has lost weight (7 lbs in the last 4 wks) but with my artifisial shoulder and it's problems I have a heck of a time lifting her. Anyways, we got her to the vet and back home. Wednesday the staples came out again. I told my wife to put some Neosporin and a bandage on it and I would take her down after work and ask the vet to put stitches in it to keep it closed up. When the vet walked theu the door Brandi tried to crawl under my chair. She was terrified. I had never really seen the incision when the staples were out but when he pulled the bandage off I just about tossed my cookies. It was a hole about the size of a nickel, and you could see the tendon moving around in it. That had to be painful with air blowing or touching it. He asked me to leave her the night and he would clean it and sew it up. This was about 4:00 PM. At 6:00 he called and said everything was fine, he cleaned it, triple layered the stitches and had to trim it up a little. Now like I said when she went down at 4:00 it was the size of a nickel. Here is what it looks like now
He cut the complete incision back open to look and see if everything was alright. I think this was because I had concerns about her leg bowing in when she walked on it. After he cut it back open he had to trim away the old scar tissue so it would heal up correctly. I just feel that this ordeal just set us back 5 weeks to when she was originally operated on. And the vet is supposingly the best around the general area of all thevets and you can tell he is an animal lover by the kennel and the care he takes of them but I am starting to have my doubts about things. Then he said he was concerned about her thyroid as he did not feel her hair was growing in fast enough. So he wanted to run a thyroid test just to be sure it was alright. Well guess what? Her thyroid count is super low so she needs to be on meds 3 times a day for the rest of her life. I told the wife that we were not going to do that until her leg was healed and she was walking on her own. But when th ewife picked Brandi up, she had the guilt trip put on her and ended up buying the medicine. And to top that off, never seen the results from the test. From what I have read on the net, the ost common thyroid test is the T4 and it is not a very conclusive test at all. I told my wife when he was going to run the test it would come back positive. Brandi has never had any problems other than being overweight. And if he was so concerned about thyroid and her weight then why did he not say anything all the other times we had her down for her shots, visits, etc? And like I said before she has lost 7 lbs. Her weight problem was mainly our fault for giving too many snacks. My wife says that we will finish off this bottle of thyroid medicine and see what happens. I say no. I am afraid that if we start treating her for something that may not be a problem at all, then it might just trigger something else. Also I read where hair loss in animals can be contributed tothyroid problems. Brandi has never had this. She has always had a beautiful coat although she does shed a bit. But never has had patched come out, and does not have allergies. And with the vets concern about her hair coming in slow, they shaved her down to the nubbins to where she had razor burn before the surgery so I thought it was coming in good for 5 weeks. She had fuzz growing back the first week. and though it is not growing fast, it is coming in even. Like I said, he is a very reputable vet but I am starting to have my doubts on his abilities at some things. Her other leg that had the TPLO surgery is healed and you can hardly even see the scar. I realize that these are two different surgeries and one is considerably more costly, but in the longrun, if we had known, we would have had the TPLO done on her first leg instead of the convetional surgery. By the time it is all over and done we will have just as much or more in it than the TPLO. At least he did not charge for what he did the other evening. Sorry for the long thread. I just wanted to update and vent at the same time. If anyone ever has to have their pets ACL repaired, consider the extra money and the TPLO surgery. Or at least make very sure the vet knows what he is doing and ask for some references as to other dogs he has done so you can talk to the owners and see how satisfied they are. I just pray that Brandi regains 100% of her leg and not end up lame in that leg. And although she is a Golden, she is not a hunting dog, nor a jumping dog, so the risk of her re-injuring her leg should be minimal. Oh well, like I said...sorry for the long thread. Venting does take up room. LOL!!!!
