[Schweitzer]

This was the worst birthday of my life. My best friend and companion, my four year old miniature poodle Freddy, dislocated his right hip on Wednesday when he brawled with our other dog. The vet got it to pop back in, but later that night it re-dislocated. After $650 in emergency room costs (plus $200 from the vet earlier that day), I got my dog back with an Ehmur Sling and an Elizabethan collar. That sling basically is like if you bent your knee all the way up to your chest and then they wrapped you up from the base of your foot around your knee, totally immobilizing your flexion. Poor dog cried most of the night and couldn't get comfortable, even with the pain meds. The emergency vet said this would have to remain in place for three to six weeks! I didn't know how we'd ever get through that.

I called my vet the next morning, yesterday, and he told me that I shouldn't leave him bandaged up like that because it would be very painful and would probably just pop back out again once the bandage was removed. He felt Fred needed hip surgery immediately and that the recovery would be much faster and with a better result. So I took him in yesterday to have a femoral head resection, basically removing the ball head of the femur entirely, leaving just the leg muscles and tendons to support the weight. There will be no bone bearing the weight from that leg. I'm told that the leg muscles are very strong and that, especially with small dogs, this procedure has excellent results. The vet said he'd be 90% of what he was before.

I was such a mess all day -- my birthday -- worrying about him and feeling bad that he was in pain. I'm extremely close to my dogs, not having any children.

So anyway, I picked him up this morning and brought him home. No sling, no brace. Just an incision. He was fitted with a collar, but I took it off because he's not the type to pull at bandages or sutures. He's really good about that. I've got pain meds and antibiotics, and the little guy is doing fine. He's slept most of the day...wants me to hold him constantly; so I'm being dutiful and staying home to care for him. He got up and went potty and #2 by himself and is able to walk here and there, which the doctor said to let him do if he can, but to restrict his activity. I can't believe he's this ambulatory after such a major operation.

This is a long post, but I'm curious if anyone has familiarity with this procedure and how well their dog healed.

[darkcloud]

Im not familiar with this particular procedure but my lab Thyme(pictured in the thread about dogs btw!)blew out her ACL and MCL because her big black lab brother kept trying to hump her. Who says the black males don't like white females haha?

Anyways we had to restrict her activity for about 6 weeks which was hard with her mom and sister always around(also pictured). She's prolly about 90% and can tell she definately has some tendinitus in that knee. She'll occasionally limp around after a long nap or some good playing around.

I would definately suggest keeping Freddy on the DL for the specified amount of time if not longer if possible. And being a small dog watch those furniture jumps or jumping off your lap or whatever. Good luck and she should be overall fine but don't expect her to ever be exactly the same during play time.

[Brunotheboxer]

not familiar, but good luck with this.