Questions about leg surgery

[lindak]

I just had Porsha at the vet yesterday for her 3 month post surgery xrays.
She had an operation at 9 months to correct her hind leg which was growing crooked. She is 2 years and 9 months now. About a year ago, her leg was showing signs again that the first surgery did not help her. I returned to her orthopedic surgeon and he claimed he might have operated too soon or it needed to be done in two parts. Her surgery was done in March of this year and he put in a plate/screws so that the leg would remain straight.

The xrays showed what appeared to be a gap between the bones meaning there is no healing and the bone did not fuze together. The plate could remain in place but if I ever needed to remove it, her leg could collapse???

I have contacted the surgeon and sent him the xrays. He will review them and told me last night that there are many options to fix this huge problem. Her vet mentioned bone graphing.

I am going to do whatever it takes to correct this.

I am angry at the doctor needless to say and am holding him responsible in every way.

Has anyone every heard of such a thing. Experience with this? Most importantly, is she going to be alright? My baby has had nothing but bad luck and I want the rest of years to be enjoyable where once in her life she could run and be a puppy.

She also has dysplasir. I am not going to surgically correct this now but I've made a call to a hollistic doctor who practices acupuncture. I've heard this helps. Anyone know anything about this?

[flyballmom]

Linda, I'm not familiar with the type of surgery your Porsha had, but am only TOO familiar with a different type of surgery where an oseotomy (cut in the bone) is made and plates and screws inserted. It's not unheard of for complete bone healing not to have occured at 12 weeks. 2 friends dogs, who had the same surgery as mine, didn't have bone healing enough to progress activity til 16 weeks. It's not "usual" or "average" but it does happen. Also, I'm assuming your regular vet took and looked at the X-rays. Your ortho will be better able to see if ANY healing has taken place. And yes, in the absence of bone healing grafting can be done.

[lindak]

Thanks for responding. Porsha's vet did look at it. She said it appears as if it is not closed. She immediately suggested I send the xrays to her surgeon. He will be calling me this week to discuss further options to correct this problem. Her vet also spoke about bone graphs. I sure hope this helps.

[Famenesty]

Wow, so sorry to hear that. You definitely do need to talk to that surgeon to explore your options.

If you are also into natural healing, you could try a couple of things to help along the recovery. You could try making a fomentation of Dr.Christopher's Bone, Flesh & Cartilage to place and wrap on the leg to help the healing and maybe give both the BF&C and BONE LIQUESCENCE internally. We are currently using BF&C on a 13 yr old male that has a partially broken bone from cancer or the break happened then the cancer followed, still debating that one. Different circumstances then your girls bone issue but bone is bone. It seems to be helping our guy, maybe you can do some research and see if it might help yours.

Good luck to you and I hope Porscha heals real soon!

Kind Regards,

Cherry Bransdorf

[Anne]

lindak. After your pup had the surgery did you confine her to a crate to limit her activity?

[lindak]

anne,

for the first 10 days she was confined in her room (yes, porsha has her own room in the house... the family room). She was out of it and pretty much just laid on her bed. We supervised her 24-7. I wasn't at work during the time so it was ok. I took her to the vet at 10 days to remove the stitches. She had stitches on both sides of her leg. The inner side didn't close and the doctor said that one of the screws were loose. She stayed overnite at the vets. She washed everything, tightened, re-stitched. It turned out great. I went back to the vet to monitor that twice a week. From 10 days to the eight weeks, I kept her confined in her crate. She came out only to take her "outside" and for a little bit if I stayed right next to her on the floor. She is always on the leash from the moment we step outside and that is always.
I did keep on careful eye on her.

[chivas]

I cant help you much on this but I am sure others are alot more knowledgable on this. But, I do know ALOT (too much actually) about osteosarcoma (bone cancer) which rotties are extremely prone to. There has been some studies showing that osteo seems to attack bones that have a prior insult to them (it was tragically way too true in both of my cases). If there is any cutting in your girl's bones, make sure you put her on a lifelong regime of immune boosting supplements, there are many different kinds (Ester C, antioxidants, etc). I dont want to alarm but if I had known this when Chivas was 3 and chipped her elbow (same elbow cancer attacked 8 yrs later) maybe she would still be with me.
Kim