ruby, ruby, operation #4

Ruby’s knee just wasn’t healing. She already had three operations. The first installed one band to stabilize the patella. She broke that. The vet put another, stronger band in for the second operation. No dice—she broke that one, too. For the third operation, he put in two pins. She broke on of the pins and the other one wasn’t strong enough to hold the patella where it should be. So, Dr. Edward Kurose (of Strawberry Hill Animal Hospital—a wonderful place with wonderful staff) called on Monday to tell us he’d consulted with another orthopedist and asked us to bring Ruby in again, for one more shot.

This time, he put longer pins in and he splinted her. She acted at the vet’s like her leg had been cut off, getting all kinds of sympathy from them (aka food) because poor Ruby couldn’t walk with her cast. Hah! When they brought her out to us, she immediately headed for the door—she wanted to GO HOME (and eat—Stanley always feeds her when she gets home from the vet). She was fast, too, I could barely keep up with her (I was holding her sling). She gets around very well, though not so much on the stairs (Stanley helps her up and down with the sling).

I really, really hope this works—I don’t care that she hates the splint, she’s gonna wear it for the entire ten days to two weeks so she doesn’t wreck Dr. Kurose’s work again. This case has him baffled because she shouldn’t be able to exert the kind of pressure on the bands and pins that would break them.

The bad thing about this all is though she’s supposed to lose weight, she’s been gaining it because she’s getting no exercise—even though Stanley is feeding her significantly less. Before the operations, she would go up and down the stairs several times a day—now it’s just once up and once down. She can’t chase the cats or run to the door to bark at the mail guy or the kids going home from school. She’s never been particularly active (she’s very lazy), but she did get a lot more exercise.

Ruby operation 4
Ruby finally getting her chow (click to enlarge)

Ruby eating Bingo's cookie
And she found a dog cookie Bingo hadn’t gotten around to eating. Too bad, Bingo! (click to enlarge)

Did I mention how much we love the staff at Strawberry Hill Animal Hospital? If we ever moved, it couldn’t be too far away because we’re never changing our vet practice!

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