Dog Gone It!

After landing late Tuesday night I had just enough time to get the dogs to the groomers before Diego was scheduled to have surgery. Earlier this summer, the vet did some x-rays and noticed that Diego’s femur was crooked and shortened from his previous injury/surgery at a different vet’s office. This caused his patella to lengthen and gave him a slappy/slippy knee cap. (In some dogs, because of malformation or trauma, the ridges forming the patellar groove are not prominent, and a too-shallow groove is created. In a dog with shallow grooves, the patella will luxate (jump out of the groove) sideways, especially toward the inside. This causes the leg to 'lock up' with the foot held off the ground. When the patella luxates from the groove of the femur, it usually cannot return to its normal position until the quadriceps muscle relaxes and increases in length. This explains why the affected dog may be forced to hold his leg up for a few minutes or so after the initial incident. While the muscles are contracted and the patella is luxated from its correct position, the joint is held in the flexed or bent position. The yip is from the pain caused by the knee cap sliding across the bony ridges of the femur. Once out of position, the animal feels no discomfort and continues his activity. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1569&aid=457) His surgery tightened his loose tendon and dug a groove for his knee cap to fit in better. All went well and 8 weeks after surgery he passed all of his strength points with flying colors.

The day after Diego’s surgery, I had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Sestero with Northwest Orthopedics Specialty Clinic. I observed a few carpal tunnel surgeries as well as an index finger readjustment with 2 pins and skin stretching.

This brought us into the weekend. Rico seemed to be acting jealous of all the extra special attention and care that Diego was receiving as of late, and he started acted mopey himself. He stopped eating (so unlike Rico if you know him and his recent diet struggles). Well then on Tuesday, I came home from my summer research project at WSU riverpoint to a house of bloody diarrhea and sad Rico. He seemed to be ok other than ashamed, but I kept a close eye on him anyways. Next morning as I took him out and saw it happen again, I knew he wasn’t faking. I took him to the vet just in time. He was so dehydrated that his heart rate had slowed considerably and he was very lethargic. He was admitted immediately to the doggie hospital with a case of hemorraghic gastroenteritis. They hooked him up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics. He was there a little more than a day and send home with metronidazole. Poor little guy!

Between Diego and Rico – I knew flying wasn’t going to be an option for a visit to So Cal… so it was time to ready the lil red bomb for a road trip to Cali. This was summer 2012 Car visit #1 to ford. After idling oddly, they replaced the spark plugs and highly recommeneded a transmission flush, which I agreed to and asked if there was ANYTHING else wrong with the car. They said no, and I said sweet! Off to Cali!!!