[Kate1]

Hello - my lovely 9 year old cockerpoo suddenly went lame for the first time ever, chasing her ball a few weeks ago. After I took her to the vet they decided to x ray her. They gave her Librella and started her on Antinol and I rested her for a few days and from then there has been no limp. Unfortunately they found her right front leg was full of arthritis and wanted to do a CT. I have a decent insurance and she had the CT and that seemed fine, until they looked again and said There is a small fissure at the medial coronoid process. Not catastrophic - but they want to assess the health of the cartilage in the whole joint, then look to either remove the damaged cartilage or remove the coronoid process via a very small incision - It isn't a major op, but the recovery is madness and has made my head spin. My instinct is that she twisted her foot to cause the limp, as it has gone and there was nothing there before - but obvs they have found this arthritis.

Floss is my shadow - she comes in the car when I have to go to my parents house, sits by me on the sofa - under my desk (upstairs where I work) and sleeps at the bottom of the bed. I have been told 6 weeks of lead walks - no stairs and no sofa or bed. I need some advice, as she will get so depressed - lockdown was bad enough - I am deciding if I am going to put her through this at all, as she seems totally happy and hasn't shown ANY signs of stiffness or pain. But then again - our cockerpoos tend not to show pain. I want to do the absolute right thing for her. What would you do? Watch and wait? I would appreciate hearing from you if you have been through this recovery yourself with an older dog and any top tips-? Borrow a sofa bed for downstairs or carry her up at night? if there is a good bed / sofa ramp i can buy? TIA.

 

[2ndhandgal]

Not quite the same but Molly had surgery for luxating patella which was a similar recovery period. I had gates too and bottom of the stairs so she could not go up or down without me carrying her and she went into the garden on lead. I had a ramp for my bed and steps for chairs and lifted her up and down to keep her routine as similar as normal as I could and the time passed quite quickly.

If you are uncertain maybe a second opinion would help. Also librella is a great drug but it blocks the pain receptors I believe so it is easy for dogs to carry on and not realise they might be doing damage.

 

[Kate1]

Thank you. Yes I hear you on librella. I’m thinking I may not do March jab to see how she is before making decision. My vet is good and at first sign of recurrent pain he’ll give her the jab. What ramp did you get please?

 

[2ndhandgal]

The ramp is just a cheap one from Aldi but I had to glue carpet on it to make it non slip and it sits length wise down the side of the bed on the side she uses. I also put a folded duvet on the floor to really raise the height of the one gap in case she tried to jump off

 

[Kate1]

The ramp is just a cheap one from Aldi but I had to glue carpet on it to make it non slip and it sits length wise down the side of the bed on the side she uses. I also put a folded duvet on the floor to really raise the height of the one gap in case she tried to jump off

 

[Kate1]

Thank you