Emmie has always been a low maintenance dog. She never got sick and preferred the free toys known as “sticks”. Her expenses involved food, Benadryl for allergies, and routine checkups with the vet. In 2009 she started making up for lost time and with it came the medical bills. Enter complexity # 2 - torn ACL. I have no idea how it happened and don’t believe it was related to her cancer treatments. It happened on a normal day. She went about her normal business of sniffing around the back yard, barking at anything that seemed out of place and sleeping the day away. The next thing I knew she wasn’t putting weight on her back leg. Drama! I took her to my normal vet and they confirmed she had a torn ACL. They gave me several options for treatments and after talking to several different people I scheduled a consult with the orthopedic surgeon at the
Capital Area Vet Specialists, Dr Hulse. More to come on that later (precursor, thank God for my wonderful vets).
I’m told that a torn ACL isn’t painful for a dog and Emmie proved that theory. She moved around like a champ on three legs. We did have to make one big modification though. She could not jump up on the bed! This was going to be hard for both Emmie & I. Emmie has slept next to me since she was a puppy (she is now 10). My husband wanted to kick her out of the room for a while because she slept directly between the two of us. My philosophy was that she was there first and she did move out of the way when she had to. Not that I don’t love my husband but I was now motivated by her health and I didn’t want her to hurt herself further. We started locking both dogs out of the bedroom and made sure they had beds available on the living room floor. Obviously they preferred the couch and chairs so we blocked their access with strategically placed tennis rackets & folding chairs. Not exactly ideal décor but it works.
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