Our poor guy had to have surgery this week because he tore his ACL in his back left leg. We don't know how he did this, but we think it happened while we took him dock jumping. Asher loves the water! Especially when he can jump in it!
About a month ago we took him dock jumping at our local state park. At one point, he got really excited and was trying to run and jump from the loading ramp up on to the dock where I was. The distance was too high, and he kind of knocked into the wood. He yelped and started to limp a little bit.
From then on, we monitored him as he would never put weight on that leg. We finally decided to take him to the vet last week because poor guy wasn't getting any better.
Our awesome vet, Dr. C, took an x-ray:
Yup. I can't tell you what we're looking at exactly, but he said that the bright white color where the bones meet isn't good. It's bad, real bad. It meant that the muscles around the bones were swollen and torn. :(
So, we had to schedule a surgery date as soon as possible. The longer we waited the higher chance he had of developing arthritis in his joint. What made the situation even more depressing was that we found this out 2 days after we booked our non-refundable vacation tickets. I'm not saying where we're going yet because it's a fun surprise that we're going to make into a game, but it's awesome!
Back to poor Asher. This is the vet's picture of what was going to be done to fix his ACL:
The pictures to the left show the injury, while the picture on the right shows how the vet fixed his injury. I can't explain any of it to you because it makes me cringe just thinking about it!
Here's poor guy after the surgery:
I didn't want to add the close-up of his incision in case anyone out there is squeamish, but it's a nice clean line with staples. No worries, he's on plenty of pain meds to see him through his recovery time. The thing that scared me the most when I first saw him was his shaved side! We have him laying on an old twin mattress that we have. Friends, don't worry! If you come to stay at our house you won't be sleeping on this mattress!
The trouble that we're coming up against now is tricking him in to taking his medicine. He's on like 6 different meds, and he's suspicious now of everything we give him to eat. He has to sniff it out. I think it's funny that people beg for pain pills, but dogs hate them! Right now, we're hollowing out banana pieces, stuffing the pill in the piece, and covering it up with peanut butter. That way he swallows the whole thing and can't smell it.
Asher is on bed rest for the next 2 weeks. He can get up to use the bathroom but that's it! We have to help him walk by placing a towel under his belly and using it like a sling. We pick up the towel to take pressure off of his leg. We're old pros now!
After the 2 weeks, he gets his staples removed and can start walking around more. He will then have to have some physical therapy at home which the vet will teach us how to do. The total recovery time is about 2 months.
Thank goodness he got the surgery during the summer while I was off to help take care of him! He looks so pitiful with his half-shaved bottom though!
I hope it doesn't lower his self-esteem! :)
About a month ago we took him dock jumping at our local state park. At one point, he got really excited and was trying to run and jump from the loading ramp up on to the dock where I was. The distance was too high, and he kind of knocked into the wood. He yelped and started to limp a little bit.
From then on, we monitored him as he would never put weight on that leg. We finally decided to take him to the vet last week because poor guy wasn't getting any better.
Our awesome vet, Dr. C, took an x-ray:
Yup. I can't tell you what we're looking at exactly, but he said that the bright white color where the bones meet isn't good. It's bad, real bad. It meant that the muscles around the bones were swollen and torn. :(
So, we had to schedule a surgery date as soon as possible. The longer we waited the higher chance he had of developing arthritis in his joint. What made the situation even more depressing was that we found this out 2 days after we booked our non-refundable vacation tickets. I'm not saying where we're going yet because it's a fun surprise that we're going to make into a game, but it's awesome!
Back to poor Asher. This is the vet's picture of what was going to be done to fix his ACL:
The pictures to the left show the injury, while the picture on the right shows how the vet fixed his injury. I can't explain any of it to you because it makes me cringe just thinking about it!
Here's poor guy after the surgery:
Pitiful!
I didn't want to add the close-up of his incision in case anyone out there is squeamish, but it's a nice clean line with staples. No worries, he's on plenty of pain meds to see him through his recovery time. The thing that scared me the most when I first saw him was his shaved side! We have him laying on an old twin mattress that we have. Friends, don't worry! If you come to stay at our house you won't be sleeping on this mattress!
The trouble that we're coming up against now is tricking him in to taking his medicine. He's on like 6 different meds, and he's suspicious now of everything we give him to eat. He has to sniff it out. I think it's funny that people beg for pain pills, but dogs hate them! Right now, we're hollowing out banana pieces, stuffing the pill in the piece, and covering it up with peanut butter. That way he swallows the whole thing and can't smell it.
Asher is on bed rest for the next 2 weeks. He can get up to use the bathroom but that's it! We have to help him walk by placing a towel under his belly and using it like a sling. We pick up the towel to take pressure off of his leg. We're old pros now!
After the 2 weeks, he gets his staples removed and can start walking around more. He will then have to have some physical therapy at home which the vet will teach us how to do. The total recovery time is about 2 months.
Thank goodness he got the surgery during the summer while I was off to help take care of him! He looks so pitiful with his half-shaved bottom though!
I hope it doesn't lower his self-esteem! :)
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