When I met my husband at a party 17 yrs ago it was all because of his beautiful 8wk old Siberian husky/wolf mix. As you can imagine he was pretty darn cute and I gravitated straight to him lying curled up under a coffee table sleeping.
I said "Who's puppy is this?"
It seemed like out of no where this cute boy popped his head in front of me and said "He's mine....his name is Poncho and I'm Pat".
Five years later Poncho was the best man at our wedding. Seven years later he died unexpectedly while we were on vacation and 1 week later we came home with a fluffy white puppy.
"What shall we name her?" I asked
Pat said "How about Cisco?
I said "But Cisco is a boy's name."
Pat looked at me with a smirk and said "Well your name is Danni....and my name is Pat ?!." .........So there you have it that is how Cisco came about.
Cisco is 50% Golden Retriever we know for sure. A Golden breeder had 2 females in heat and "some white dog" jumped the fence. They think Anatolian shepherd. Some say Samoyed. I say we wish we knew because I would breed her (except she is fixed). She has ALWAYS listened. This is not because I am such a great trainer but that is just who she is. She never chewed anything, always comes when I call her, I only need to tell her no once. The only bad thing that she does is she loves to run up ahead on trails to say hello to anyone else coming her way...could be worse right?
The reason I called this blog Cisco's Big Adventure is that she is so socialized that we take her every where with us and joke it's Cisco's Big Adventure! Well she is about to go on her biggest adventure yet.... TTA surgery. She goes in on Tuesday January 24th. She was diagnosed right around Thanksgiving.
After the diagnosis I ran home, hopped on the Internet, freaked out, and broke down in tears for about 2 days. We made phone calls to vet tech friends , to our old vet, and listened to countless friends of friends "whose dog it happened to stories". I decided to start this blog because the thing that I found most comforting on line were other people's stories. Even the bad stories give you some truth of what could happen. Not every experience is the same but they were all similar. It has helped us to prepare as much as we can for how our life and Cisco's life will change for the next couple of months. We have 2 other very large dogs! ( They are 2 yr old Great Pyrenees/ Bernese.) We have stairs & carpeting and Cisco no longer likes being crated! All of these things are not good for optimum post op surgery rehab. I'm sure we are not going to be perfect but we certainly will try. I hope that our trials & tribulations might help someone else about to embark on this journey. Hopefully we might learn some tricks to try & some not to waste your time on that I can pass on. I would be lying if I said this wasn't going to help me too
I guess now I will take you to day one which is hard because there is absolutely nothing at all that sticks out in our memory of when it happened. Cisco was an only dog for the 1st 3 yrs of her life. I used to take her running , bike riding, & hiking. I could go on an 8 hr hike in the Colorado rocky mts come home and she would want to go on another walk...Really?! We decided that she needed a playmate. We went to get one puppy but we came home with 2 brothers! Never go to pick up a puppy when there are only 2 left! Bad idea! They are awfully cute but they are big & clumsy. They all grew to love each other, sleep with each other, and play with each other. I believe this is how she hurt her leg was during a play session with her brothers.
I noticed a slight limp. I took her to the vet. Of course while we were at the vet she wasn't limping and even was running & playing with another dog. He felt her and did what I know now as the drawer test. He couldn't feel anything. No breaks. Maybe she was just getting a little arthritis. I thought wow maybe....all that bike riding & running....maybe she could get arthritis at age 4....maybe. Went home and just took all of the dogs hiking and nothing else. It seemed to go away. So much so that it was out of our thoughts. Everything seemed normal. She was beautiful to watch run and zig zag and weave in and out of her brothers while they just stood there looking at her with as much fascination as I had for her. Yep ....everything was just fine! Then....almost 8 months later it started to appear again. I would take her hiking. She would come home sleep. But when she woke up the leg would seem stiff and it was like she was "toe tapping" her foot down. I would give her a couple of aspirin she would walk it out and off and running she would go. Fine right? I'll just keep an eye on it. It got worse. I called my vet. I made an appt. One day before the appointment one of my other dogs starts limping too. Oh geez....I'll just take him with me too.
"It's a cruciate ligament tear.... torn ACL....the same thing that ruins a football player's career....she'll be fine with surgery
"How much is that?"
"Usually starts at around $3000....can go even higher with a dog as large as Kingston"
Deep Breath
"You don't have to have it done immediately if you follow some guidelines strictly.
If you leave it unattended she will develop severe arthritis and lose complete mobility of the leg possibly losing the leg. The other leg could possibly get blown too because of the over compensation of it. Kingston, your other dog, has a partial. Perhaps with limited exercise we can prolong the surgery on him. "
We have to take care of Cisco now.
The car ride home was silence. Our heads were spinning. Are they in pain?.... The vet suggested no pain meds because you actually want them to feel their leg so they know not to over use it......just aspirin..... How am I going to leash walk all 3 dogs and only a few minutes a day?!....... We live in the mountains.( Cisco & Kingston were always off leash because they were on voice command (JoJo..the 3rd...well let's just say he'll be on the leash for awhile longer ) They also run freely and often in over an acre of fenced in yard.........The house?!...... The stairs!..... The wood floors!...... The tile Floors! and the biggie...starting at $3000.....for each of them?! Breathe....
It was one of those "when it rains it pours" times in our lives. We had just shelled out a bunch of money on another of life's unexpected situations. We are not in finacial dire straits but $3000+ x 2 might just put us there. I am a" struggling some months not so much others" artist. I needed some time to figure out how we were going to be able to do this.
I came home jumped on the Internet and started reading. There was alot of information but the 2 things that I saw consistently was that there is a 50% chance the other leg will go, 8 month full recovery period, $3000 operation. Another thing that I found was how common this injury is. So common in fact I read some articles on the possibility of doctors over performing the operation. So I suppose it is important to say get a 2nd opinion especially if you don't trust your doctor. I saw alot of stories with good recovery....eventually....but so many stories that the other leg went during the TPLO rehab. Scary!
So we went through an emotional roller coaster for a couple of days with our heads swirling with a million ideas and the conclusion that we came up with was to do it after the holidays. We talked with our vet and I talked with my vet tech friends and we were given the green light with restrictions. No running, leash walks, and limited exercise. The reason that I bring all of this up is perhaps if you are going through a similar situation ask your vet about doing the surgery immediately vs waiting
We also had another problem to deal with. Our vet does not perform this surgery. We have to travel 2 1/2 hrs away to have it preformed. We moved to a very rural area a few years back due to Pat's job. We are used to this. We are used to driving to get to civilization so much so that we decided to call our old vet 5 hrs away. If you are going to drive over 2 1/2hrs to a vet you never even met what's 2 1/2 more?!.. I call my old vet who I love and adore. 23% of his business is pro bono! You can imagine the soul & spirit of a vet who does this and yes he is that cute & cuddly in person too! I say hello and we shoot the shit over our old town before we get down to business.
"What do you need Danni?"
I tell him all about Cisco.
"Sure! Bring her in...How's Tuesday?"
Without even thinking about it I just say YES!" I take a deep breathe and say "I was quoted around $3000 is this how much you charge"
"Yes ...That's typical he says....but for you since you have been coming here for so long I will give you a discount"
I was astonished at his generosity.
. "Let's just get Cisco taken care of"
" Thank You" was all I could say.
Pat I knew would not be able to take Tuesday & Wednesday off with such little notice. "I'll just go by myself no big deal"....... until I realized the logistics of dealing with a 75lb sedated post op dog on my own. You see my vet feels that it it is best to release her after the surgery and bring her back in 1st thing in the morning. This is great, however, it's kind of hard to get a hotel room with a post op dog who very well just might pee & poop in the room. I have no money left to pay for new carpeting. I've had friends offer their places up but all had too many stairs. My awesome vet said
"Hey...where are you staying Danni?"
" I told him that I was working on that"
"He says....Why don't you just stay here at the clinic?"
" Wow! ......uh.............Wow....................Thanks ....I just might do that...."There aren't many vets like him I think for the millionth time! I'm taking him one of my mosaics....I think that he will love the one with the aspen trees:)
I talked with our local vet and he will be able to deal with any complications of infection or pulled stitches etc. I went to WalMart and bought 6 rugs 24" x 72" @ $17.00 and they're actually not that bad looking. Cisco won't crate up at all. She is too afraid to drag her leg over the opening & turn around. We turned our small guest room in which the bed takes up most of the room into her "crate". This way at least I'll have a bed to sleep in next to her and she won't have much room to move around in. Coast is clear.....Cisco's big adventure
I hope that this helps anyone out there that is just realizing this happened to your dog. I am so lucky to know the very skilled man working on our dog I hope you all are as fortunate. I would love to disclose his name but until I have his permission I regret I must keep it a secret.
I will start to fill you in on Cisco's recovery after Tuesday
Thanks for listening
Please scroll down for more pics
A little note...I read that before an operation you must stop giving the aspirin because it is a blood thinner....ask your vet
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