# Cruciate Ligament surgery



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

Well tomorrow is the big day for Alex. We were at the vet this morning to draw some blood for the pre-anesthetic panel and the platelets count. I will have to bring him in at 9 am but can stay with him until they take him to surgery. They will start with the dental and when he is under the orthopedist surgeon will check his leg to make sure he needs the surgery. The vet I talked to this morning said they will not do the TPLO, that is mostly for big dogs. He will have a bandage for a few days. I hope everything will be allright.


----------



## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

AWWW poor baby. I'll be thinking of you and Alex. A billion XOXO's for you and your baby from ButterCloud and Noriko. I hope all is well.


----------



## dr.jaimie (Mar 23, 2004)

aww good luck to u and alex we will all be hopeing for a speedy recovery!


----------



## k/c mom (Oct 9, 2004)

I hope everything will be all right with little Alex. It is always so awful when our babies are having anything medical done to them.... My thoughts will be with you tomorrow.... please keep us posted!


----------



## sheila2182 (Nov 28, 2004)

Awww,it'll be ok.We will say a prayer for Alex,keep us posted.


----------



## doctorcathy (May 17, 2004)

awww, poor alex!! i hope he does great!! tell us how it goes.


----------



## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

Aww, poor Alex!







Best of luck to him, he will be in our thoughts tomorrow.







Keep us updated.


----------



## triste (Aug 30, 2004)

aww, best wishes for a fast recovery!


----------



## snoopychan (Nov 9, 2004)

We will keep you in our thoughts. Hoping for a speedy recovery!!


----------



## nataliecmu (Aug 12, 2004)

Good luck, hope all goes well. Tini sends hugs and kisses for a speedy recovery!


----------



## Sylphide and Shrek's Mom (Dec 4, 2004)

This must be scary for you. I'm sure everything will be alright. Good luck to your little one. Sylphide sends the best of her Maltese kisses, of which she has many.


----------



## Sunshine (Aug 20, 2004)

*giggles at DMZ*

No seriously, best wishes from Abby and I to you and Alex... hope all goes well and I'll send my prayers for a speedy recovery.


----------



## adorableaccentsdogbows (Aug 9, 2004)

Best wishes to you both.


----------



## Ladysmom (Oct 19, 2004)

How did Alex's surgery go?


----------



## kodie (Aug 24, 2004)

Kodie and I hope things are well with Alex!


----------



## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




----------



## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

DMZ----hahaha...They are such boogers huh! We need to put a crown on cookie's head

How's Alex? I hope ok!


----------



## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

How did Alex do? Tuffy sends big hugs your way!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

Surgery went fine. The vet is pleased, it was not too bad. They did the dental, the ligament repair and stabilized the patella. They did not have to do extensive work on the patella. He has a bandage until next Tuesday. If it bothers him too much we can take it off Saturday. We have a gel for pain medicine to put in the flap of his ear twice a day. He is still a little groggy from the anesthesia and afraid to walk or move. I am typing with one finger because he is laying on my shoulder. We cut up a cardboard box, put some towels in it and put the box up on my desk. Will take a picture when I have free hands again. Don't know yet how we are going to sleep. He will feel better tomorrow.


----------



## dr.jaimie (Mar 23, 2004)

aww glad hes home...hope he has a speedy recovery!


----------



## adorableaccentsdogbows (Aug 9, 2004)

I'm so glad everything went well. You'll be in my thoughts and prayers.


----------



## k/c mom (Oct 9, 2004)

Great news! Do post a photo! Hope the rest of the night goes well.....


----------



## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

> _Originally posted by MalteseJane_@Jan 4 2005, 09:02 PM
> *Surgery went fine. The vet is pleased, it was not too bad. They did the dental, the ligament repair and stabilized the patella. They did not have to do extensive work on the patella. He has a bandage until next Tuesday. If it bothers him too much we can take it off Saturday. We have a gel for pain medicine to put in the flap of his ear twice a day. He is still a little groggy from the anesthesia and afraid to walk or move. I am typing with one finger because he is laying on my shoulder. We cut up a cardboard box, put some towels in it and put the box up on my desk. Will take a picture when I have free hands again. Don't know yet how we are going to sleep. He will feel better tomorrow.
> <div align="right">index.php?act=findpost&pid=27707*


[/QUOTE]







Three cheers and lots of prayers and love for a speedy recovery time!!!!!


----------



## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

I'm glad all is well. More XOXOXO's coming your way







.


----------



## msmagnolia (Sep 8, 2004)

Awwww. Bless his little heart. Hope the recovery is speedy.


----------



## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

Awww, I am glad to hear it all went well!







Wishing Alex a speedy recovery!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

This one is a little dark. Will try to post another one. Since he is a boy, his bandage is blue and Cookie's pink. Ahhhhh Cookie's is already gone. 
He is perkier this morning, but still has trouble figuring out what to do with this leg. Since it's bandaged straith, it's a bit longer then the other legs and he cannot really keep it up. He has not gone to the bathroom yet but since he did not eat or drink since Monday after midnight I am not concerned. He has started drinking now and he ate a whole breaded porkchop this morning. Did not need to feed him, he ate it all by himself. I put also some pain medicine in his ear this morning. He is a lucky dog, since we work from home there is constantly somebody with him all the time. He is now sleeping in my husband's office on the couch, his usual place.


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

This one is better. But can anyone tell me why my pictures are coming out as thumbnails ?


----------



## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by MalteseJane_@Jan 5 2005, 10:32 AM
> *
> 
> 
> ...


[/QUOTE]
Awww.







I am glad to hear he is eating and drinking on his own.







Thats great someone can be with him at all times!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

Tried to post the bigger picture from my msn website but it does not work. Sorry.


----------



## sheila2182 (Nov 28, 2004)

So glad Alex is doing well.He will be his old self soon,thanks for keeping us posted!


----------



## kodie (Aug 24, 2004)




----------



## Sisses Momma (Dec 29, 2004)

So glad to hear all went well and Alex is home and eating. He sure looks sad, poor little guy......give him a big







from me!!


----------



## k/c mom (Oct 9, 2004)

So glad that things are progressing nicely!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

My little bugger peed already 4 times now, first pee was huge. Was so huge I changed the pee pad. And he ate some more this evening. One thing we learned, don't change his habits. He does not like the cardboard box we cut out for him and put next to my desk. He rather wants to be on my shoulder and right now he is sleeping like an angel behind me in his tv bed that we thought would not be comfortable enough. Apparently we were wrong. Last night we put his tent in our bedroom so he would be closer to us and would be able to keep a better eye on him. Not good. Nooooo. He did not stay in it. We had to put the tent back in his original place. There he stayed in it for a few hours until I heard him and he was sitting in my office. He finally agreed to finish the night in bed along my leg. I hope I will have a better night tonight.


----------



## Ladysmom (Oct 19, 2004)

Ah, Alex must be feeling better! He's manipulating his Mommy still! Did your vet give you an idea how long it will be before he's fully recovered?


----------



## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by MalteseJane_@Jan 5 2005, 08:38 PM
> *My little bugger peed already 4 times now, first pee was huge. Was so huge I changed the pee pad. And he ate some more this evening. One thing we learned, don't change his habits. He does not like the cardboard box we cut out for him and put next to my desk. He rather wants to be on my shoulder and right now he is sleeping like an angel behind me in his tv bed that we thought would not be comfortable enough. Apparently we were wrong. Last night we put his tent in our bedroom so he would be closer to us and would be able to keep a better eye on him. Not good. Nooooo. He did not stay in it. We had to put the tent back in his original place. There he stayed in it for a few hours until I heard him and he was sitting in my office. He finally agreed to finish the night in bed along my leg. I hope I will have a better night tonight.
> 
> 
> ...


[/QUOTE]
Awww


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

No the vet did not say when he will be fully recovered. Only said it depends on the dog and that small dogs are doing better then big dogs. Some of them already start putting their leg down barely a week after surgery, and others take longer. We will try to leave the bandage on until Tuesday, our next appointment. Mostly to keep him from doing things he should not do. But he starts to manage very well now even with the bandage. When I came home this morning from shopping, he jumped down the couch when he heard the garage door open. My husband did not have time to react quickly enough. They have a better hearing then we do. This is now going to be the hard part, keeping him from jumping.


----------



## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by MalteseJane_@Jan 6 2005, 12:09 PM
> *This is now going to be the hard part, keeping him from jumping.
> <div align="right">index.php?act=findpost&pid=28035*


[/QUOTE]
Yeah that would be very difficult to do.  Glad to hear hes feeling better!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

We definately will leave the bandage on til Tuesday. This will help in reducing his activity a little. Today I locked him in his tent because he started running when he heard the other dogs barking. I left just a little opening on the top, not even a 4" square. Five minutes later I hear him bark and go looking what he was doing. Guess what, darn dog was out of the tent. I don't know how he managed to craulw out of it.


----------



## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by MalteseJane_@Jan 8 2005, 10:51 AM
> *We definately will leave the bandage on til Tuesday. This will help in reducing his activity a little. Today I locked him in his tent because he started running when he heard the other dogs barking. I left just a little opening on the top, not even a 4" square. Five minutes later I hear him bark and go looking what he was doing. Guess what, darn dog was out of the tent. I don't know how he managed to craulw out of it.
> 
> 
> ...


[/QUOTE]
Awww







He wants out of there Momma. :lol:


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

We took off the bandage today. Since he was doing so well with the bandage, I thought he would even do better when it comes off. Wrong. It's like the first day after surgery. Now he has to find out again what to do with the leg not being bandaged. We started the pain medicine again so he won't avoid using the leg because of pain. We are having a hard time keeping from licking the leg. Tried those baby pyjamas but they don't work out with the leg. He even growls at us when we scold him for the licking. He was not a happy camper this evening. Will see how it goes tomorrow. We have another appointment at the vet on Thursday.


----------



## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

Poor Baby! Kisses to Alex!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

He was quiet yesterday. Barely eat. But today he is perkier. He starts putting the leg down especially when he does not think about it but then suddenly he realizes something is wrong, probably it hurts and he sits down and licks the leg. We went to the vet this afternoon and everything is ok. They will take the staples out next Thursday. 

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VwAAAF4aEG*...505732793244573

Was not sure if this is going to work. Here is a picture of how is knee looks like.


----------



## ilove_d&m (Apr 7, 2004)

ouuch.....poor baby, the girls and I wish him a speedy recovery


----------



## Sisses Momma (Dec 29, 2004)

Poor little think, lots of hugs, kisses and treats Mom, that always makes things better! Your a good Momma, so concerned.......I hope all is well with your baby soon.....


----------



## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

Oh my! The picture is hard to look at. I hope Alex is feeling better.


----------



## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

Ouch! Give lots of kisses for us!!!!!


----------



## nataliecmu (Aug 12, 2004)

YIKES! I hope he is feeling better and better each day!


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

They are supposed to take out the staples on Thursday. Well, there were seven staples, I counted them on the picture to make sure I am right. This morning when I looked at his leg, there are only 4 left. Where on earth did the other ones go ?? I found one on the floor and I hope he did not swallow the other ones.


----------



## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

> _Originally posted by DMZ dogs_@Jan 18 2005, 06:08 AM
> *That picture!  *shudder*  I'm glad my vet used plain ole' stitches.  Still looked frightening, but not as much as poor Alex's.  How is his leg now?  Both of Cookie's legs looked better than in Alex's picture---on the same day she had the surgery.  However, her recovery is not going that well.  I let her walk around twice a day to get some sniffs in, find a very inappropriate place to pee, etc.  She often holds her right leg up and sometimes limps.  She never did that BEFORE the surgery.
> 
> Did the surgery throw off Alex's bathroom and/or eating habits?
> <div align="right">index.php?act=findpost&pid=30140*


[/QUOTE]

After major orthopedic surgery, the leg is going to hurt and take some time to get back to normal use. Limping is quite normal. It can take a few months for everything to work out. Are you doing passive range of motion exercises with her?


----------



## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

> _Originally posted by DMZ dogs_@Jan 18 2005, 06:01 PM
> *Yep, and she's taking some kind of supplement as well.  It's called FortifleX225.  Looks like it's maybe made by some company called Virbac.  I thought I was going to have a huge fight with her twice a day about swallowing these (who doesn't hate having a pill shoved down her throat), but Noodle was very interested in them when I opened the package.  So, I gave him one.  He ate it like candy which got Cookie interested enough to lick it.  When he tried to take it from her, she quickly ate it.  So, the whole supplement thing is going well.
> 
> 
> ...


[/QUOTE]

Is it a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement? If you can purchase Cosequin over there, it can be sprinkled in food. Will she eat it in some cream cheese or peanut butter...even canned dog food?


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

I run out of pain medicine and went to the vet clinic this morning to get some more. My vet was there and I asked him if he could remove the staples today since Alex already lost at least 2 of them. He said it's ok and to come in the afternoon. So that's what we did today and now the staples are all out. I hope he is feeling better now because yesterday he was very quiet and slept a lot. He barely wants to eat. But boy is he mad at the people in the vet office. We put a muzzle on him just to take his temperature. And he gives everybody there a piece of his mind. Maybe it's better we cannot understand the words of that language or we would have to censure it. The 2 girls there said to my vet, he still likes YOU. Ha right. They barely finished their sentence that HE got a piece of Alex's mind. 

I have CHONDRO-FLEX II Joint Care Formula to give him. A ¼ tablet morning and evening for 6 weeks and then ¼ tablet a day. They are chewable. It contains : dessicated beef liver, dessicated pork liver, chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine HCL, manganese ascorbate, MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), calcium carbonate.


----------



## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

Remember how it looked like ? Here is the latest picture :










He is doing better now. But was worried all week, he was too quiet and was not eating. Maybe he was depressed.


----------



## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

Poor baby. I hope Alex can run freely asap. As usual, more XOXO's coming his way...and to you too!


----------

