Thursday, March 01, 2007

Itsoff with his leg...

Dayton, John and I's dog, has always had issues with his right hind leg. He was born with a twisted femur, which we didn't discover until he was about 9 months old, when he was misdiagnosed with a torn ACL. Due to the twisted femur everything is out of alignment. His hipbone is now partially popped out of place, he has arthritis in that knee and hip, and has inflamation almost constantly. We sent all his x-rays to a Radiologist in Colorado to get his recommendations. He recommended Dayton getting a complete hip replacement with a derotational osteotomy. John and I decided we didn't want Dayton to go through the surgery, but opted to manage his pain with pain medication and anti-inflamatories. That was until yesterday. We were outside playing fetch and he let out a horrific scream, not yelp, but scream. He wouldn't put any weight on his leg. We immediatley went to the vet. I knew in my heart he had torn his cruciate ligament and the vet confirmed it. Not good news for a dog, ecspecially with Dayton's conditions. So John and I are torn, we can't afford the hip replacement, derotational osteotomy, and knee surgery--I am estimating the surgeries to be around $5000-7000, plus there is no guarantee this will eleviate the pain. John and I had come to the conclusion we would euthanize Dayton, so he wouldn't have to go through anymore pain. This was such a difficult decision for us; it broke out hearts. He is only 2, we never imagined having to make this decision so early. I made an appointment to discuss this with the vet and make sure we had gone over every option. She did give us another option, we could remove his leg. This is an expensive surgery, but this will rid him of all his pain, and they can do the surgery at the vet hospital I work at, with doctors I completely trust. He has to lose 10 pounds, but we can do it together! I hope everything works out, I love my Dayton. Dog lovers keep Dayton in your prayers! I just found out that the doctors are giving us 75% of the surgery, so we scheduled next Thursday.
Other good news, school is going great. Test scores are ecspecially great.

Hope everyone is doing great.

3 comments:

jessica said...

Poor Dayton! Jonathan said he remembers helping with that type of surgery when he worked at the vet. He said the dogs he saw did very well after the surgery. That's such a blessing the vet is giving you all that much off. They sound like nice people.

Glad school is going well. We knew you could do it!

Unknown said...

I'm so sorry about poor Dayton. Neal had a dog once that had a leg amputated and he thrived to a ripe old dog age. (Not Neal...the dog.)

Anonymous said...

I will pray for Dayton that everything turns out perfect for him. I've seen a lot of three legged dogs and they do great.

Mom