Feb
11
TPLO–Setbacks
Ticket’s TPLO hardware
So, a week ago, I decided that it was time. Ticket wasn’t improving–if anything, I felt like she was doing worse. I took her back for a recheck, and her surgeon agreed that she wasn’t recovering the way we would expect. So, I elected another surgery.
It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, but in my heart I felt like there was something else going on, and time wasn’t necessarily going to be the answer. The good news was it would let us reassess her joint, and address a lot of potential problems. So, in we went.
We found several potential issues. She had bands of scar tissue in her joint, that were rubbing on the outside surface on the bone. Luckily, it was a non weight-bearing surface, but it was definitely a source of pain. The scar tissue was removed with the scope. The medial meniscus was checked, and still looked fine. The joint didn’t look different from the initial surgery, so that’s good. We also did an injection of hyaluronic acid (HA) in her joint, which will hopefully be protective of the joint for some period of time.
We also removed the TPLO hardware (plate and screws) from her initial surgery. The bone was stable, and healing, but was not yet *healed.* Unsure why that is, but it’s possible the plate was taking the stress from the bone, and not allowing that force on the bone that it needs to heal. It’s gone now, so hopefully her bone will finish healing quickly. We cultured her bone, and the culture was negative, so that’s good–no infection.
And now… we wait. Recovery from this surgery is about 10-14 days. Not sure how long a recovery we’re looking it, it all really depends on how she’s doing. We go back for a recheck at the end of this week, and we shall see. She’s back in the crate, and is her normal happy self, just still getting over surgery. I hope to have my blue girlie back to herself soon…
