Eowyn and I traveled to the Texas A&M Small Animal Hospital on Tuesday the 23rd to get her hips evaluated for surgery.
I told them that Eo doesn’t like being around other dogs when she’s on leash, so the shuffled us off into the back to wait for her to be evaluated. A very nice 4th year student came in, sat down with us for a while and talked about what we needed to do, and said it would take about a half hour.
I spent that half hour admiring the very nice Bull Mastiff and a ridgeback/amstaff mix that were hanging out in the lobby with me.
After the thirty minutes was up, the 4th year student came and got me. They had done a stride evaluation on Eo both while she was running and walking, and had come to the same conclusion that I had — Eo needs surgery, and needs it bad.
We spent a bunch of time talking about the X-rays I brought in. The X-rays are from when Eo was six months old and Courtney was practicing on her. The other X-rays I had taken last year at the Booneville Animal Hospital, who is Eo’s normal vet. They indicate that Eo’s femur has no socket to fit into (a congenital defect), and as a result, her femur is making bone-to-bone contact on her hips. It’s causing the head of the femur to spread into a ‘mushroom’ shape. Despite all the care I’ve taken to keep her weight low and to exercise her enough that she has enough muscle mass back there to compensate, Eo’s health is deteriorating rapidly. She’s developing arthritis in her hips and knees that is patently visible from the X-rays shown. I’m told that the X-rays they just took last month were worse.
There are two surgeries they can do on dogs with hip problems like Eo’s. The first is a hip replacement, just like would be done in a human. This involves sawing off the top of the femur, implanting a new femur head prosthetic into the sawed off zone, and then grafting a new socket for that new femur head in the pelvis/hip area. It’s expensive, and carries a lot of risk in the form of infection or of the prostheses breaking at some point. As a result, it’s not typically recommended for younger dogs.
What is recommended for younger dogs is a Femoral Head Ostectomy, or FHO. During this procedure, they lop off the top of the femur and depend on the animal’s muscular structure to support it’s weight. Rehabilitation after the surgery is critical if the dog’s going to regain mobility.
We planned out an FHO () and planned for it to happen in late May, which would be the soonest I could afford for it to happen. The procedure itself is $2,500; the after-care, including medication, will be about another $1,000.
Here’s where y’all come in. Up in the top right of the screen, there’s a button that says “Canine Hip Dysplasia” — inside there is an Amazon store. If you could order your puppy treats (and maybe even food — they have Innova for $15 off of what I pay for it at the grocery store!) through there for the next few months, it’ll go a long ways towards defraying the costs of the surgery. If you’d like to make a direct contribution, there’s also a paypal button.
Thanks so much for being with us through all of this.
