That’s our goofball Mia, in her post-op pen following her total hip replacement surgery a couple of weeks ago. This was her second leg operation since arriving here last October. Our surgeon at Peak in Burlington, Dr. Kurt Schulz, had already repaired her fractured leg elbow (from trauma of some sort that had never been treated) by cleaning the debris out of the joint and bolting on a plate to strengthen it.
We didn’t realize until Mia had recovered from that surgery how much the left elbow had compromised her. Indeed, despite how bad both her hips were, once that elbow was fixed, she stopped falling down and was able to get up without struggling like she used to. We were amazed at the difference.
Following that surgical recovery, we proceeded to the first of her two hip replacements. She came through it in great shape. Once home, our biggest challenge was keeping this now 11-month old energetic puppy quiet and still for weeks on end. Hence the new pen in our sun porch. She is never allowed off leash, and even then, we have to keep a close eye on her, because she likes to try and charge ahead. Of course, she has no idea how fragile her hip currently is, or what a complete mess it would be if the new hardware in that hip failed. All she wants to do is run and romp to work off her boundless energy.
It will probably be at least two months before we can get her left hip done. After that one is completely healed, Dr. Schulz will operate on her right elbow, which already has incipient dysplasia occurring, and he will spay her at the same time.
So … we have a long way to go with this girl, but we’re getting there!
Oh, Mia looks like such a sweetie! It’s so hard to get any dog to comply with crate rest, the difficulty factor must be times ten for a puppy. I’m so glad the first surgery was successful and she’s gained so much mobility (even though this makes your task more challenging!)