Pam and I have two dogs, Sprout who is older and Donkey who is a rambunctious and large pup. One day donkey jumped off the bed onto Sprouts back and he let out an ear piercing squeal. He is usually stoic and silent so this was very out of the ordinary. In the days that followed Sprouts back leg began to shake any time we went for a walk. His vet only prescribed pain medications and some vitamins.
Over time however Sprout stopped using this back leg preferring to hobble about on three legs. Pam finally found a better vet who looked deeper into what was happening.
A ligament called the Cranial Cruciate Ligament had torn. This ligament holds the two bones together allowing the knee to rotate. When it is torn the joint floats forward and back grating the bones against one another. A meniscus acts as a shock absorber and because of the way the joint was broken it began to tear.
The vet decided to do surgery. He drilled a hole in the bone and used essentially a string to substitute for the torn ligament. He also removed a bone spur. The surgery resulted in a 4 inch long suture down and over the knee joint. We were given a series of instructions for his care in the weeks to follow. He came home with a cone around his neck to keep him from licking or tearing at the wound. We took off the cone when he got settled in. Pam had set up two dog crates and several gates to make him an open space in the living room. He is not allowed to jump up on furniture or the bed so he stays confined. He was so drugged up and woozy from the gas that he immediately passed out.
That evening however Pam discovered that his stitches had torn open. There was a one inch gaping wound on his knee. Thankfully it wasn’t bleeding but the muscles poked to the surface. I have first aid bandages and let Pam do her best at covering the open gash so we could get him to an emergency vet. The vet who had performed the surgery was out of the office until the next week due to the Labor Day weekend. We waited in the vets office for an eternity. We waited much of the time in our car to avoid the other people in the waiting room. 9 out of 10 people who entered to vet wore face masks. As I did this sketch I could hear a girl crying for about half an hour in the waiting room. I also over heard a phone conversation about a dog that had overdosed on a bottle of its owner’s Claritin.
A vet finally took Sprout out back and we waited for her to sew his knee back up. When we got back home late that night once a gain Sprout immediately collapsed and we went to bed.