poor nyx! first day home after surgery...

as some of you may know, one of our pups, nyx, injured her leg a while back. after a few vet visits, we were referred to a veterinary surgeon to have her looked at further, for she had started hobbling on both legs. after they looked at her, they determined that she had torn some ligaments in both of her knees, and both knees would require surgery if she were to ever heal. bummer!

what basically happened is that she tore some ligaments in both knees, causing the femur to slide away from the tibia when she applies too much pressure. the vet compared it to an ACL injury in a human. we dropped her off yesterday morning bright and early at 7:15 am for her first surgery, this one on her right knee. the type of surgery that was done is called a lateral suture technique. what the surgery accomplishes is the removal of any torn/shredded ligament particles, as well as the removal of any torn portion of the cushiony material, called the meniscus, from between the femur and the tibia. Then, the torn ligaments are replaced by a heavy gauge monofilament line to hold the two bones together, preventing them from sliding away from each other again.



the surgery, although quite expensive, was a great success. we currently have her on pain medication and antibiotics, but the road is long from over. we will have to help her with some daily exercises and stretches, and make sure she does not put too much pressure on it too early. she has a 2 week checkup, followed by a 4 and 6 week checkup, after which, if everything is still looking good, we will schedule her surgery for her other leg, and start all over again.



she is pretty out of it right now, but i think that is the medication. i will try to post pictures here every few days noting her progress. she sure is a trooper. she is still quite young at just under 7 years old. and she was our first pup that we could call our own, so we want her around for a long time. way to be tough, girl! ruff!