Puppy Back on Full Duty (Update 3) - Granite Grok

Puppy Back on Full Duty (Update 3)

 

Cosmo napping
Cosmo napping

Update #3

I took the pup, who is now 6 months old, back to the specialist in Concord, New Hampshire on Monday afternoon.

The injury has not (so far) interfered with normal bone and ligament growth and at this point does not appear that it will (Yeah!). That means he should not need surgery, and for the time being (assuming nothing changes) no more pricey jaunts to the Vet for meds, radiographs, or examinations–all of which was made more tolerable by your generous donations.

He may always have the cellulitis (a lump) that grew around the joint after he tore the ligament but it is not causing pain nor does it inhibit movement or function. The muscle in his injured leg has caught up to the good leg thanks to a careful and measured increases in daily walks–or maybe I should call them tugs, pulls, or drags, depending on what he things need sniffing along the way.

For all intents and purposes, unless he presents some new symptom, he’s back on full duty. Thanks again to everyone who donated.

Update#2

Many thanks to all the donors so far. We really appreciate your giving. It is a great help as we proceed through the treatment regime. On that note, I just added an update to the donation page. And yes, my name showed up incorrectly and I have yet to uncover how to fix that. My new “alias” is Steve Donald. Amazon did the same thing to me. It has something to do with putting a space after Mac.

Anyway, we saw the specialist yesterday.

 

We saw the specialist yesterday (Ka-ching!). The good news is that Cosmo’s growth plates in his leg are not (yet, I was cautioned) affected by the hock injury. The other good news (sort of) is that we are holding off on scheduling any surgery for a few more weeks.

There is some significant ligament damage and his body has done some weird things in response that we need to watch.

What looked like a bone chip in the original radiographs is ossified cartilage not a piece of broken bone. The bad news from that good news is that what is going on with the injured ligaments and cartilage growth around the injury could, during this rapid stage of growth, begin to pull his leg out of alignment. The injury has also retarded muscle development (from lack of use) in the affected leg. (Wanted to share x-ray photos of the injury but only thought of it after I got home. I’ll see about getting those for a future update.)

The program at this point is to treat his discomfort and inflammation with more (I should say stronger) anti-inflammatory drugs so we can work on building the muscle in the weak leg. And we want to make sure they are growing at the same speed so one doesn’t end up shorter than the other one. If we see any turning-in of the foot or a change in the leg (alignment) we go back ASAP. 

We re-evaluate in early September. If it’s not healing correctly the surgery bullet will swing back around. I’ll let you know when I know. Until then, thanks to everyone who has donated so far. Your help is very much appreciated. It took some sting out of that visit yesterday. 

And Cosmo says thank you! I think that’s what all the licking and puppy-nose-art on my glasses was all about.

I added a few additions above for clarity. Long story (a bit longer) surgery seem very likely but there is no bone damage yet so before we dig in and mess with it (surgery) they want to see if relieving discomfort and nature will help us out. This, of course, means more visits and more vet bills but on the outside chance, more invasive solutions can be avoided.

Not holding my breath. Thinking about changing his mane to Money Pit. But to that end, again, thanks to everyone who has helped out. While I suspect I’ll need to increase the goal, I am already overwhelmed by the donations so far. Thank you.

Original

Many of you know that vet bills can pile up and we’ve already spent a small fortune to get to this point. So we have set up a fundraising page for Cosmo at YouCaring to raise some money to offset the rising costs. We’re at 10% of our initial goal after day 1 which is a great start. Thanks so much to everyone who has given so far. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

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