Surgery is Over, now the work begins

Well, Merry came through with flying colors! Our vet said her hips look great for a dog her age and size, her other knee looks good, and he was most surprised that the bad knee had no signs of arthritis to speak of. I guess these injuries usually take place as a series of small tears, so there has been wear on the joint and arthritis begins... but not in Merry's case, so that's good. My biggest concern is getting her through the healing process without breaking the repairs... you see, what they do is drill a hole through the bone and put non-dissolving sutures (the description to me sounded like fishing line) in and around the joint to basically hold things in place as the ligament did when it was there. The idea is that, over time, scar tissue builds up and the muscles firm up and eventually do the job of the ligament, even if after a period of time the sutures would slowly dissolve (but this isn't supposed to happen, except after many years, at which time they probably aren't needed.) The problem is that if the dog were to over-exert the area during the critical 2 - 6 week time period, they could snap that line and the job was a waste, basically. So, I had a vet tech come out to help me put the dog in my car (it's a big ol' SUV and a big jump up) but she - the tech - wasn't ready so Merry tried it on her own... so I'm all freaked out that she messed it up before we even left the vet's office!! Arrgghh. But, the vet said he put double sutures in, just in case since she's a 100lb dog, so hopefully all is well. Poor thing, she's been laying around groaning all night - it's pathetic, really. She wouldn't even eat a treat (to take her medicine) and that is a total rarity for this dog - so I know she's really miserable. Tonight Kiwi and I are sleeping in the livingroom with her - she'd probably cry all night if we shut her out of the bedroom, and we can't risk her jumping up on the bed. Oh, what I do for my pets! In three days, we start physical therapy.... funny thing, that.

Here are a few pics - Kiwi laying with her, reading; the IV site on her foreleg; the epidural site on her rump (an epidural! who knew?!); and the incision site on her hind leg. Icky.