On the road to recovery

R is out of surgery and doing well. He had no problems with anaesthesia or otherwise.

They did the CUE procedure but they discovered that the tissue inside his elbow was in unexpectedly bad shape. He had multiple very large bone spurs, and even a spot in the joint where a muscle had been torn off the bone. They first cleaned out all the bone spurs and other debris (bone fragments floating in the joint space). Then, they had to slightly modify the usual placement of the implants for weight-bearing due to the degeneration in R's elbow - but they did it.

The most important thing is that they believe it will be successful in helping R have less pain and lameness in the long run.

I think that it was worth every penny to have one of the top experts in the world do his surgery. It was not straightforward so the California vet's expertise was a huge advantage. Our black dog means so much to us.

Now R spends the night in the hospital. If he's doing okay, they will release him tomorrow around mid-day. The big question is whether the roads will be open at that time. He and the Runner might stay down in the flatlands if the snow is too bad. It's already snowing super hard.

It's going to be a long road to recovery. He will be extremely lame at first. By 8 weeks, his lameness will probably be at about the same level as before the surgery. Then, the improvement begins. It usually takes 6-12 months to see the full improvement that this surgery will give. We hope that he can romp with his sister in the snow again next winter!

Both the Runner and I have been very nervous about this surgery. Thus, it should come as no surprise to me that I have a migraine today. In fact, I've had an entire week of migraines. I need to break this cycle.

Now we can all relax and help R recover!