ILuvAmstaffs

Well, Diesel would never so no to a hug lol

This is what one of the cuts looked like. The other was the same & on the inside elbow:

Hi Malleerr. Diesel had his stiches out yesterday. It took 3 people to remove them, 1 holding him, 1 sitting on him & 1 to remove them. lol He also had the 1st of 4 x weekly cartrophen shots. He's doing fantastic. The limp is getting so much better & unless you saw the cuts, you'd never guess he'd had such a major op. The tricky bit is keeping him inside while he heals.... not easy when he gets the zoomies. lol As of yesterday though, we are letting him out in the yard during the day. He actually seems a lot quieter doing that than he was while locked inside.

Yeah, thats his new Pet Fouton he's lying on & lots of cuddles. If only the little you knwo what would sit still long enough though. It was funny watching him spinning around at high speed, trying to catch his tail yesterday on 3 legs lol

I was so shocked when I picked him up. He came running out, dragging the vet behind him, jumped all over me & even got in the car himself! You wouldn't know he's had an operation, he still gets the zoomies, so we have to try & calm him down, which isn't easy. lol We are so relieved his on the way to getting better & the vet has a very positive outlook on the result, so fingers crossed, he will be almost good as new in a few months time.

Well, Diesel has had his op & is home again! They only needed to do the right elbow. Phew! He was so happy to see me when I picked him up, but I got the impression that they had treated him really well, so he wasn't too freaked out or anything. He's getting around on the leg really well & the limp is no worse than it was pre-op. The surgeon seems really quite positive about what his future may hold. She said best case senario, he won't have a limp (except after heavy exercise) and worse case it will be about half as bad as it was. So fingers crossed. I also asked if I needed to keep his weight down & she said that he shouldn't lose weight, but to decrease his calorie intake (not his protein) by putting him on an adult version of Eukanuba to slow his growth & hopefully he will replace some of the fat with muscle. I told her I had been giving him the large breed puppy for the last month or so & she said that the Large Breed Puppy isn't too bad as it's lower in energy than the small breed or medium breed, so it's a relief that I haven't been doing anything TOO wrong. He need 6-8 weeks of limited activity (house bound & on-leash to go to loo) then more x-rays to see that the ulna is healing & the joint is falling into place. After that, he's back onto a course of 4 cartrophen shots & when they finish I can start him on glucosamine. Here are some pics of him this afternoon:

Well, today was D-Day for Diesel. I dropped him off at Sydney Uni Vet Hospital at 8am this morning. I was so worried I'd go to pieces leaving him there, but it turned out that the surgeon just had such a great manner with him, he was perfectly happy to wander off with her. He was first in for surgery & I recieved a call from the surgeon around 1pm saying that all had gone well, they had removed a large stray piece of bone from his elbow & shortened his ulna (the ulna ostectomy) & he was waking from the anesthetic nicely. She said that he may be able to come home as early as tomorrow afternoon I will ring in the morning to see how he is (it was hard not to ring tonight lol). Hopefully from here on in, he is on the road to recovery!

Well, they said that he would be home either late friday or saturday, depending on how he's doing and that they expect him to be up and walking around the next day! I think that had we went to the other surgeon, it would have been day surgery, but being the uni, they have 24hour staff etc & just want to be on the safe side. I'd rather he be there anyway incase something happens, but I will be stressing the whole time none the less!

Your right, he will probably be so groggy anyway, even if I did take him home he'd be like "where am i" lol.

Yeah, I have seen them on Ebay. Will look into getting him one, but it's going to be a while before he will be able to use it. Edited to add: How long did Mallee stay in hospital. Im a bit freaked out about leaving Diesel there for 2 nights

Yeah, I just need to teach him to swim though lol So far he will only go in as far as he can stand up!

Thanx for the pics. It is the same op as Mallee's, so I'm glad to see that it doesn't look as bad as I'd imagined. Apparently as they are doing the joint surgically though, he will have about the same size incision across the elbow joint as well. It feels so good to have decided on a course of action, but sucks that the little guy will have to go thru it all. P.S Mallee doesn't look too impressed in that first pic!

We have just been to see the vet at Sydney University. She said it’s definitely elbow dysplasia & our vet should have seen it on the first x-ray. She can see arthritis as well as the fragment that needs removing. She said that he is also a good candidate for surgical removal of a small slither of bone in his leg, that will allow the joint to rest on the correct bone (not sure of the names). But she will only do this 2nd part of the surgery after she looks at x-rays taken on the day, as the bones may have caught up in length. She is also concerned that it could be bilateral, however, will not operate on the left leg at the moment as she thinks that there needs to be more evidence of lameness before it would warrant surgery. But she will do more x-rays when he is admitted. Apparently, once the 2 surgeries are done to his right leg, the prognosis is quite good & we should only see lameness due to the arthritis after exercise & as he gets older. Diesel is booked in for surgery on Thursday. We have opted for surgery as oppossed to arthroscopy, as the university do not do arthroscopies & we have been assured the success rate is the same. The surgeon also believes that with open surgery, she can atleast get an overall look at the joint & nothing will be missed.

Hell & damnation! They cancelled our appointment due to our specialist having to do an emergency op. We r rescheduled for next monday 10am... so close & yet so far!

OK, what we r being told is, no visible sign or arthritis on x-ray (not sure if it would normally show up) but only 30% don't have it, so it is assumed there IS arthritis (does that make sense???) We r going this wednesday morning to see the ED specialist at syd uni, with the xrays that have already been done, so hopefully I will have an answer then....

Well, Im going to stop feeding him eukanuba from tonight & maybe put him on a kibble for older dogs (I think eagle pack have one) as well as some BARF. He drops weight really quickly, so I think ti wll get his weight right down.

It's really only really noticable after rest. No limp at all if he's running or going for a walk or trotting (not sure what u would call it in a dog lol). As far as the limp goes, now he has been confie=ned to the house for 6days, its a fair bit better, even after a rest. Though last night it was quite pronounced after a snooze, other times he has gotten up with almost no limp over the last week. And we have cut out the anti-inflammitants around that time, because they were not helping. But he's still on the sashas blend.

He is now resting & booked in to see an ED specialist at Syd Uni. Hopefully they will have more answers. I just googled the name of the diagnosing specialist & he is very highly respected & has letters a mile long after his name, but I still think that I atleast want someone that can explain everything to me, rather than just pushing to operate.

Don't fall off your seat.... He said, definately no sign of OCD so far as he could tell, said it was plain to him that he was limping ON THE OTHER LEG & that he had a ruptured shoulder muscle & if we rest him (which we are) it will be better in 3 weeks. Funnily enough, up til that day our vet was saying, definately no reason to keep him separated from mum & dads dobes & no need for rest! Since then (last sunday), the limp has improved quite a bit (about half as bad, but varies from that to almost not noticable) so I am trying to follow both trains of thought... Obviously this specialist has kept us hanging, trying different treatments for 8 weeks or more (3.5weeks of that we were doing nothing as we were just waiting for his reports via mial!) & now he tells me that if wwe wait until after xmas, it will be doing more damage!

Finally got the results of the 2nd x-ray back. Still saying they can't see anything, but the now know its elbow dyslpaysi. Rang the specialist & he said that if we dont get the op by 12 months, Diesel won't be able to walk by the time he is 4 & even if we do proceed, the limp will not be any better, but it will help stop it from getting worse. I have also mposted this in the general forum, hoping that someone can give me some info in this.

Thanks for that! It sets my mind at rest alteast, that IF we need to go down that road, it's not going to be as traumatic to Diesel as I was thinking. So far they are saying that there is no arthritis & its purely a growth plate that has become dislodged causing the pain. That being the case, I am hoping Peter Schofield can work some magic, but if not, I just want my boy to stop limping. Only thing that I will be disappointed about, is that I was hoping to show him & imagine that an op will make that unviable (due to scarring). But, my boys wlefare is the most important thing. I cannot believe that a vet would tell you to "put your dog out if her misery". My goodness, the hide!

If you don't mind me asking, was Mallee's op 100% succefull? Just incase we DO need to go down that track....

Just a quick update. Diesel had the 2nd set of x-rays done & the vet said that his growth plate has moved (apparently they can see it on the x-ray clearly this time) & will definately need some kind of treatment. We are still seeing the Chiro on Sunday, so fingers crossed!

I have seen dogs swimming in the river at the park near the nepean belle. Not sure if it's allowed, but I have seen them there everytime I go