Hi all, I wanted to share a story about Maia’s knee injuries. It started back on May 30^th, 2017, Maia, who had turned 11 in February, was out in the backyard doing her usual morning yard patrol, inspection and potty business. When Maia came back inside (she has a dog door so I wasn’t watching her outside), she was hardly able to put any weight on her left rear leg. I checked for any thorns or anything that might be in her paw and could not find anything, so after some poking and prodding and not finding anything, I called her Veterinarian’s office and was able to book an appointment for that day. The timing of her injury was somewhat odd because just a few days earlier on Friday May 26^th we also visited her doctor as we had noticed Maia being what we thought, a little stiff over the last few months, possibly due to her getting up there in age, but perhaps thinking she might also have some mild arthritis. She was not limping in any way prior to May 30th, just seemed a bit stiff.  After watching her walk and talking about the symptoms, she was placed on a prescription of Galliprant (which is like Advil for dogs) and the doctor suggested some cold laser therapy treatments to help her stiff joints. She got her first laser therapy that day.

Anyway, back to May 30^th. I drove Maia to the doctor and carried her into the exam room as she could not really walk. Her regular doctor and the one she saw on Friday was out that day but Maia was able to see another doctor that worked at the practice. He did some checking on Maia but apparently didn’t find anything wrong. He thought it was attributed to the arthritis she might have and he suggested to give her Tramadol on top of her newly prescribed Galliprant to ease her pain. I took Maia home and gave Maia the Tramadol/Galliprant combo for a few days, but it didn’t really seem to help, other than making her sick to her stomach, so I discontinued the use of the Tramadol.

While Maia seemed to marginally recover from whatever occurred on May 30^th, she was never walking quite right and I had her back to the doctor 2-3 times over the next several months and still we never left with any diagnosis other than it could be arthritis. I explained to her regular doctor in subsequent visits that it did seem odd that arthritis would have such a sudden and dramatic onset, especially since we were given medicine three days prior to treat any arthritis she might have, but he thought it was likely arthritis and didn’t discuss the chance of any injury. The doctor did change her medicine from Galliprant to Rimadyl on that visit, and then to Deramaxx on another visit when I brought her in for the same issue. None seemed to really make a huge difference, but she stayed on the medicine and was getting around okay. The doctor advised exercise should help with the arthritis, so we stuck to our walks. This turned out to be a bad idea as you’ll find out.

Maia getting some ice pre-surgery

 

Fast forward to December 23^rd, 2017. We took our usual road trip to visit my parents, who live in Farmington, New Mexico, which is about a seven-hour drive from our home in Scottsdale, Arizona. During the drive we also stopped at Maia’s favorite spots for her to stretch her legs and go potty. Upon arrival at my parents’ house I picked Maia up out of the back seat of my truck and gently placed her on the garage floor so she could greet my parents. Maia took about two steps to greet my dad and immediately sat down and was trembling. I thought she was just scared for some reason, but we noticed something awful, she again could no longer bear any weight on her rear left leg. I carried Maia inside and put her on a soft blanket next to my parents’ fireplace thinking she might have just tweaked something or that her leg was asleep. However, the poor girl could not even stand up or balance herself to potty and was limping badly even the next day, basically just dragging her left leg. I was panicked and worried, especially since we were far away from her regular doctor. I even contemplated driving back home on Christmas Eve, just to get her home to see her doctor as soon as possible. I’m glad I didn’t. My mom suggested I call a local Veterinarian in Farmington so I did, and they agreed to see Maia on Christmas eve. The doctor stated initially that Maia’s leg just may have been asleep and she is now scared to use it, so we took Maia out back of the doctor’s office where there are plenty of scents to see if she would use the restroom and most importantly, put weight on her leg. Thankfully, she did do her business as it had been 2 days where she neither would pee, or poop and she did both. However, sadly she would not put any weight on her rear leg, except gingerly when she went to the bathroom. The doctor brought Maia into an exam room and proceeded to palpate her. She did a test in which she manipulated Maia’s knee joint called the “cranial drawer test” and explained to us that Maia had obviously ruptured her Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL), which is the dog equivalent of a human’s Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL).  My wife and I were both shocked to hear this. How could a Labrador that really doesn’t do anything athletic, rupture her CCL? Never in a million years did I consider she could have torn a ligament, given her activity level. I mean she’s a Labrador, she likes food and walks, she isn’t a Frisbee Dog, or an Agility Dog. As I later learned though, they can happen with little rhyme or reason. Anyway, I began to replay the events of May 30^th, 2017 in my head and her symptoms then matched the symptoms of this injury, only now it appeared to be worse. I explained to the doctor what happened back in May and she surmised that was probably the day she tore it and now she had ruptured it. I asked the doctor if they could for sure tell if the ligament was torn or ruptured using the cranial drawer test, and she stated, in 90% of cases, yes, as the joint becomes quite unstable. While it was unfortunate for this to happen so far from home, and during Christmas vacation to boot, it was actually a blessing in disguise that it did happen during this time, as I was forced to see another doctor and get another opinion. Finally, I had a solid diagnosis as to what had been bothering Maia for so long. It all made sense now, no wonder she was never walking right and that the various medications seemed to have little to no effect. In all fairness though to Maia’s regular doctor, and as you’ll find out as this story continues, it’s not absurd for a Veterinarian to miss doing this test. Now that I had a diagnosis, what to do about it. We spent the rest of Christmas with me carrying Maia from room to room to be with us and also outside. The pain had subsided enough and she was able to potty on her own. During all of this, she remained a sparkly eyed doggy, wanting food, love, and attention.

Coming up Next, Maia’s first TPLO surgery…