While we were still in New Mexico I began doing some research on the injury and treatment options. After doing some web searches I found and called Arizona Canine Orthopedics and scheduled a consultation on their first available slot, which was in mid-January. As it turned out, their location was only about 5 minutes away from our home, which was awesome. While things would get worse for Maia before they got better, she was on her way to recovery.

We met with Dr. Lirtzman on January 15^th, 2018 and after doing an exam on Maia, he concurred that her CCL was ruptured, given how unstable her knee joint was. We then proceeded to talk about treatment options. Initially, I was of the impression that Maia, who was soon to be 12 years old, was far too old for surgery, but Dr. Lirtzman stated he didn’t necessarily think that was the case as Maia appeared to be a healthy dog and in good shape. After doing some further research on my own, post-consultation, I found that we should not necessarily associate age with disease. During the consultation we were presented with a very detailed overview of where the CCL is in a dog’s knee, it’s function, the injury itself, the issues the injury causes, and the methods for treating it. The treatment options include various surgeries and bracing. The brace is called a stifle brace that is custom made to fit around a dog’s leg and supports the knee joint, much like a human ACL brace. Out of all the surgeries, TPLO, or Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy is the surgical approach Dr. Lirtzman specializes in. We were provided a lot of information during the consultation and we had a big decision to make.

After a few days of thought and discussion between my wife and I as well as countless hours researching our options, watching you tube videos, and considering the pros/cons of a stifle brace versus surgery, we finally elected for surgical intervention utilizing the TPLO method. In a nut shell, the procedure involves cutting the tibia near the knee joint in a half-moon shape and realigning it so that it is level, and then reattaching it with a metal plate that will then allow the bone to grow back to together. This procedure eliminates the need for a CCL. Many Veterinarian’s refer to TPLO as the “gold standard” for surgical intervention of CCL injuries.

The doctor recommended we do a pre-surgical geriatric workup on Maia consisting of blood and urine tests, as well as x-rays of her heart, lung, and organs to ensure everything was working as it should. About a week later we received the results and everything looked good – we had the green light to move forward. Maia was scheduled for surgery on February 6^th, 2018 – one day after her twelfth birthday.

Now that Maia was scheduled for surgery we needed to prepare the house for a post-surgical dog. I purchased a dog fence from Amazon that we could put around Maia’s bed as she had to remain in a small area and under supervision for the next 50 days until the bone was healed up. Since our house has a great deal of travertine tile, we also purchased a ton of cheap rugs to cover up the areas she would be walking on so we wouldn’t have to worry about her slipping. We took the covers off her numerous dog beds throughout the house and washed them on the sanitize setting of the washer to get them nice and clean. We already had plenty of ice bags as I’m pretty injury prone myself, so we were good there. I decided that Maia’s main recovery area would be in the family room, where we spend most of our time anyway. I combined two of her Orvis memory foam mattresses together to give her a nice big bed and then covered them with large, white towels. I primarily work from home and have an office that Maia and I usually hang out in while I’m working, but for the recovery period I moved my office to the kitchen where I would be close to, and could see Maia. The house was ready. Now came the scary part, the actual surgery day.