Dr. Miller checked out his leg, and it does not appear that there is anything wrong. Rocky also does not appear to be in any pain which is obviously our biggest concern, we don't want to see him in any pain. Unfortunately based on our conversation it sounds like at this point the doctor doesn't expect that Rocky will make much more progress and he is going to stay in the condition that he's in. Dr. Miller was perplexed by Rocky's lack of progress from the surgery. He had initially expected that Rocky would make a full recovery. He said that all dogs that have FHO surgery like Rocky do go back to fully load bearing on that leg and it's good as new. We had asked him if he had any other dogs that had the surgery that had the same type of recovery as Rocky, and Rocky is the only one of his patients that did not fully recover from the surgery, and he's done close to 300 of these procedures throughout his career! He also told us that he consulted with his peer surgeon as well as his boss and reviewed the case with them before he met with us and they too were stumped as to what would be causing Rocky to not have healed.
It's frustrating to not know what is causing him to not have gone back to being load bearing on that leg. However he did answer all of my concerns about the situation. I was most worried about what the long term effects will be on him if he stays in his current condition and does not make more progress. Dr. Miller did tell us that we do not need to worry about that. I had specifically asked if Rocky would be in pain as he ages or have to deal with any type of arthritis in the leg, but he said because he does not have a joint there arthritis would not be a concern. He also told us that dogs that have their leg amputated do not tend to suffer or run into any conditions on their remaining leg, so we do not need to worry about his good leg being stressed too much or anything like that.
While he did tell us the hospital will work with us on any future care that he could need, but it is not likely as he did not feel going back in and doing surgery again would provide us with any greater results than we already have today. Should he need another surgery (which again it doesn't sound like he will, we'd only have to pay minimal cost, such as the cost of the drugs used which is $400-$500 for example) He did tell us that they would do x-rays for us in the future if we'd like to have it checked again and we would not have to pay for it. He also told us we did not need to continue with the rehab because he is unlikely to make any more progress at this point. We had been taking the little guy down there weekly and been paying a good amount for the rehab but we can stop that, and they did agree to not charge us for the remaining rehab sessions we had committed to in our package.
At this point we just have to leave it be. Rocky absolutely needed to have the surgery and that did solve the problem. It's really unfortunate that he did not fully recover the way he should have, that the surgeon would have expected. However just knowing that one, he is not in any pain, and two, he will not suffer any negative long term consequences, I guess we are ok with it. It's not ideal but it's also not the worst thing in the world. I guess he will always be like this and it'll give him some extra character but there is nothing more to do at this point so it is what it is. He's the best little guy in the world we just want to make sure he has everything he needs!
The little guy also got a haircut today, or I should say a shave, they cut him soooo short again. Ugh, we both hate it, he looks so much cuter fluffier. They said they had to because he had gotten matted again, but this is way too short for our liking. Thankfully it'll grow back soon, but not soon enough. Here's our little baldie
It's frustrating to not know what is causing him to not have gone back to being load bearing on that leg. However he did answer all of my concerns about the situation. I was most worried about what the long term effects will be on him if he stays in his current condition and does not make more progress. Dr. Miller did tell us that we do not need to worry about that. I had specifically asked if Rocky would be in pain as he ages or have to deal with any type of arthritis in the leg, but he said because he does not have a joint there arthritis would not be a concern. He also told us that dogs that have their leg amputated do not tend to suffer or run into any conditions on their remaining leg, so we do not need to worry about his good leg being stressed too much or anything like that.
While he did tell us the hospital will work with us on any future care that he could need, but it is not likely as he did not feel going back in and doing surgery again would provide us with any greater results than we already have today. Should he need another surgery (which again it doesn't sound like he will, we'd only have to pay minimal cost, such as the cost of the drugs used which is $400-$500 for example) He did tell us that they would do x-rays for us in the future if we'd like to have it checked again and we would not have to pay for it. He also told us we did not need to continue with the rehab because he is unlikely to make any more progress at this point. We had been taking the little guy down there weekly and been paying a good amount for the rehab but we can stop that, and they did agree to not charge us for the remaining rehab sessions we had committed to in our package.
At this point we just have to leave it be. Rocky absolutely needed to have the surgery and that did solve the problem. It's really unfortunate that he did not fully recover the way he should have, that the surgeon would have expected. However just knowing that one, he is not in any pain, and two, he will not suffer any negative long term consequences, I guess we are ok with it. It's not ideal but it's also not the worst thing in the world. I guess he will always be like this and it'll give him some extra character but there is nothing more to do at this point so it is what it is. He's the best little guy in the world we just want to make sure he has everything he needs!
The little guy also got a haircut today, or I should say a shave, they cut him soooo short again. Ugh, we both hate it, he looks so much cuter fluffier. They said they had to because he had gotten matted again, but this is way too short for our liking. Thankfully it'll grow back soon, but not soon enough. Here's our little baldie
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