| Carmine's story | ||||||||
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Owner: Renee Luoni E-mail: mstarr@sonic.net Date posted: November 5, 2000
April 1999 through April 2000 Our veternarian told us Carmine had torn his knee ligament. He suggested that we take him to a surgeon who could repair his cruciate ligament by replacing it with a material that could work as a ligament. After this surgery Carmine seemed to be doing a little better, and then his left leg went limp. We had surgery on the left leg with the same treatment. Carmine was in a lot of pain with this kind of surgery, and the doctor sent him home right after the surgery which was very hard on Carmine and my brother Dominic. There's nothing worse than hearing your dog yelp in pain. To make a long story short we feel this was bad advice to take a large dog like Carmine and recommend cruciate ligament repair. It just doesn't last and the dog ends up lame again ($1,500 later). Both leg surgeries done this way eventually failed and we feared for Carmine's future. I decided to research solutions on the Internet and found this website. I literally cried in excitement from the stories. I called the Slocum Clinic and also asked a vet friend of mine for a surgeon reference. September 15, 2000 The first TPLO surgeon we saw seemed more interested in his bottom line and in making Carmine a "bionic dog" for about $6,000. He recommended because of Carmine's slight bowing that we cut into the femur on both legs to change the bowing, as well as have the TPLO done on both legs. The Slocum Clinic agreed with his measurements, explaining that they automatically do the femur procedure at 10 degrees of bowing. Carmine's femur has 15 degrees of bowing.
October 31, 2000 We dropped Carmine off and tried to be positive, and I did my best not to cry in front of my brother Dominic. Carmine is Dominic's dog, but we share him -- we call it "joint custody." I get him on weekends and Dominic takes him back whenever Carmine seems ready to go home. We heard from the doctor at 3 PM that Carmine was doing well and the surgery had gone great. He did the left leg first because Carmine seemed to be having the most trouble with that leg. Carmine had gained a lot of weight with no exercise, so the doctor made us promise to cut back his food. He was 130 pounds going into surgery. He's supposed to be around 110. November 4, 2000 Carmine is doing really well. We have two steps that he must go up and down to go outside and relieve himself. The bandage is holding back the swelling, but we were told it's not meant to be a cast. Carmine has not yelped in pain once. That was a surprise to Dominic who said he yelped a lot with the previous ligament surgeries. A coule of days ago, I noticed what look like burst blood vessels under his leg above the bandage -- I called the doctor because I want to be extra cautious and he told me that that was normal and I shouldn't worry. We go back next week to change the bandage. So far so good!
December 6, 2000 We brought Carmine in for his first x-rays today and it's been about five weeks. The doctor liked his progress, but said that he would like to see him putting more weight on his left (TPLO) leg. The x-rays revealed that the bone needs more filling in before we'll be ready to start rehabilitation or perform TPLO on the right leg. We won't be able to rehabilitate Carmine on his left leg like we normally would because as soon as his left leg is strong enough -- we're going to be doing TPLO on his right leg. We plan to meet again with Dr. Robello in January to get more x-rays. January 16, 2001 We went in for a second set of x-rays and the bone has filled in substantially. Dr. Robello is happy with the results, but still wants the bone to fill in where the fracture occured before doing TPLO on Carmine's other leg. He told me to start walking him for 15 minutes twice a day and see how he does. Carmine still has not lost much weight. He's 123 lbs. but needs to lose more in order to heal faster. He should be around 120 lbs. according to Dr. Robello. The doctor thinks his weight may have caused the healing to occur more slowly than usual. His lack of activity doesn't help and suddenly he's acting like he's starving -- so it makes it tough! We've been keeping him entertained with smoked femur bones and toys that he can play with while laying down. We also supervise his play with toys and tell him to lay down before we give him anything to play with. Recovery is slow but going great! We have scheduled another x-ray for 5 weeks from now, which is what Dr. Robello decided was best to do at this point because Carmine is not in pain. To prevent any problems, he wants to make sure that the left leg is completely healed before doing TPLO on the right leg. March 2001 Carmine had his second surgery and is recovering faster. We had a little scare when he slipped and was spread-eagle on the kitchen floor. He was OK but it scared him and me to death. Everything is going well and we're keeping him entertained with femur bones while he recovers. Four weeks later Dr. Robello is liking his progress. He's encouraging us to keep him exercising -- swimming is most preferable. November 2001 It's been a year since TPLO on the first leg. Carmine is doing great! He just had a check up with his regular veterinarian and his weight is now 115! He has finally lost all that extra weight. He was 130 lbs. at one time. I think back now on when he couldn't walk five feet before the surgery and now he's climbing stairs, running in a straight line, playing ball (carefully), taking long walks, getting up easily, and trotting with lots of spring in his step -- which we haven't seen since he was a puppy! He's going to be 4 years old soon! It's hard to believe all that time has passed. I am so grateful for the TPLO procedure -- it saved his life and saved my breaking heart! Thank you to Dr. Robello and his staff at PetCare in Santa Rosa, CA. What a blessing it is to get our sweet-spirited, fun-loving, happy and healthy Carmine back. I think in the long run the TPLO procedure is the best solution for cruciate problems in dogs. The other method of replacing ligaments with nylon, etc., didn't last on Carmine and put our dog through two failed surgeries. Thank God Carmine hung in there with us until we got it right!!!
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