Indigo's story

Owner: Lisa and David Smith E-mail: dwsmith2000@hotmail.com Date posted: January 10, 2001 Indigo tore the ligment in her right leg last year after three years of playing frisbee. Never one to let a frisbee get away from her, Indigo would often leap several feet and, with acrobatic flair, yank frisbee after frisbee out of the air. Unfortunately, we learned too late how tough this game was on her legs. We noticed Indigo favoring her right leg in late 1999, and a couple of months later she tore the ligament completely. Her vet diagnosed the tear and referred her to DVSC (Dallas Veterinary Surgery Center). Our biggest regret was not having diagnosed sooner, but the DVSC was a god send. Dr. Barstad performed the surgery immediately, and Indigo healed fairly rapidly. Surprisingly, she was walking on the leg (just barely) when we picked her up from the Center. We had a scare four days later when her leg swelled after the bandage was removed. It took several days and several hot, dry compresses for the swelling to subside. During these few days, Indigo's appetite was poor (she'd eat a couple of treats then go lie back down and sleep for a couple of hours) and she could not get comfortable even with the pain medication. Once the swelling was gone, she seemed more like her old self though. Our next battle was trying to keep her from licking and chewing her incision. Although she (and we) hated it, we eventually put an e-collar on her. This was especially stressful to her because she was also confined in her kennel (albeit a large one). Although she hasn't played frisbee since she was first injured more than a year ago, Indigo will be going in for surgery on her other leg this week. Our hearts sunk when, just three weeks ago, she began favoring this leg and then, almost overnight, started to limp. But this time the injury was diagnosed immediately, and Indigo is scheduled for surgery in the DVSC's brand new facility. Knowing we needed to bone up the rehabilitation and recovery procedures, we began surfing the web and found this site. What a find! We only wish it had been around last year.