Sheba's story

Owner: Alan Shenefield E-mail: alan.field@prodigy.net Date posted: October 10, 2000 My dog Sheba, a Queensland Heeler, was playing Frisbee in the park and came back limping on three legs. Took her to the vet, who said she needed knee surgery on her left leg. Took her for a second opinion at another vet in Hermosa Beach, CA (VCA Center) and was told the same thing. They sent me to their main center in West Los Angeles, where I met the surgeon Dr. Tina Owen. She also suggested TPLO. On Wednesday October 4, I took her in for surgery. Got a call the next morning say that Sheba was a little sore but OK. Went down that morning to pick her up and talk to the doctor, who said that her crying was due to her feeling a loss of control with her condition being what it was. I thought Sheba was most likely in pain. I decided to take her home, but then she seemed to be more and more in pain. I called the doctor to ask it we could give her pain medication, but was told that they could not give us anything more then the anti-inflammatory they'd already given us, unless we brought her back in. We were going out of our minds, so ended up bringing her back on Thursday. The vet on duty seemed to believe in more pain relief than the first one. They put Sheba back on morphine and kept her overnight. We went to see her on Friday and she seemed to feel a lot better. She was ready to go home, but they wanted to watch her a little longer. Boy what a different one day makes. I think she just needed to have pain killers for a little longer, maybe because she's 10 years old. I let the poor doctor on staff at that time have it for letting us be misled about the pain or non-pain medications we were given. I guess I got my point across (I don't like the HMO approach). So now Sheba is home and seems to be taking it well. I feel so much better. We have her on Glycoflex Plus #120. It has SMS (Methylsufonymethane) for joints and I think people are using it for DMSO replacement, which I read on the Net. Also Cephalexin. As far as cost is concerned: $2,156.00. So far my experience is about the same as in the human medical field -- protect your loved ones, and don't let anything go by without questioning it.