Moving in two directions at the same time

Yesterday I received the final piece of equipment that I expected to need for Bessie's rehab recovery from the knee surgery. I got a terrific XXL sized crate. Unfortunately it took longer than expected to get here and the shipment got lost and had to be replaced. From everything that I have read up on she will need to spend several weeks confined to a crate and only go out to eat and pee. I really like to massive size of this thing and tomorrow I will be replacing Bessie's old small crate with this one and until the surgery it will be her daytime hangout.

I also got Bess an inflatable soft E-collar to take the place of the rigid plastic cones the Vets always use. I tried it on Bess when it came and she took it quite well.

Now for some bad news.

A few days ago I came across some very disturbing information regarding the popular types of CCL repair surgery. The information was so bad I decided to halt my immediate plans for Bess.

Just to clarify this a bit, the acronyms CCL and ACL are interchangeable. CCL means cranial cruciate ligament and applies to dogs. ACL means anterior cruciate ligament and applies to humans.

I came across a very disturbing comment about a bad reaction to a CCL repair. It involved a result that I had never in my wildest dreams would have imagined. A woman posted on Facebook that her dog had rejected the implanted hardware (the metal plate and screws) from 2 TPLO surgeries and required 2 more surgeries to remove them. I quoted the comment and asked how common this was and in the following days over a dozen people replied with similar experiences about rejections and infections due to unsterilized screws and plates. Those personal reports involved implanted hardware rejection before and after the cut leg bone had begun to heal. With something like that happening before the bone healed and needing the hardware removed would be a catastrophic failure. Because of this I must consult with as many Veterinarians as I can before I will allow Bessie to have this done. 

There is more to this story. 12 years ago when Sassy had both of her CCLs repaired the Orthopedic surgeon told me that dogs will sometimes get used to the torn ligaments over time. This was very similar to what my Vet said about Bessie's hip dysplasia, "that she has lived with this all her life and gotten used to it". So I have to take a long hard look. What I haven't mentioned before is that Sassy spent many years on a pain management program with daily Rimadyl and Tramadol and Adequan injections because her surgery also didn't turn out well.

I need to point out that Bessie is not in any pain. She has responded exceptionally well to the Gabapentin and Rimadyl and CBD oil. So we are not faced with a sense of urgency to get this done. I need to have a consultation with my own Vet to get her unbiased opinion because she doesn't do the surgery and has no profit incentive.