Update on Bessie.

So sorry for the long delay in posting updates but a lot has taken place since my last post.

Bessie went to see an Orthopedic specialist two weeks ago. The problem was that I had misunderstood what my Vet had told me after doing the physical exam and taking the x-rays. So I thought it was more important to try and fix Bessie larger problem the hip dysplasia.

What I had misunderstood was that when our Vet Dr. Black told me Bessie's hips are a mess, she also said that Bessie has had this problem all her life and has learned to live with it. So at first I was devastated when the Ortho specialist said there was nothing that could be done to fix Bessie. Oh yeah, there was one procedure, a Femoral Head Osteotomy (FHO). But the Ortho specialist described this procedure as such a horrible piece of surgery she would not want to do it. What is does is the Femur is exposed and pulled from the hip socket and the ball at the end is cut off and the Femur is stuck back into the hip and left to heal with scar tissue.

When the light bulb eventually went off in my head and I realized what Dr. Black was telling me, I made another appointment to see the Orthopedic surgeon. We had a long discussion and she carefully explained all the details and took two new x-rays, seen below. Within two weeks Bessie will go back and have her CCL repaired with a TPLO procedure. TPLO Surgery (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) is for large dogs. This method is preferred on dogs that have a relatively stable knee to start with and Bessie's CCL tear is only a partial rupture and happened only recently.

And that tiny dark gray triangle inside the red circle is the indication that the ligament is torn. The shape happens when the joint tissue becomes swollen and squeezes it.