Help! Elbow operation failure!

[nellieellie]

My dog had his third elbow op today. Op 1 took ages to heal at the wound site as there was infection from the surgery. Op 2 on 2nd elbow seemed yo heal fine, but after an X-ray as he was still limping so badly it was found that the metal plate had come loose and the bone was in the wrong place. He had had to have a larger plate put on now, and the vet says that there was fluid there, they are checking to see if infected, but he is concerned the same thing will happen again. For 4 months this young dog has had to be kept quite and constrained, no exercise. I have been so careful with him, watching him all the time, even sleeping downstairs on the sofa to make sure he is OK. I feel at my wits end as I don't know what else I can do to make sure he heals. He will spend most of the day lying down, I do lying down games and training with him to stop him getting bored, but he does sleep a lot. I don't let him run, go upstairs or even walk about for longer than needed for him to pee and poop. He doesn't chew his stitches either. If anyone knows of anything I can do to help, please please let me know!

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Is the surgery being done in a referral centre by an RCVS or European specialist in orthopaedic surgery?

[nellieellie]

It is an orthopaedic specialist, one of the few in the country that does PAUL procedure.

[tabulahrasa]

No advice I'm afraid, just loads of sympathy.

Are there options if this surgery fails?

My dog's second elbow has just gone and surgery isn't an option for him...he's 2

[nellieellie]

Sorry to hear about your dog tabula. There are lots of non surgical stuff you can do, but Im sure you know about that! I went to a holistic vet who used zeel injections and acupuncture. She said that she'd had huge success with dogs who for one reason and another could not have surgery. I was also looking at laser therapy yesterday which is meant to be good for elbow and hip dysplasia.

[tabulahrasa]

Basically if there's a chance something may not work or has side effects or can go wrong...my dog is the one that it will happen to.

His medical history is a long depressing story, sadly we're at the throwing painkillers at him until we either hit one that works or decide his quality of life is too poor stage.

Laser therapy is definitely worth a try...actually my vet uses it post operatively to aid healing - that might be worth asking about now. (We've tried it already)

[nellieellie]

Yes, I was thinking about Laser therapy for mine to help him with recovery. The vet doesn't think much of it though, or at least not for helping post surgery. Once the bandage is off though i will look at it again. Sorry you've had such a rough time with yours. It can really muck up your life when stuff like this goes on. All the things you imagine doing with your dog......