Just got back from seeing the orthopaedic specialist about the puppy's elbow dysplasia, and she's so bad he's going to operate on her straight away. So we've had to leave her there (2 hours away) and can't bring her home until Friday
I was in tears all the way home, felt so guilty for leaving her. Especially as it was a bit of a shock - we were expecting him just to examine her today and make us another appointment to come back, or maybe ask to keep her for a couple of hours to take some new x-rays. But to have to leave her there for 4 days without any preparation.... well, it wasn't nice. And somehow it seems worse, knowing she's so far away. We had to do the long drive home with her blankets and toys still on the back seat, and I left the vets clutching her lead and collar, so it almost felt like I'd left her to be PTS. Even DH shed a few tears! And of course we've just got home and our other dog is looking for her, so that makes us feel even worse. They puppy has never been away from home before, in fact she's never been away from our older dog before, apart from a few hours when she went in for her x-rays last year. So it's horrible that her first night away, she's all alone and in a strange place. The surgeon said someone is there 24 hours though, so she won't be left on her own. I was trying to be all stiff-upper-lip but I think he could tell I was very upset about leaving her!
I am happy he's doing her so quickly though. He asked us to walk her up and down in the carpark so he could see how her elbow affects her, and she didn't even manage to do 10 feet before the limp started. And when he extended her elbow to examine it, she yelped in pain (and then still tried to give him kisses!). He said it was clear she was in a lot of pain, one of the worst he's seen, and he didn't want to wait. So he's going to operate on her either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. He's hoping that when he opens her up there'll be something glaringly obvious causing the problem, like a loose bone chip or a flap in her cartilage. But he also said there's only about a 50% chance that removing something like that will help her lead a normal life (it could reoccur), and even if she does get better, she'll still get arthritis in later life (if it hasn't already started - x-rays were taken 3 months ago). Until now I'd been under the impression that the op would sort everything, so that was another shock. Glad he was honest though. And he was very nice, which made it a bit easier to leave her.
We've got to call at 6pm tonight to see how she's doing (think I'll make DH do that - I'll probably just end up sobbing down the phone!). If he's managed to fit her in this afternoon and it all goes well, we might be able to get her on Thursday, but it'll most likely be Friday because she needs to stay in for 48 hours afterwards. And after than she'll need to be on crate rest for 4 weeks. Not ideal as it's so last minute I can't book next week off work, but luckily (or unluckily, I suppose!) my MIL is at home with a broken shoulder at the moment, so we can crate her there so she won't be alone during the day. Two invalids together! She's never been crated before, but after a few days in the vets she should be used to being in the cage, which is good.
So right now, I'm very sad and anxious, and the house seems very empty without the tazmanian devil puppy here. Don't know how I'm going to last three more days of this, so hopefully we'll get the call to pick her up sooner rather than later. Luckily I booked the whole day off work, so I can just sit and cry into my cup of tea for the rest of the afternoon!
But it'll all be worth it in a couple of months when she can actually walk without being in pain, and jump around like a normal dog