I took poor Scrumpy to the Supervet's gaff yesterday at 8.30am. Opened the boot to let her out and she was quivering on her side with her tail firmly between her legs – she clearly knew she was back somewhere where people stick needles in her and poke her sore bones.
Had a good chat with the surgeon, about the procedure – a femoral neck and head excision, to help cure her limp. Scrumpy was not allowed to have a full hip replacement as they said the infection in her bones was a major source of concern, as if you then put a foreign object such as a new hip into the cavity, the risk of further infection could be 'catastrophic'. Hmm – definitely one to avoid.
So the only alternative was this procedure. Basically cutting out the head of the hip bone where it nestles into the pelvis (at least that's how my brain sees it based on the scans). Still an odd sounding thing as they don't then replace it with anything. Which of course makes it sounds like she would then just fall over as there would be a large chunk of bone missing. But apparently dogs grow what they call a 'pseudo joint', in my mind a bit like broken bones knitting back together again, so a way for the bone to secure itself among the muscles etc.
At least the vet said she's done 'lots of these, including 3 last week', which was slightly reassuring.
Horrid though to leave poor S and to know that she will be missing a piece of her when I come to collect her. But trying to reconcile it in my head as being the first day in the path to her being properly mobile again.
At least we did get a call later yesterday to say the op had gone to plan. Apart from the bone apparently being septic – gross – so the 3 weeks of diligent antibiotics in January clearly did zilch.
She's not due back till Thurs/Fri this week so Mojo is making the most of getting first dibs on sitting on Mummy and not having to rush her food for fear of a dog snout inhaling her nuggies. I however had a panic at 5pm yesterday when I thought I'd forgotten to give Scrumpy her dinner…
Massive fingers crossed that the next 3 months of recovery, physio and gentle walks (eventually) work like they should do, and that by May we have a Springer with a bit more spring in her step again. x