the vet

I called the vet first thing in the morning and they said we could come in that afternoon. They did a quick exam, said "yep, it's broken" and then semi-tranquilized her so the vet could feel her leg without hurting her and they took two x-rays.

The vet showed me the x-rays and explained that her tibia and fibula were broken and unfortunately they had punctured the skin on the inside of her leg, so giving her a cast was not an option. He recommended surgery, where pins would be put in each of the bones and then realigned. He guessed that she had been hit by a car and that her leg had already been broken for a couple of days. He suggested I do a heartworm test on her before I decided to spend any more money. I was nervous, it hadn't crossed my mind that she may already be dying or have some terrible sickness. But they did the test and she came back negative. whew!

So the low estimate for the surgery was around $350 the high estimate was over $700. It was such a huge difference and it all hinged on whether the surgery would be difficult, something no one could answer until she was on the table and her leg was cut open. I went home to talk to m. about it. In my heart I knew I had to help her, but it was tough to commit to the responsibility. It wasn't our intention to keep her but I knew that if I spent all this money and time and energy on nursing this dog back to health I was going to get attached and the idea that I may at some point have to give her to a new family was already heartbreaking. I thought about it long and hard and decided that I could only cross one bridge at a time, and I really didn't even know her yet, I may not like her at all! I decided to trust fate and go for it.

She went in at 9:00 am on thursday 6-2-05. I called to check on her that afternoon and they said that it had been a long hard surgery but that she was doing extremely well. I thought "great! long and hard, there goes any hope for the low estimate" but I was glad she did well. I was able to pick her up the next morning and she was like a brand new dog! Her eyes were wide open and alert and she was full of energy. I knew I did the right thing. They sent us home with some free food and a trial of frontline and heartgard which was very nice. For the bill they have a policy that even if a surgery runs over the high estimate amount you will only be charged what they estimated. That was great. They also agreed to let me make payments on her balance. We finally headed home.

The next day we went back in for a quick check and I got to see the pins in her leg and her x-rays from the surgery. I'm really not the type of person who likes blood, I can't watch plastic surgery shows but for some reason the details of injuries always excite me. Her x-rays were so cool. The bone had actually been crushed at the point of impact so there were lots of little pieces floating around. The vet said her leg was very swollen and that's what made the surgery hard. They put 3 pins in the top piece of bone and 3 pins in the bottom piece of bone then realigned them and connected the pins with a long rod of sorts. It's hard to explain, but it reminds me of the movie Predator or Alien. Actually seeing the pins in her leg and thinking about how they are in her bone still gives me the heebie jeebies but it wasn't at all gross like I thought it might be. He said the bones will heal well and all the little pieces will get re-absorbed into her body. (I was familiar with this idea because I broke my wrist last summer and the same thing happened) She got a new purple bandage and we went home.