All is not well

March 27th 2010

My Jubilation lasted for 24 hours. I managed to walk Sadie twice. She even saw Codie on one of her walks. At 12:00 pm, Sadie decided to jump up at a magnet on the refrigerator. I heard her cry out and she landed with a limp. It was a Saturday and Dr. Averill was not in. I rushed her to the emergency room and they took X-rays. Hips were fine. I thought she had torn an ACL. She was hopping on 3 legs. She would walk on her left leg everyonce in awhile but mostly she would just lift it up and walk by hoping on the other legs. The emergency room Doctor said that she might have a minor tear in the acl and that we should rest her (back to 5 by 7 area) and call the Doctor on Monday. I was sick to my stomach. On Monday March 29th, I called Dr. Averill. I could not speak to him-only his assistant, Shannon. She told me that from the x-rays it did not look as if she tore anything and that maybe she just sprained something. She said to put her on anti-inflammatories for a week and we will see how she is doing. I had another question and I still could not talk to the Doctor. I told the lady answering the phone that for ten thousand dollars I should be able to speak to Dr. Averill. I never did. Throughout the week-Sadie seemed a little better. She would put down her left leg and walk on it and limp on it. It never really improved. I waited a week and then I called Dr. Averill. My appointment was for Wednesday April 7th. He took one look at her knee and said that her knee cap had popped out. It is called a Patellar Luxation. It is usually found in only small dogs. He said that we would need to to surgery to tighten the knee cap and he would try and do it that day. I asked him how much it would cost. He told me it was $2700 and that he would only charge me two thousand! That would put our total costs up to $12,000 for Sadie. (not covered by the VPI insurance-never get that dog insurance) Oh-I do not know if I mentioned earlier that the breeder, Karen Thomas gave me the $1,200 dollars back that I paid for Sadie. I left Sadie at the hospital. She would not have surgery until later that afternoon and I needed to talk to my husband, Larry and my Vet friend Susan Wilner and Dr. Clark. I just did not know what to do. I left crying and in shock.