Sadie's Hip replacement surgery

Feb 12th 2010

So here we are again-another surgery. Sadie is almost one year old and this will be her 3rd surgery (The elbow and Rt. hip were done at the same time). Her surgery was on a Friday-I was so nervous about this huge surgery. The doctor called me in the early afternoon to tell me that all had gone well-however, he noticed that her knees seemed a bit loose-especially her left knee. He said not to worry because her knees were probably a bit loose because she had not been exercising since Nov. I was still worried. As you will see later-I had every right to be! I brought her home on the following Monday. The technicion gave me instructions for her aftercare. Unfortunately she was not totally clear on her antiobiotics. There were two bottles-one 500 mg of cephalaxin and one 250 mg. Never was it listed that I would have to give her both pills every 8 hours-I just thought the other bottle was more pills that did not fit into the first jar. For the next 3 weeks I gave her only 250 mg of the antibiotic. It was not until I accidently opened the other jar that I saw that the pills were bigger-called the vet and figured out the mistake. I was fortunate that nothing happened since she did not have the proper amount of medicine. I had to give her the full 750 mg. for the next 3 weeks. Now back to bringing her home. The doctor said that I need to treat her like glass-yeah-that is easy for a one year old lab!! We kept her in a 5 by 7 area. This made her crazy by the end of the 6 weeks! At two weeks post up she came in for staple removal. She was actually doing quite well-putting weight down on the leg etc. They decided to take x-rays since she seemed so active. I was totally nervous. When the assistant told me that all was well-I did not believe her. Four more weeks to go before I could walk her for 3 short walks. I could not wait (and neither could Sadie). She started jumping up more in her little area and barking like crazy-driving us nuts. She was feeling good!! On March 26th, I finally got to take her for the x-ray . I was completely nervous and praying for a good outcome-expecially since the tpo did not work out as expected. I just wanted a normal dog and could not wait to have one. The doctor came out and gave me the good news. Her hip was great and her knees looked good. I could walk her and give her more space in my house. I was overjoyed!!!!