Weeks passed with no relief in sight for Daisy. We finally took her to another vet for a second opinion. This time, we were told Daisy had blown her knee. Yep, she had a complete ACL tear which would require major surgery. After much discussion, Wes and I opted to have the surgery in SC. Wes' travel schedule was jam packed for the month of April and I needed extra help taking care of both Hannah and Daisy. Luckily, Wes had a flight booked to Atlanta for the Masters. We added infant in arms to his ticket and I drove Daisy from Chicago to Clemson.
Daisy had her initial consult the Friday we arrived in town. Unfortunately, Daisy had a more complicated injury than we thought and required the expertise of a specialist to fix. We took her to see the good folks at Upstate Veterinary Specialists on Tuesday. Her official diagnosis was a full ACL tear and a major tear of the meniscus. She had surgery that afternoon. Apparently, Daisy's knees are at a 32 degree angle. This puts Daisy at a much higher risk for ACL tears. Normal dogs have 25 degree angles in their knees. We'll have to be extremely careful in the future with her activity to protect her right knee.
The surgery isn't like what they'd perform in a human. The surgery performed on Daisy actually changed the angle of her knee by sawing and pulling a portion of the bone in her knee forward, placing a metal "cage" in that area and securing it with bone grafts. Eventually, scar tissue will also form and that will stabilize her knee.
Pretty gruesome, huh? I think Daisy was more mortified about her hair cut.
Recovery is 8-12 weeks. Daisy is doing fantastic! The first few days were tough, but it's been over a week and she's back to her old self. This isn't the best news for me as she's very energetic. Daisy goes all out, all the time. Yeah bud, you still have at least 6.5 more weeks of "bed rest" to go.
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