T-ko has been limping lately. It actually started about 2 months ago so I took her to the doctor and they said that she probably had a small tumor growing in her hip and this was causing arthritis issues. The doctor said at that time that we should probably just give her a pain medicine to alleviate the discomfort. So for the past two months we have been giving her two pills a day with her meals to help make her a little more comfortable. Last week I noticed that she wasn’t even putting weight on her back leg. She was really starting to favor that left back leg. So off to the doctor we went again.

I took her back to the doctor yesterday afternoon and the doctor ran some more tests on her back leg that she is favoring. The doctor found another small tumor that is starting to grow and wants to remove it before it becomes an issue, but the doctor said that should not cause her to stop using that leg. He performed a few more tests and told me that T-ko had a cranial cruciate ligament rupture in her left hind stifle joint (that would be a knee joint for me).

T-ko is scheduled to have a TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) on Monday morning. It really is an interesting surgery. A TPLO surgery involves making a curved cut in the top of the tibia bone (osteotomy) to include the tibial plateau. The tibial plateau is then rotated along the curved osteotomy in order to level the slope. A plate and screws are used to hold the tibial plateau in place so that the bone can heal in its new position.

T-ko will then not be able to bear weight on that joint for 2 weeks. After the 2 weeks are over she will start to put limited amount of weight on that joint. The doctor said it should take about two months of therapy and that there is a 90% chance that she will be back to new and not have any lingering problems with that joint.  My little princess has been very upset at me today. I think she knows something is up and she is not happy about it. I will keep you informed on how she does on Monday with her surgery and keep you updated on her recovery. She is a little fighter…I think my biggest hassle is going to be keeping her from putting weight on that joint for the next two weeks.