Ely

Some of you guys know about Ely and some of you don’t. Ely has had a difficult past 5 weeks. The last Friday of January he was running slowly in the yard and yelped and then wouldn’t put any weight on his back leg. That Saturday morning he headed to the vet. He had completely torn his other ACL (he had done the same thing on his other knee a year and a half ago). They scheduled Ely for a TTA (Tibial Tuberosity Advancement) for Wednesday. This is a newer surgery than a TPLO and not many vets know how to do it. Thankfully, our favorite vet at our vet hospital, Dr. Brian is one of them and did a TTA on Ely the last time. Ely did awesome with the last surgery and has not had any problems with his right knee since then.

Ely went through the torture of missing breakfast Wednesday morning. The receptionists were happy to see him at the vet. We got a call late Wednesday afternoon from Dr. Brian saying that they had put Ely to sleep, shaved him, and then they discovered that he had a staph infection on his leg. Since none of us wanted him to have the possibility of getting any of the infection inside his leg, he got put on antibiotics and also a spray antibiotic. He was rescheduled for surgery for 2 weeks later. Ely figured out how to get around somewhat, even picking up that bad leg and trotting a bit.

Two weeks later I dropped him off at the vet again, but this time another vet checked to see if his infection had healed enough for surgery. It was, so he was cleared for surgery. We got a call Wednesday night from Dr. Brian who said that Ely did great and was awake. We picked him up Thursday morning. He actually did better this time than his last surgery. He was very excited to see us and was already putting weight on his leg. He did get a cone of shame to stop him from messing his leg since it was itchy (he looked like a flower!).

We are now 21 days post op and Ely is doing very well! He does think that he is a brand new dog and that he is all better, so it is a little bit harder to keep Ely still. He still has a long recovery ahead of him, but hopefully he will continue to do well. On Wednesday he started walking a block or so after he got heat and then came back to ice the knee. Ely would love to go for a long walk, but we will be increasing his length a block every 5 or so days as long as he is not in any pain. His recovery is just like that of an athlete!

Joe has been a very good nephew and has taken very good care of him before he left for puppy camp and since he has gotten home.