Ellie’s cruciate operation day. We took her to the vets as requested at 8.30am. I told Jack I would be a little late and we worked our lunches around being early in case I had to dash off to collect Ellie. It didn’t seem probable as she would be a long time under anaesthetic and therefore quite a time recovering. The surgeon called Mal with all the details at lunchtime, so surgery hadn’t started and then called him later to let him know the operation was successful and to collect her at 6.45.
I had gone into work to keep my mind otherwise occupied!
Mal cooked dinner ready for my homecoming and then at the appropriate time we went to collect Ellie. It surprised us after being told everything by the nurse and given 6 A4 sheets of instructions and three lots of pain killers/anti inflammatories that when she brought Ellie out to us, she had a blanket holding up her back legs. We tried to get her in the car and it was obvious she had no control over her back legs at all, obviously caused by the epidural. Even more of a struggle when we arrived home and tried to get her out of the car.
Poor Ellie, a pretty independent kinda girl. She struggled and struggled to stand all to no avail, so she panted and panted. We ended up with me on the mattress from the spare room on the floor in the living room and Mal on the sofa, between us we managed to comfort her a little, try and carry her out in the garden in case she wanted to do her business….no she didn’t because her back legs wouldn’t work.
We have a soft collar for her but the ortho surgeon would rather we didn’t use it if possible as it stresses them out more. It is here IF we need it.
