Today I had to take our lovely Lab, Tessa to the vet to check out a second injury to her knee. This time it was the left side. She has just finished recovering from an injury to the right side where she had a partial tear to the cruciate ligament of the knee.
We were just starting to do longer walks and letting her off leash a little. She loves the snow- bounding around and walking through it but it certainly does not like her! It can be very tricky for those little paws – one slip can mean a whole lot of problems!
She seems to have another partial tear. This time the vet wants us to keep her pretty much in her crate for 7-8 weeks! That is torture for her. She is only supposed to be out so she can go out to do her business and then back in. I asked if I could set up an area in the family room for her that is quadruple the size of her crate that is carpeted and the vet Okayed that. She doesn’t want her on any slippery floors.
We also have to get her weight down, she is not big for a Lab but it will mean less stress for her knees and hips.
Labs have always been known to have hip problems; apparently they are now seeing an increase in knee injuries in Labs as well. It has to do with the bloodlines and the breeding [too much]. Our Lab will be four in March, so she is still very young to us [okay, so not really a puppy, but I still call her that]. We were told that a puppy owned by one of the Vets at the clinic had to go through surgery to repair knee injuries at 6 months!
We hope to refrain from doing the surgery. Luckily, we have insurance that will cover most of the cost, but it really seems like such a horrible ordeal to have to put them through if we can avoid it.
So, we are going to try to keep her calm [if you know Labs, not always easy] and hope that with adequate rest and enough anti-inflammatory, it will do the job. Then after eight weeks we will start the rehab all over again.
I was so looking forward to continuing our longer walks together, and Tessa will be quite upset if I go out with out her. So for the time being, I will be using our treadmill to get my daily walks in without my lovely companion until she is healed and we can continue them together. Hopefully, by the time she is able to resume her walks the weather will cooperate and it will be less treacherous for her to walk.
It is just not the same walking without her!
