bunn: (Mollydog goes boing)
bunn ([personal profile] bunn) wrote2010-05-10 01:20 pm
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State of the Mollydog (Again!)

 Went in to see Mollydog's surgeon, Rude Craig.

 The swelling on her back leg has gone down, but she still has the big black blister on the back of the hock,  plus some other blister-type things (which have a specific name that I've forgotten) and she had been bleeding from the operation scar again. 

Craig reckons that the wire and screws and things inside her leg are moving about when she walks on them and cutting the inside of her leg.   One option is to open the leg up again now that the joint has fused, and take all the hardware out again so it can heal completely.

This is a somewhat scary idea.  Another operation, another long period of trying to keep her from moving about.  Her leg is a bundle of bones and tendons inside a phenomenally thin and delicate bag of skin, she got an awful ulcer from the bandages last time, and now the whole leg is riddled with scar tissue as well as being incredibly thin and fragile - so how well it would heal is questionable. 

For now I'm going to watch it and hope that the leg decides that it can cope with being full of metalwork, but if it shows further signs of rejecting the implant, it will have to come out. 

Rude Craig didn't charge me for the consultation, even though I was in there a good 15 mins, asking questions and agonising.  Also, he was really polite!  Am a bit worried that this means he thinks the implant is going to have to come out so I should start saving up!  Though thinking on, I think it would probably be covered by her insurance, which is something! 

[identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 12:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh noes ...

*pats Mollydog*
ext_189645: (Mollydog goes boing)

[identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Am crossing fingers that it may settle down as it gets warmer, as she does tend to be less active when it's hot.

[identity profile] lil-shepherd.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh dear! That's a horrible decision you're going to have to make.
ext_189645: (Mollydog in the snow.)

[identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Greyhounds: definitely designed for speed not reliability!

[identity profile] the-marquis.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 01:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh that sounds like a big mixed bag of ... hope all goes well and that Molly's leg settles down. Is it possible that the bones etc being thin, and then jiggling about a lot, that the hardware can't really ever fit right?
ext_189645: (Mollydog in the snow.)

[identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
That's the worry :-( It *may* settle down, but as you say, it's awful tight for space in there, so any incompatibility with the metal bits at all is bad.

I'm frankly amazed that Craig managed to put the leg back together so well the first time, it must have been like some sort of nightmare 3d jigsaw made of ultra-thin tissue paper!

Of course, she considers legs to be for charging about at top speed on, and she'll do that even if it hurts, just because that's what she does. Not all greyhounds are born to run, I'm told many of them aren't that fussed (Az isn't, actually), but Molls is a born runner. I had her on lead for a few days since her last vet appt, and this morning I let her off because I reckoned that was probably still safer than the kind of loony leaping and bowing she was doing in the house!

[identity profile] thecatsamuel.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Poor, poor Mollydog. I so hope it settles down for her.

Perhaps Rude Craig may have been nice because you've topped up his retirement fund so much already? Lovely Bruce never charged Sam the full whack because we were there so often.

[identity profile] inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I can just imagine how difficult all this is. I hope you can figure something out.

[identity profile] clarienne.livejournal.com 2010-05-10 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Ouch! Poor Mollydog :-(