In the previous post, Jasmine’s Story: Can Chronic Diarrhea and Soft Tissue Injuries be Normal?, Jana introduced us to Jasmine, her beautiful Rottweiler and the joy of her life. She spoke about her frustration with Jasmine’s diagnosis of a “delicate system” and “soft tissue injuries” and her feeling that something much more serious was happening to Jasmine. It turns out that Jana was quite right to be concerned.
The Saga Continues for Jasmine
by Jana Rade
That summer she had injured her leg again. It looked the same as the three times before, so we figured that it would go away with restricted exercise as it did in the past. While it did take several months to resolve in the past, this time I didn’t feel as patient. Jasmine would still like her walks, but if she had a choice she’d rather rest instead. That wasn’t like her. She always wanted to run and play and it was hard to hold her back. Not this time! While we didn’t really expect to hear anything else than before, I insisted that we take her to the vet anyway. And that was when the poop hit the fan.
He sprung the words ACL injury on us. First time we ever heard of that! (Editors note: ACL is an abbreviation for the anterior cruciate ligament, a ligament important to the stifle joint.) He gave us a referral to an orthopedic specialist and mentioned TPLO surgery. Ok, that didn’t sound good and when I looked up what it all meant it looked even less good. I was praying that it was something else, anything else. But it wasn’t. The specialist said that she had a substantial partial ligament tear in the knee she was favoring, but that her other knee looked quite bad also and she’d need an immediate surgery on the one and another surgery once this heals enough.
Wait! None of her other issues in the past had a truly serious impact on her quality of life as far as we could tell. She didn’t really care for food, she had her stomach upsets and bad stools, but what she loved the most in her life were her walks. She always lived for those.
Isn’t there something else we could do? I did a lot of research and weighed a lot of options from braces, prolotherapy, to stem cell regenerative therapy. The stem cell therapy sounded hopeful. However, when I brought it up to her vet, he’s never heard of it and didn’t care to find out either.
But before I was going to take away the last thing she enjoyed in her life for such a long time, I wasn’t going to give up easily. On VetStem’s website I found a list of vets in our area who were certified for the procedure and was going to discuss this option with them.
As I was calling around, one of those vets spent a lot of time with me on the phone. He hadn’t done this procedure yet (but neither had anybody else I called—here or south of the border) but was willing to consider the idea. He did feel that surgery might be the best option, “Knees love being operated on,” he said, but agreed to see Jasmine and evaluate her condition. I liked his willingness to spend the time with me, his open mind, how much he knew about these things, and how much he was willing to explain.
We booked a consultation. When we brought Jasmine in, he checked her head to toe. When that surprised us—given it was a consultation regarding Jasmine’s knee—he explained how one thing would affect the rest and said that he wanted to treat the whole dog. Wow! What a novel concept!
He asked for the x-rays from the orthopedic specialist. He also wanted to see x-rays of her shoulders, but there weren’t any. We agreed that he can take his own set.
When taking the x-rays he also decided to take advantage of her being under and do a thorough palpation. And then he called us into his office. He felt a hard mass in Jasmine’s abdomen and when he took additional x-rays the mass showed up on those as well. Given the fact that she was showing no symptoms we might have caught it early enough. We’d need to do some blood test and see where to go from there. That also puts off dealing with the knee.
Wait! Just when we thought the situation couldn’t get any worse? Waiting for the results was a true hell. We were trying to figure out what we’d do if they were positive. Of course the knee surgery would have been off. Brace and pain killers to allow her the enjoy all she could. Putting her through chemo? That wasn’t something we felt we could do to her. OMG what’s the hold up with those results?
We were so scared! But we couldn’t really believe it either, there was so much life in her eyes, she wasn’t ready to wrap it up!
Next time…allergies, surgery, stem cell therapy and more complications for Jasmine. Be sure to come back and find out what happens to Jasmine.
Jana Rade is a graphic designer by profession and never aspired to learning about dog health issues until she met Jasmine. Unfortunately, she received a crash course in the subject due to Jasmine’s many health issues and has since become an advocate for other pet owners and their four-legged friends. In her blog, Dawg Business, Jana shares her experiences and the lessons she has learned with others. She shares this message with all dog owners: At the end, your dog’s health is up to you!
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Yes, absolutely. That would be just fine. Proper attribution is all we ask in exchange
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