This is Max's last hip surgery!!! Poor little guy has been through so much at such a young age. Hopefully this should take care of this and in 6-8 wks he will feel like a million bucks! I should back up a bit and tell you that some of this makes sense now looking back. When we bought Max I had hoped for him to be a therapy dog and STILL DO! When he was old enough I enrolled him in puppy classes and he excelled. In fact, he was class valedictorian! Okay, he was the only puppy in the class! However, he was a very quick learner in all the qualifications. We then moved on to the intermediate class. He was not the only dog in the class and was not the top dog! Abigail was the top dog and overachiever. She already knew all the commands and even had a therapy vest. She was the envy of all of the dogs (really the owners). I secretly would love if she disobeyed her owner, but she is wonderful and rarely would. This is where Max started slowing down, as in not going down. I would say 50 times down...... nope not gonna happen. Max sit......... really, not gonna do it. Max wouldn't go on walks or would stop in the middle of a walk. His training came to an abrupt halt. I thought he was being obstinate or maybe we needed a different training method. Now I realize it was his hips, they were hurting him. It hurt to sit over and over again. It hurt to go down over and over again. I never could have imagined his hips were bothering him at this age. After Max heals from surgery and is ready to resume training, I hope to continue on a path as a therapy dog. If not he will be my personal therapy dog.
Dr Tangner called and Max did very well. The plan is for Max to come home on Monday. The vet assistants will come in through the weekend and check on Max and call me each day. Oh the thought of him being in the surgery center over the weekend makes me very sad. Love you Max.
Hi Monique, I stumbled across this blog and felt compelled to comment although I'm not sure this blog is active anymore. My nautilus golden, Josie, is also sired by Alejandro, was diagnosed with luxating patellas in both knees at 9 months old. This required 2 surgeries and a total of 12 weeks confined time for the poor girl. She is doing wonderful 2 years post-surgery and turned 3 in December. Your Max looks exactly like her, right down to his love of cuddling! Josie is a sweet girl and as you know, once they are yours you'll do anything to ease their pain. It was all terribly unfortunate and not all what I was expecting after having done my research prior to purchasing our family dog.
ReplyDeleteI hope that Max is doing well now and I wish him and your family a happy and healthy New Year.