I've just realised after coming back on this blog to document my journey with 4 year old Cockapoo, Huckleberry-Finn's hip replacement, that I've officially never introduced him on here. There's enough time to play catch up with that sort of stuff, but for now lets focus on the matter in hand - a Total Left Hip Replacement in a dog.
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I've decided to document my journey from realising something was wrong with Huckleberry, right through to him needing a hip replacement and beyond recovery. There are so many vital bits in the middle like selecting the right Orthopaedic surgeon, deciding to go ahead with such evasive surgery and more. When I started to do my own research I really struggled to find true success stories, or someone that had documented the whole journey rather than a few bits on Instagram. I spent so many late nights and early mornings scrolling on Google willing to find someone that had been through what we were going through so I could read their journey and follow the weekly progress - BUT I couldn't.
So here I am; hoping that in keeping this diary of what I've experienced, the emotions, the vital decisions and beyond the hip replacement, in a hope that perhaps one day I can put someone else's mind at ease and help them make one of the most important decisions for their dog.
I've been asked many of times over the last few months how I noticed that something was wrong with Huckleberry's leg. In 2022 I was away in Dorset with him for work when he got attacked by a dog walking back to the car of our hotel. After rushing him to the emergency vets, it was picked up that he potentially had whats called Luxating Patella on the left hind leg. This is a condition where the knee effectively pops out of place and moves from where it should be and "Luxates". The vet told me it wasn't at a grade she thought should be a concern, but I should keep an eye on it.
Fast forward to March of 2023, and although Huckleberry's leg had never given me any reason for concern, I was also consciously aware of keeping an eye on it.
I was getting ready for a horse show early in the morning and he did something he does often - jump up at the sweeping brush as I was sweeping the stables. He did this daily and had done since he was a puppy, and had never had any issues. However on this particular day he jumped up and as he landed, he landed lame and was unable to weight-bear. For the rest of the day I kept him rested and presumed he had just pulled himself as we do, but he still wasn't really 100% the next day.
For a couple of days I kept an eye on him and the leg seemed to right itself to a point where I wasn't concerned, however it was from this day that following long walks he started to struggle afterwards and appeared to walk with his leg stuck in an outwards position.
This developed into happening every evening and so after a week I took him to the vets to get him checked out. I raised my concern with the luxating patella and expressed concerns that I thought his knee was locking as this is what appeared to be happening.
The vet agreed the left knee luxated but didn't think it was any higher than a Grade 1 (which is deemed not a lot to worry about), and suggested we rest Huckleberry more than usual and to see how he got on after 6 weeks of less strenuous exercise.
The weeks passed, and Huckleberry's evening limp developed intermittently. One day it would be severe and I'd need to rest him more than others, and other days he would be totally fine.
Around July time I was concerned that the evening limp was getting worse. After strenuous walks like a play on the beach Huckleberry would then get out the car at home and appear to walk a few "lame steps", before him righting it and then walking as normal. Another thing I had noticed was in an evening when we were at home watching TV, he would get up to move positions and do a lame step - something he had never done before.
To try and help I started taking him to Hydrotherapy but after each session he would be severely stiff and it was hard to see him in so much discomfort after doing something he enjoyed.
I took him back to the vets who agreed that something wasn't right and suggested he see the same vet he saw back in March, and I guess this is where our journey into Orthopaedic surgery began.
The vet we had seen in March was an Orthopaedic vet who performed a variety of Orthopaedic surgeries at our local vets and upon seeing him for the second time, he deemed Huckleberry a candidate for Luxating Patella surgery and booked him in.
However, I'm an avid over thinker, Googler and all round worry head. At this point I was concerned surgery on his knee was booked for the following week, but we hadn't done any X-rays, CT or anything to determine whether this truly was the issue or not. I did some Googling and although this vet had performed thousands of Orthopaedic surgeries, he wasn't on the specialists register and therefore I decided to be referred to a specialist Orthopaedic vets. I just want to make it more than clear that this is nothing against this particular vet, and he has performed many successful surgeries, but I just felt I wanted to attend a specialist referral centre, and with insurance up to £10,000 this was not an issue to at least get another opinion.
It was at this point we found ourselves at the Referral Centre that have a fantastic Orthopaedic team behind them and many accolades to their name. Of course I had done my due diligence and requested the surgeon that I felt was an expert in the field of Luxating Patellas and came highly recommended. On the day I drove 3.5 hours to see them and had requested X-rays and a CT scan to determine what was wrong.
Unfortunately our experience on the day wasn't what I expected and the surgeon I had requested was off poorly. The person I did see felt Huckleberry didn't have Luxating Patella and instead had a Cruciate Injury and suggested 6 weeks of rest, along with continuing the Hydrotherapy. No X-rays nor CT scans were performed on this day and after leaving home at 4am to ensure I got to our 8am appointment on time, I left feeling very disappointed.
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The following day I called the centre back and expressed my concerns around the appointment and they agreed with me that some diagnostic testing should've been done. We were offered another appointment with a different surgeon and the promise that Huckleberry would receive some form of diagnostics at that appointment, so I should be prepared to leave him there for the day.
I guess you could say it was the day of this appointment that the world shattered around me, and I learnt that although Huckleberry did have some Luxating Patella, that wasn't the primary concern for the surgeon. He took time to listen to my concerns, watched videos I had taken of Huckleberry walking like the one above and agreed something wasn't right so asked that I leave him so he could have a CT Scan.
Sitting in a local garden centre eating breakfast whilst knowing my poor boy was being sedated and undergoing tests was awful. I'll go into it further into the blogs, but I have serious anxiety over Huckleberry being anaesthetised.
At approximately 1:30pm, my phone rang and the vet asked me to go to the practice to meet with him as he thought he had found the problem.
Never in a million years did I expect him to suggest that Huckleberry had a bad hip. I thought he might need a knee operation to secure his Luxating Patella and we would be fine. BUT actually that was far from reality, and a new reality was about to begin.
The surgeon explained that Huckleberry had slight Hip Dysplasia on the left side, and although not horrific, it was enough to (he thought) be causing significant pain and making his knee Luxate. Interestingly both knees Luxated to a degree but the left was significantly worse and he felt this was because of the Left Hip having the Dysplasia.
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We were sent home with the advice that Huckleberry should undergo a Hip Replacement as that was the best possible way to treat the issue, and would hopefully stop the knee from Luxating. Additionally, whilst sedated, he was given a steroid into the knee to see if it helped with the pain and our D-Date was booked for the following week.
The week that followed saw my anxiety heighten and I spent more time on Google looking up Hip Replacements in dogs than I should've. In hindsight now (and isn't hindsight a wonderful thing), I should've trusted the process and trusted that we were doing the right thing. But I didn't...
A week later we were back at the vets for surgery, and the entire journey there I had worked myself up that I was going to ask the surgeon to fix the Luxating Patella first, and see if that worked. I wasn't keen on such invasive surgery to replace a hip immediately and couldn't understand why we were doing the hip first.
Upon walking into the vets, he remarked that Huckleberry was walking so much better following the steroid injection and he recommended waiting for a Hip Replacement and give alternative treatment a chance first. Blimey what a whirlwind of a day! He recommended further physio, water treadmill sessions and laser therapy for 6 weeks and then to see where we were at.
After 4 weeks of the above, Huckleberrys physio and I were concerned that the muscle mass around his leg wasn't improving and he was still very stiff following his sessions. It was at this point, I sought advice from a further Orthopaedic specialist that's relatively well known. I don't know why I wanted a further opinion, but I think its because in my head I couldn't come to terms nor accept that he needed a Hip Replacement. I kept thinking that this couldn't be our reality, and surely someone had gotten it wrong.
I don't want to go too much into detail here, but I didn't have the best experience and felt like I couldn't ask questions, nor feel worried about Huckleberry and surgery. However my mind was put at ease as the appointment here with further testing such as more X-rays, confirmed that Huckleberry DID need a Hip Replacement. It was at this point though that the decision was made I would return to the original referral vet as I felt nothing but comfort with him, and he was prepared to answer any questions I had, spend as much time as I needed discussing the operation and did everything in his power to put my mind at ease - which is all I needed.
Following a lengthy phone call with the surgeon, as well as many tears shed; Huckleberrys surgery was booked for 10 days time and the countdown began....
Come back for Part 2 - the Hip Replacement.
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