03.29.09
Darden – One surgery down, one to go
beautiful, adorable Darden had surgery last week to fix ONE of his two necrotic hip joints. It was touch and go during the surgery and after. First, because of the narrowing of the leg bone (you can see it on the x-ray), the surgeon was unsure whether he could get the stem of the appliance into the bone. He said it was a total mess. In a normal dog, there would be the channel with soft bone marrow into which they place the stem, but in Darden’s case, the bone marrow was hardened which made it much more difficult to implant the appliance. In fact, Dr. Liska said had this been four years earlier, he probably couldn’t have done it.
But, he did get this one done. Here are Darden’s pre- and post-surgical x-rays.
Darden came home on Thursday but we had a lot of trouble with him. He wouldn’t stand at all to go to the bathroom. I was on the verge of checking him back into the hospital on Saturday, when he finally relented and went. WHEW!! We were carrying him outside every hour or two for two days to no avail.
Today, Sunday, he is happy and not reluctant to stand on his leg at all.
He will have surgery on his second leg on approx April 25, if we can raise the funds by then.
We were still very short on the fundraising for this leg so please help us get whole so we can schedule his second surgery. He needs and wants to be running!!
Each leg is estimated at $4500 plus or minus 10%. We were able to get Darden out of the hospital early so the first leg only cost $4000. But, to date, we’ve only raised around $1800. We desperately need the additional $2200, and we absolutely need the funds for the second leg before we schedule the surgery.
Please please let us help get this boy out of pain!
If you can donate, please use Paypal HERE or send a check HERE or use a credit card HERE.
Thank you for whatever you can do!!
