The Beginning of the Story

Dante's Bilateral TPLO Adventure

The Beginnings

If you know Dante, you know he is one of the most amazing dogs alive. Not only is he a lovable companion, he is gentle, quiet, emotional and very well behaved. He is one in a million, and he would never give up on us, his loving family, so we will never give up on him!

Dante 'Tug Boat' White - American Bulldog X Whippet X Rat Terrier Cross (according to his DNA testing) Aka he's a handsome mutt.

I will explain later what exactly a 'Bilateral TPLO' surgery is, but first I will recap exactly how our dog face doggie completely blew out both of his knees.

The story of Dante's Bilateral TPLO surgery started back in about April 2016. One normal evening Brendon was out on the deck, and Dante was frolicking out on the grass. Dante ran FULL SPEED up the deck stairs as he always had to, but this time one of his legs slipped through the stairs and he let out a horrible YIPE. I went outside to see what had happened, we had never heard him make that noise before. We brought him into the kitchen to assess the damage, and couldn't actually find what he had hurt, we had initially thought that he had twisted his ankle or something, as it seems likely from a fall up the stairs. He limped around for a few hours after that, and it bothered him for a few days, but it didn't seem to be severe, we just took it easy on him for awhile after that.

Fast forward about a month, I was SOO pregnant, like going to pop any day. Dante was outside playing like he normally does and he re-injured his leg. This time it was not good. I think we waited a day or two, but it was really concerning for us, so off to the vet we went.

We met with a nice young girl vet, who asked us about Dante's history, which was quite honestly quite spot free except for one penis infection a couple years back, but he doesn't want to talk about it ;) 

At this point we had ourselves decided that it was either his hip or ankle that was bothering him. The idea that he had a knee injury did not even cross our minds. After the vet had done her history, she did an external physical and BOOM almost instantly she could tell that he had injured his right cruciate legament. The question at this point was - how badly is it injured? At that point we went home with some exercises and Metacam - an anti-inflammatory pain killer. Dante was to be on 'light duty' for 6 weeks. No playing, no stairs, no nothing. Just chilling out and doing some light exercised. Leash walks ONLY.

If he got better we were in luck, if he did not get better the word surgery came up. Before we got to that point, the vet wanted to sedate him and do a more extensive exam on his knee. The edge of his ligament was ripped, but the sedated exam would allow her to tell if it was all the way through.

Looking bad I am glad we didn't pay for a sedated exam. Also glad we didn't sedate Dante for was is now what I deem - NO REASON. Once Dante's CCL (Cranial Cruciate Ligament) was torn all the way through it was VERY apparent. Like he was fully lame in the leg, couldn't miss it.

I wish at this point I could say that Dante got better after 6 weeks rest. The truth is we were back to the vet in about 3 weeks.

Dante had started to lose his balance due to his knee injury. His knee was worse. He was in very obvious amounts of pain. The baby was now here, our precious Boden was born June 4th. Dante was a proud big brother! But being a new big brother the babies scream still mad him uneasy. 

Dante and Boden's first picture together - July 2016

Dante had lost his ability to get up on the couch, so we lifted him up on the couch to sit with the the baby and I. The baby screamed, Dante got startled fell off the couch and smacked his head real hard off our glass coffee table. I felt so horrible, I watched it happen but there was nothing I could do. We never could tell if it was due to the previous pain he was in, or the smack on the head that did it but Dante now developed a bad head tilt.

This is where the story makes me angry. Back to the vet we go. This time we get a male vet, who didn't speak very good english. I took him by myself, with the baby. Boden couldn't have been more than 2 weeks old. I booked the appointment for his head tilt, the first thing I mentioned was his head tilt, I directly said "we need to find out what is causing this head tilt". I agreed to X-rays. X-rays on his spine and hips. I thought it was his neck that causing the head tilt, that's what would cause a head tilt after all, it probably had something to do with his spine, being that he is part American Bull Dog, they are prone to hip problems, vestibular disease, or an inner ear infection. I made sure to specifically ask if it was an inner ear infection, and Mr. Vet McDouche says nope he didn't see one, when he looked in his ears, just like looked with his eyes. Either way, I signed off on $500 worth of X-rays, waited the 30 min for them to get done, with a newborn baby andddd we were on our way.

I may have found it strange that Brendon was called back about 1 hours later to bring Dante in for more X-rays. Yet, with a 2 week old baby to take care of, I didn't really think anything of it. 

I called the next day and asked where the results were. They said they would call me back when they knew, as they had been sent to a specialist. They called me back about 45 minutes later, and said they wanted to book an appointment to discuss the results. Initially they were just going to tell me what they were, but the fact that they wanted to book an appointment made me feel like they were calling me in to give a death diagnosis. I freaked. Held the dog on the floor crying, there was a lot of head petting and "You're going to be okay I won't let anything bad happen to you" going on. 

Brendon comes with me to the vet the next day. The vet walks in. 

Vet -"After the X-rays we have determined that the problem is his knee".

Me - "The knee is causing his head tilt"

Vet- "No."

Me - "What is causing his head tilt?"

Vet - "I do not know"

Me - "Really?"

Vet- "It must be something neural, you will need to see a neurologist."

:|    <-- This is the face of someone who wanted to punch the vet.

REALLY!? We paid 500 bucks for "IT'S HIS KNEE" We knew his knee was injured. It was already diagnosed at that same vet just weeks before. I was there for the head tilt!!

Brendon then asked if it could be an inner ear infection and Mr Vet McASSHAT - pulled out his little flashlight and LOOKED IN HIS EARS. I was flabbergasted. Yesterday, nope NO ear infection... today yea sure I'll look in his ears. I feel like it was because Brendon asked, and now that he was in the room it was like I didn't exist..... I was so pissed. Then he basically told us to google pet neurologists in Edmonton and sent us on our way..  Note - pet neurologists are NOT EVEN A THING - in Edmonton anyways... but ya just google it, that'll work out for ya.

I ended up calling his boss and getting some of the cost refunded. I was uber angry and to this day feel like he just got X-rays so he had something to tell me. I wont let that vet touch my dog again. And ironically when I went back for my refund I could hear the vet tech's talking about how Mr. Vet McStupidhead was recommending X-Rays for another dog and they didn't understand why.... coincidence?! I think not.

For the record, our next two vets DID look at the X-rays we paid for. But both of them were able to feel that Dante's Ligaments were torn with their bare hands. This taught me the lesson damn fast that a vet is not a vet is a vet. You can get shitty ones that don't know much just like a human doctor. This was something I never had to worry about before. I feel like we never needed those X-Rays in the long run.

Dante was a mess. We called him Zoolander dog. He could only turn to the left. He had a mad lean on and would literally walk sideways straight into things, like the bumper of my car or the wall. It got to the point where you would have to hold his head straight physically with your hands to get him to go in the direction he needed to. That and he would throw himself down the stairs pretty much sideways every change he got. Which didn't help him much.

Zoolander Dog - Dante with his head tilt - June 27 2016

My FAV vet McFartHead's boss got us a referral to Guardian Vet Clinic in Edmonton, AB. We saw an Internal Medicine Specialist. He was great. He gave Dante antibiotics, talked to us about 'Old Dog Vestibular Disease' which did suit his symptoms but not his age and told us that if the antibiotics didn't make any change, it could be Vestibular or worse.... a brain tumour.... but with the cost of MRI's we were better off to just hope the antibiotics made him better, and hope his knee healed. If we paid the 3500 for an MRI and he had a brain tumour, realistically we would be out almost 4 grand AND we would have a dog with a terminal tumour that we could do nothing about.

It was so sad to think that this could be Dante's undoing. We tried to stay positive.

I was convinced it was something to do with Dante's muscles that was causing his head tilt. His compensation for an injured knee had to be pulling his back out of joint, and thus making him hold his head at a strange angle. So I messaged a dog Massage Therapist. She was very helpful and referred me to Town Centre Vet in Edmonton. They are into dog rehabilitation, and with Dante's condition being serious.... she thought they would be a better suit for him. There we met Dr. Pam Goebel. They thought his condition was serious enough to get us an emergency appointment. She gave Dante a manual adjustment, his body was all out of wack. And also a VERY thorough examination. She practises an Eastern Medicine approach along with Western. WHICH I LOVE. Honestly throwing a prescription at everything isn't always best. With the pulses she felt in his body, and uneven muscle tone in his head she said it was possible it was a tumour, and that his left knee was now starting to go as well. Just what we needed, a bummed left knee to go with his almost completely bummed right knee and crooked head. Trifecta. She diagnosed us 3 Homeopathic drugs.

The way she described the homeopathic drugs to me was like injecting some of the bodys own poison into itself. It was like the breaking down of plant matter, via boiling and all that is left over is pure plant energy. You pick the plant energy that is the same as the one the body is creating which is causing the ailment and introduce it to the body. If the body is flooded with the same energy, then the inital problem can sometime be washed out. Like a wildfire burning spreading through a campground fire, the campground fire would be eaten by the wildfire and no longer exsist after the wildfire burned through....

Worst thing it could do is nothing. Dr. Pam was the first vet to come up with something to try and heal Dante's legs, instead of just rest and painkillers. So I was in for giving it a try.

Dante's head tilt got better!! I swear it was the 'Arnica' Homeopathic drug that was prescribed by Dr. Pam. Brendon thinks it was the antibiotics that were prescribed by the Internal Medicine Specialist Vet - Dr. Cockwell. It honestly could have been either, but it doesn't matter. It got better, and that was an indication to Dr. Pam and our future surgeon, that he probably doesn't have a brain tumour. If he did, he would have gotten worse... not better. This was the best news we had gotten in a long time. Our hearts were filled with pure joy. This meant we could fix Dante. It was just his knees, not his head. Dog heads aren't really fixable.

At the end of this, Dante blew out both of his CCL's completely.

He could barely walk at all, he was in pain, no more doggie smiles.. no more tailwags. 

It was do or die for our Dante, who is only 5 years old. He could live his life completely over and then some.

It was time for surgery.

But this post is like a million times to long so I am going to cut it off.

That was like the Prelude, and the premise of this blog is to be about his recovery can be shared :) Not just all over my Facebook, but in a way we will be able to relive when our boy is healed up and running again :) 

Which is the moment I really can't wait for.

- Tamara