|
Update:
12/09/07
Baby Ruth is going to OSU on Dec 12th and we
should have more info on her on the 13th.
Update:
12/13/07 I
took Ruthie to the OSU vet school in Stillwater
Oklahoma. These folks were very nice and all of
them even the older docs made over how sweet and
cute she was. Anyway, they took another
series of x-rays and some blood work. The docs
sedated her so they could work her arms and not
cause her any pain to get some good x-rays to see
what they had to work with.
As
you can see on the x-rays, Ruthies arms are in
sorry shape. She has severe curvature in her
radial, ulnar and moderate curvature in her
humeral bones. This is congenital. She is
diagnosed with Bilateral Congenital Elbow Luxation:
Bilateral Humeri Angular deformity.
Surgical
arthrodesis (fusing) of the elbow joint is an
option, but may not fully restore function due to
restriction of the joint by soft tissues (muscles,
skin). Dr. said that they might be able to get the
joint to align, but not normal alignment.
And he is very concerned about the muscles that
haven't formed as muscles instead they have formed
as fibrous tendon tissues. Plus the wrists may
never function normally or develop normal angulations
as they have bad inward contractures.
The
Dr. discussed a couple of surgeries. He said that
elbow replacement really wasn't an option as she
is too small and they normally only replace elbows
on large breed dogs only. The surgical arthrodesis
is the one he said would be an option if we wanted
to go that way. They would do one leg at a time.
It would be 8 to 12 weeks between the surgeries
depending on her recovery rate. They would have to
see if they could get some metallic implants from
human fingers since she has such small bones and
he wasn't sure how much that would cost, but he
gave me an estimate of between $2500-3000 per leg.
So it would be about $6000 depending on if there
weren't other things that they had to do when they
got her legs opened up and can actually move stuff
around in there to see how they could fit it
together to make it work. Even with this surgery,
she may never be able to walk correctly and there
is a risk that the legs will not function at all
after the surgery.
They
said that she may develop Arthritis and pain in
the future and surgery might prevent some of it,
but it may not improve her prognosis for comfort.
Surgery would probably improve her mobility if it
works.
Dr.
said one thing she had going for her is that she
is young and her bones are still growing and that
may help her with the surgical intervention.
Other
options include ordering a cart to improve her
mobility.
So
the question is... do we want to see if we can
raise $6000 for her to have a surgery that will
cause her pain over several months and still may
not help her. OR do we want to see if we can have
a special cart made up for the girl and let her
live a happy crippled life without surgical pain.
The
only problem I see is that I don't think we have
ever raised $6000 in a year, much less in a few
weeks as we have to have all the money to pay them
as they don't do balances to pay off like our vet
will. I think this will be something the BOD will
have to discuss. I want to do what is best for
Baby Ruth to be happy. But I also think how many
dogs I can help with that same $6000 too. It is a
quandary for sure. We will still need to raise
funds for a cart and whatever else she needs so we
do need donations for the baby.
Anything
that we raise over what we need for her will be
applied to the other dogs in the rescue. I will let
you know as soon as the BOD has made a decision.
Thank
you.
Wanda
|
