Guinness' MPL Surgery 6/29/2010

Guinness has his MPL surgery today on his left knee, 6/29/2010. Doug and I took him to VOSM and got him all checked in, I hated saying goodbye, I told him see ya later and gave him some love. It was hard but I didn't cry like I thought I was. He weighed in at 27.2 lbs, the biggest he has ever been. He will be 9 months old tomorow.

So I went home and started cleaning the house, trying to take advantage of not having Guinness to entertain. :) I did laundry-including washing all of his bedding (3), sweeping/mopping, vaccumming and bathrooms cleaned. It helped but I still worried.

The nurses called around 3pm saying he had not gone into surgery yet (he was #4 in line of 6) but they had taken him outside a few times for walks and she said, "the staff love him, he so sweet." She told me that 4 hours after surgery they will take out his trach and try to take him outside to pee. Every 4 hours thereafter they will do the same, they'll get him up and walk him outside. She also told me that Dr. Canapp had seen Guinness (We asked that prior to surgery we wanted Dr. Cannapp to see Guinness and give his opinion of what surgery we should do). He agreed with Dr. Lotsikas that we needed to proceed with the MPL surgery, his evaluation however was that Guinness' left knee was a grade III. Dr. Lotsikas evaluation was that Guinenss knee was a Grade II, sort of relative but the conclusion is the same, that Guinness needed MPL surgery.

A little education for you in regarding the grading of patella luxation. There is a grading system of severity.

• Grade I- the patella can be manually luxated but is reduced (returns to normal position) when released
• Grade II-the patella can be manually luxatd or it spontaneously luxate with flexion of the stifle joint. The patella remains luxated until is is manually reduced or when the animal extends the joint and patella moves back into place. (intermittently luxates but stays in place more than out) This is typically the dog that occasionally carries a rear leg for two or three steps on occasion but then puts it back down and goes as if nothing was wrong.
• Grade III-the patella remains luxated most of the time but can be manually reduced. (stays out of place more than in) They have more frequent "skipping" episodes, may not want to jump up onto things, they may have pain and the patella doesnt alwasy return to normal positioning when it is deliberately pushed out of its groove during a physical exam.
• Grade IV - the patella is permanently luxated and cannot be manually repositoned.

Dr. Lotsikas called around 6pm and told us the surgery went well and he was very pleased. He said that it was the right decision. Once he saw the structures he said that Guinness barely had any patellofemoral groove, "it was nearly flat". The patella rests in the patellofemoral groove, if its shallow (in Guinness' case) then it is prone to luxate (dislocate).

This news makes me feel so much better about going through with the knee surgery instead of his hips. Doug and I were told by our original vet to do the FHO surgery on his hips (he also has bilateral hip dysplacia), then we went to VOSM and saw Dr. Lotsikas (orthopedic specialist) and his opinion was that we needed to correct his left knee with MPL surgery.

Around 10pm I called to check in on Guinness. She said that he did well with his first walk and went outside and peed. They did have to "tweek his pain meds" she said when asked if he had been whining, so I guess he needed a little more. She said that his vitals were stable and is doing well.