Hershey knee surgery

[RaRett]

Hi if I'm doing this wrong...I'm sorry this is Dottie(Ricks better half) posting for him while he is at work.
Hershey our little boy who will be one this Sunday has been having some soreness with his knee, well this morning I dropped him off at our vet so they could sedate him and do a good exam of his leg/knee. Well I picked him up tonight after work and well you know it's not good when the girl says the doctor needs to speak with you in the exam room. Long story short... it is suspected that he has a torn CCL(cranial cruciate ligament) with torn LCL(lateral collateral ligament) with possible meniscal tear. Well our vet will not do the surgery they said we need to take him to a specialty vet hospital. Below are the recommended vets:

Veterinary specialty center of Delaware

Dr Mark A Cofone, VMD, DACVS -surgery
or
Dr Authur J. Jankowski, VMD, DACVS -surgery

Veterinary Referral Center - Malvern, PA

Dr Dietrich Franczuszki, DVM, MS

What we're looking for is if anyone has any experience with this type of surgery, if so please share the good and bad. Also if anyone has any experience with any of these doctors or can recommend a good surgeon in our area.

Thank you for all your help, I'm sure Rick will get on and fix what I didn't enter that he wanted entered

 

[kim n the guys]

no words of advice but (((((HUGS)))) for Hershey!! Nice work on the post, Dottie, I'm sure Rick wouldn't have added anything else.

 

[2BullyMama]

If you are willing to travel to Malvern.... then go a few more miles to Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital .... Dr. Lori Cabell is AWESOME! She did Nitschke's surgery and we really had a great experience with her and the staff.

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

I knew Christine would have her usual awesome advice!

Sorry for the news..poor sweet Hershey..he's been hurting I guess.

 

[Davidh]

Poor Hershey, but at least he will feel better soon.

 

[mjowanna]

I have tons of information for you. My Bully had all of the same things and had the corrective surgery 3 years ago. She can now run and play and jump onto the bed even better than before. The typical symptom you will see is your Bully holding its leg back so as to not put weight on it and to favor it. My Bully was in pain, favored the leg and was lame. After the surgery, she is great. Do NOT have a regular vet do the procedure. A general vet surgeon will say they can do it. Do not let them. Go to a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon. Yes, they do have those for dogs. There are 2 surgical procedures. One uses a rubber band to simulate a new tendon. Run from any vet that wants to do that. It fails 90% of the time. The other procedure involves plates and screws. It will make the knee stronger than the way God originally made it. It is major knee surgery - but there is no avoiding that. It's the same as a football player blowing-out his knee and being put on injured reserve. My Bully could not walk for a week after the surgery. However, take an old tshirt and put it under your Bully's belly as a sling. Then you can help your Bully walk by taking weight off the back legs. It is somewhat important to get the knee fixed before it affects the other knee. When one knee is bad, the Bully puts more weight on the other knee - which is not good for that other knee. However, fixing the bad knee will actually help your Bully put more weight back on the fixed knee and that can actually prevent problems with the other knee. After the surgery, make sure your Bully has enough pain killers and plenty of love and attention for the first few weeks. Your Bully will begin to walk normally within 6 to 8 weeks after surgery. Even though everything will look great and back to normal after 90 days, be careful to keep your Bully from playing or jumping for at least 6 months. It is a long and slow rehabilitation period - just like a football player. However, at the one year point, your Bully will be better than new. I know it sounds serious, but don't be afraid. It can be 100% fixed. I am so glad that I got my Bully's knee fixed and fixed correctly. It's not cheap, but it was worth every penny everytime I now see my Bully run to me. It cost me about $3,000 - but I had NO insurance. Most pet insurance will cover it. My surgeon was Robert G. Roy, DVM, MS, Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Surgeons. He was great at actually responding to my emails and answering all my questions within 24 hours. Here is his email: drroy@palmbeachvetspecialists.com. Go ahead and email him with your questions. I'm sure he will write you back. He's just a good guy. If you can, try to get a board certified orthopedic surgeon that is a member of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. You can go to their website and lookup vet members in your area. http://www.acvs.org/. I've been through this. It was scary at the time. But, having been through it, I wanted to let you know it can be fixed and it gets better. If you want to email me with other questions, feel free: MJJ@Jowanna.com

 

[mjowanna]

ACVS Diplomate
Mark A. Cofone, VMD, DACVS
Veterinary Specialty Ctr of Delaware 290 Churchmans Rd New Castle, DE 19720-3110
Phone: (302) 322-6933
mcofone@vscdel.com
www.vscdel.com
Arthur J. Jankowski, VMD, DACVS
Veterinary Specialty Ctr of Delaware 290 Churchmans Rd New Castle, DE 19720-3110
Phone: (302) 322-6933
info@vscdel.com
www.vscdel.com
Scott F. Roberts, VMD, DACVS-SA
Veterinary Specialty Center of Delaware 290 Churchmans Rd New Castle, DE 19720-3110
http://www.vscdel.com

 

[Texas Carol]

Dottie & Rick, just want you to know y'all & Hershey will be in my prayers.
Much love for y'all...GOD bless!

 

[RiiSi]

So sorry for you and your gear boy. Hope all ges well and he'll be pain free and jumping around soon!

 

[Ftse 100]

Poor Hershey, hope all goes well with the knee surgery.

 

[RaRett]

Dottie is in bed, so this is the most information I have gotten all day I hate working 2nd shift when things like this happen. Thanks for the well wishes, they are quite appreciated !

@mjowanna your 2nd post, of the doctors in Delaware, these are the ones, or the types of Vets we need? (all of the DMV XYC ABC's behind their names get me all confused!) thanks for the info, I guessed it would be about $3k (ouch!) but how do we keep him inactive (totally) with his big sister Gizmo bouncing off of the walls! oh man... I am not looking forward to this, I already built a ramp due to us having stairs off the back deck, for his potty area, I guess I'm gonna have to make it bigger, longer, and not real steep !

@2BullyMama a few more miles from Malvern to ??? damn I'm tired, I just googled - Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital ---

Keep the good information coming ! ! ! and no we dont have Insurance on Hershey...so this is going to be totally out of pocket, (Hello Credit Card)

thanks all.. I need food and bed

 

[2BullyMama]

@2BullyMama a few more miles from Malvern to ??? damn I'm tired, I just googled - Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital ---

.

Sorry about that... Has a Norristown zip code but is really in Audubon just past King of Prussia.



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[nycbullymama]

aww man.. poor Hershey. Can't advise on a vet but sending positive energy Hershey's way.

 

[Tooleysmom]

Miss Tallulah and I send Hershey our love. And I wish you both success at finding the best surgeon for Hershey. It looks like there is lots of excellent information coming in to help you. It is so difficult to go through something like this knowing your fur kid is suffering. My heart goes out to you. Please keep us posted on what happens.

 

[RaRett]

Well we have him setup for a consult in New Castle (they wont do anything without that) for the 21st, then they will schedule surgery... who knows when that will be. I'm hungry and half frozen, working on the ramp...and I'm only through my 1st 1/2 cup of coffee ! With our work schedules it almost has to be 'local' can't really drive 2+ hours for a 15 min meeting, to return, it would mean us both missing work. I'm STRESSED right now !

but I'll be ok Just hoping he will be - it sucks keeping him in his Kennel XPen area almost 24/7 and keeping him on his pain meds, AND keeping him away from Gizmo! *sigh*

Thanks for all the advice and best wishes... we gotta do some serious research it looks like !