Hi everone!  Chuy and I are pretty new here and I felt it was time to introduce him to everyone and share his story with you.

We adopted Chuy from a shelter at Thanksgiving 2008.  Chuy is a Chow/Golden Retriever mix missing his left front leg.  He was already a tripawd when we adopted him.  The shelter told us that he had been hit by a car, when they found him at about 4 months old his left front leg was shattered and dead.  They had no choice but to amputate.  He lived with the shelter people for another 4 months until we came along and fell in Love with his irresistible personality.  We then decided to foster him (to make sure he got along with our other dogs) and of course he did!  Adoption completed 1 week later.  Chuy had a home for Christmas. 

He was scratching constantly, the shelter told us it was allergies.  We tried omega 3's, didn't work.  We tried antihistamines, again no luck.  Diet change to lamb & rice for 6 weeks, no luck and then to the duck & potatoe for 6 weeks per the vet, no luck again.  We had his fur shaved off, took him to the allergist/dermatologist only to find out he had demodic mites.  Thank goodness our dogs were Frontlined!!!  Three treatments of Revolution 3 weeks apart and the mites were gone.  Finally!  We thought, Chuy will be comfortable, happy and have a roof over his head and food on his table for the first time in his life! 

He turned 1 year old in April.    Birthday Party!!  We made a meatloaf cake and had biscuits and a puppy party for him.  Celebrate the boy has a family!  Unfortunately our German Shepherd Rory got a little too rambunctious and pushed Chuy down hard on his left rear leg on the ceramic tile in the dining room.  He cried out in pain for about 3 minutes.  Oh my gosh!!!  I was so scared for him.   He got up and limped into the living room, laid down on his bed and went to sleep.  The next morning when I got up, Chuy tried to stand and cried out.  I called the vet right away.  Unfortunately, our vet had had shoulder surgery the previous Monday and wasn't working that week.  I called another vet, they took Chuy in that morning and did 1 x-ray.  That afternoon they told me he either had Valley Fever (we live in the SW) or cancer.  I thought NO!!!! He can't have cancer, he's too young!  The vet ran bloodwork for VF titer and said that if it came back negative we should do more x-rays in 2 weeks.  In the meantime, she put him on Metacam for the pain. 

The titer came back negative.  O.K.  Now I'm scared and panicing.    For 2 weeks I don't know what to do, I'm babying Chuy, ignoring my other dogs and all 7 cats and my husband.  All I can think of is that poor Chuy has had a life that has been harder than H E double hockey sticks and he doesn't deserve this.  We go back and get the x-rays done, I tell them to do a chest x-ray too, just to  make sure he's o.k. there.  This time they do 5 x-rays.  They tell me now that he either has a ligament problem in his left knee or Legg-Calve Perthes Disease.  Now, why would they tell me cancer to begin with and have me worried and scared for 2 weeks?   Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!  They send the x-rays to the radiologist.  (I posted them in Ask the Vet under canine leukemia).  The vet says, "We'll have the results for you tomorrow".  This was on a Thursday.  On Monday, I call, "What did the radiologist say?"  "Oh yea, we were supposed to call you"  By this time, I'm fed up with this vet.  They tell me Chuy has Legg-Calve Perthes Disease, a fracture in the ball of the femur and a possible ligament problem in the knee.  The vet in the forum here was right, I should have just gone with her!!!!

Off to the Orthopedic Specialist on Wednesday.  We sit down on the floor with the little guy.  He starts the exam, Chuy is licking his face, wagging his tail, the usual I'm your buddy stuff.  Then the Ortho starts the leg exam.  Toes, o.k., foot, o.k., hock, o.k., knee, o.k., hip, not so o.k.  No ligament problem in the knee.  He does have the femur problem and we had 4 choices. 

1. Do nothing…….not an option as far as we are concerned

2. FHO surgery…remove the ball of the femur

3. Repair the fracture..means they have to refracture and repair – could cause problems in the future and he could still break the leg or hip

4. total hip replacement – could cause problems in the future, needs both hips done, costly

We chose option #2, expensive but the best option at this time for Chuy. He is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday May 12 at 2 p.m.  We're nervous and scared as it is the rear leg on the side he's already missing a leg, but he's got a great Ortho doing the surgery.  This vet has done 100's of them and says that Chuy should do just fine with it.  He said 4 days recovery and 8 weeks of physical therapy and he'll be a new dog.  We know that he may need to have the right rear leg done someday, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Eleanor