Fast-forward to yesterday, the day of the appointment at the vet school. I took off work and to Raleigh we went. We had X-rays and obtained a culture of the wound. The vets think the knot was probably caused by the tiny wire that held the implant in place. (If you look back at one of my previous posts, probably around July of 2012, there are X-rays of the procedure she had and you can see what wire I'm talking about). Apparently some dogs are super sensitive and the tiny ends of the wire can irritate the tissue in that area. This irritated, inflamed area then probably developed an infection- we will know more about that when the culture comes back (by Friday). They started her on a broad spectrum antibiotic, Clindamycin 300 mg every 12 hours, and once they find out if it is a bacterial infection and what type, they will prescribe her something more specific. In the mean time I am cleaning her wound with a chlorohexidine solution they gave me, applying triple antibiotic ointment, and covering it with a gauze bandage. I chose to go this route for now, until the culture comes back. They really encouraged me to do the surgery to remove the wire, but I wanted to see what "bug" was in her, causing this mess before making that decision. There is a small chance it could just be an inflammatory response with no infection, but they seem to think this is unlikely. Our greatest risk here is that the actual implant (wedge shaped foam-like piece between 2 pieces of her bone) or her bone could become infected. That is a very serious problem and would likely require removal of all of the hardware in her leg, which would leave her at a high risk for injury. That would require another 8 weeks of total confinement to allow the empty space to fill with bone and would be very very tough on both Heidi and us. So we of course are trying to avoid that at all cost, but I also just want to make sure there is an infection in the first place before jumping to more surgery.
My poor girl has been through it, but she is a trooper. Just to add my two cents, if I could do this all over again with her second knee, I would've done the TTO procedure like we did with the first knee. Knowing what I know now, I think if you do get in a situation where the implant is infected, it is MUCH easier to remove the hardware and much less traumatic to the poor pup who endures the procedure with the TTO. Yeah, the MMP was a few hundred dollars cheaper and she was under anesthesia for a shorter amount of time, but the possible complications seem less extreme with the TTO. Just thought I'd put that out there in case anyone is toying with a decision between those two surgical procedures. As always, I will keep you guys updated as often as I can. Should know more by Friday. In the mean time, keep us in your thoughts!
