Tsuki, at 18 months had ruptured both hind cruciate ligaments. For a dog that loved to run this was devastating. The decision was made to attempt to reconstruct her knees so that she could free run again. The ultimate aim was to get her to a nearby dog park which had recently opened up and let her run for all she's worth. So, The first surgery went ahead and was a success. She was up, walking and
doing well. Then she went in for her second... It started out looking good, but 2 weeks after she starts throwing up, she takes 2 visits to the local vet hoping to find an obstruction in her throat that can be easily pulled out. She then went off to the emergency vet where that diagnosed a 10-15mm length of burned esophagus. This was then stretch and she came home. For a few days, this seemed to be working but then, every time she drank water she would start bringing up food and eventually she went back to the emergency vet. Whilst there, she was diagnosed with pneumonia and given some medication for that - she doesn't like crushed, nor does she like injections... Due to the pneumonia, she returned home and waited another week for her second stricture expanding appointment. That week, was looking good, she seemed to be bringing food up less - but it was false hope. She went back to the emergency vet for her next appointment, and when she was checked in the once 24kg dog had dropped down to 16kg and not doing very well at all. The stricture had closed - she wasn't getting any food. The decision was made to give her a feeding tube and have another go at the esophagus strictures. Given the severity of the situation, and the feeding tube the vet was a bit more exploitative with the ballooning and was able to open up the stricture - which now shows to be a narrow band, rather than the original 15mm swath first diagnosed - but underneath would be something unexpected. It was another stricture! Taking the same approach, this second stricture was expanded and eventually Tsuki came home again. But this time... She'd had food! she had her old spark back, if not all her energy. A week later, she went back to the Vet and had her weight taken, up to 18kgs! The endoscope doesn't quite go down the throat before expanding anything, the endoscope is the same size as the desired end goal - so another round of stretching, another week of food through a tube. But positive progress at least. Let's hope the strictures can stay open this time. She is going back for at least 1 more stricture appointments to try and get it so that she can eat herself again. Hopefully soon, there will be a white Siberian Husky running around the dog park near us. A dog that has always loved to run, but has been unable to run for 8-10 months.