Most of my friends know that I had a young cat [2years old] die unexpectedly under anesthesia. There was nothing done wrong, the people working that day were very competent. As we all know, death is a risk of surgery. Of course it happens so infrequently, especially in routine procedures that it's really shocking and dreadful when it does actually happen.
We do surgery on animals everyday, everyone wakes up, and everyone recovers without issue. We've operated on dogs with horrible things like cancer - they all wake up. Recently we've had two instances of dogs with hemangiosarcoma that survived their splenectomies and recovered to start chemotherapy. I know it's going to be okay.
But. Still freaks me out.
June 5th was Seppel's last protection training day at Pet Village . I'm so bummed that he/we will be taking time off, but I know once he's healed and ready we'll be back at it. This break is hopefully only temporary. I was lucky enough that my friend Kay came along and took some photos of Sepp's last training session before surgery.
Sepp was on it. He was really good about outing, he did everything we asked him to do - okay except for heeling. He is such a bad forger. It was hot out, we only worked for about 15-20mins but Ryan was really happy with him. It's amazing how much he's progressed and how much we have learned.
I've been researching the heck out of FHOs. I feel like I've seen all there is to see on youtube. I've been able to talk to a few different people who have all had good success with the FHO. Everyone seems to be happy with the results and their dogs are doing well, everyone maintains that physical therapy is key.
I did talk to one gal who was very anti-FHO. She had a dog who had an FHO and a dog who had a hip replacement. It became rather clear from searching through her forum posts that her dog had a lot of structural issues. It's a bummer that the FHO did not fix this dog's problems, but I still feel very confident that Seppel won't have those kinds of complications because he's structurally sound otherwise.
I wish more people would document the AFTER. Like people document a few weeks out and then fall off the face of the earth. I wish I could find more stories of dogs years out, long healed, to hear if the owners are happy and if their dogs are pain free. I've been lucky enough to come in contact with a few of these people who have reported their dogs [even 8 years out!] are doing very well. But I'd of course, love to read more!
Ultimately, this is a good option for us. It's a surgery I can afford, for one, for another, we're not doing it because we have to - we're doing it to prevent future pain. I feel really good that Seppel will prevail and be able to heal and have a successful FHO.
However, nothing is certain so the variables totally freak me out.
Anyway, I just had to verbally spew a little of my anxiety. Here are pics from our last protection session. Big thanks to Kay for coming out and documenting that awesome day!
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