Coda Puppy’s THR Surgery

Okay, peeps.

It’s been a milestone week, thanks to our Coda puppy’s major surgery.

On Tuesday morning, Coda received a total hip replacement, which is a MAJOR surgery for any canine, and particularly tricky for a micro/mini of just eight wee pounds, like our girl.

She spent Tuesday night and most of Wednesday at the hospital, under the care of her amazing ACVS founding fellow of joint replacement (aka: rockstar small animal surgeon), and now she’s home with us and stable.

Amen, Halleluiah!

And our girl now has the battle wounds to prove what a warrior she is!





To rewind and give some context…

This journey of ours began back in late June.

At the time, there were a handful of things going on with poor Coda. One issue was digestive and took a few weeks to clear. But around the same time, we began noticing lower energy levels in our playful pup, along with the onset of some lameness in her back, right leg.

This lameness led to Coda limping or full-on lifting the leg if she had to move faster than a slow meander:

It took a couple rounds with our regular vet to investigate what, if anything, was going on.

After all, it might have been just a strain or sprain, or even an infection presenting as leg lameness, so we worked through some trouble-shooting on multiple fronts and had to give some guesses a bit of time to pan out.

But after blood work showed inflammation, we knew that our Coda was fighting an injury, so the vet dug a bit deeper.

During a manual manipulation on about our third investigative visit, the vet felt a clicking in Coda’s leg, and could tell that Coda was in pain and unable to extend the limb properly, so our vet decided it was time for some x-rays and a closer look.

The vet knew right away that something was going on after looking at Coda’s atypical right hip joint (shown on the left below), but unclear on what, exactly. At first, she suspected hip dysplasia. But, nope. Not the case.

She consulted with radiology and they jointly (ha, accidental pun) determined that a more specialized opinion was needed, as Coda’s case was a bit too complicated.

Our amazing vet referred us to a local small animal emergency hospital with a plethora of incredible veterinarians and surgeons with a range of specializations. And after an even closer look, it was clear to the surgeon that Coda was in bad hip shape.

The head of Coda’s femur had experienced blood loss, leading to necrosis and deterioration. The bone no longer fit properly into the hip socket. Obviously, this was causing our Coda girl quite a bit of pain and was the root cause of her leg lameness.

That major appointment was incredibly overwhelming.

Not only was it an unbelievable amount of information to take it, but it was unclear—and still will be, for a few more weeks—what caused Coda’s situation to begin with.

But in a way, it didn’t—and doesn’t—necessarily matter, because the end result of Coda’s femur/hip condition meant surgery was necessary. It was just a matter to how extensive that surgery would be.

During the appointment, I ingested far more information about canine hips and joints and surgical options than I ever cared to know. And I was presented with two unimaginable surgical options:

One, that was insanely expensive and would involve just removing the top of Coda’s femur and rounding the remaining bone to make it fit.

And another, that was INSANELY expensive, but would give Coda the best chance of a long and entirely mobile life with no limitations and would involve…a total hip replacement.

I’ll fast forward through the awful aftermath of that appointment, when I sobbed, and I mean, SOBBED, the entire way home and the entire evening (to the extent that my kids were quite worried about me), as I digested the predicament we were in, consulted with the hubby, and came to our eventual decision.

Total hip replacement.

If you can believe it, and despite the astronomical cost, it was a no brainer for us. We love our Coda girl like the fourth (fur baby) child of ours that she is, and neither of us could live with giving her less than the best.

Of course, there was still a lengthy mourning period. Pouring that kind of money into a pup is a hard pill to swallow, no matter the MASSIVE amount of love involved.

For better or worse, after our decision was made, we had a little over a month to absorb it all and live with it, as it’s such an involved surgery and recovery that we needed to wait until after we were scheduled to be out of town for my cousin’s wedding to proceed.

During that time period, our girl definitely deteriorated a bit more. By the few days prior to her big day, and especially after we had to take her off her pain meds before surgery, she was in very poor shape. She couldn’t even brace the leg on the ground to go poo, but rather, held it aloft and shaking just to avoid the pain of putting pressure on it.

Our girl tried her best to play and be a puppy and would sometimes power through the pain just to have a round of running and freedom, but she was slowing further and paying a price any time she was too active.

In a way, this helped confirm that we were doing the right thing, as our girl was just suffering. You could see it in her eyes at times, and we knew it would be tough, but it was the right thing to do.

My motto was and is: temporary pain for long term gain.

And let me tell you how many times I had to repeat that to myself when I got this picture (below) of my girl from the patient care coordinator around midnight prior to her surgery.

She’d been admitted earlier that evening (with me crying the whole way to drop her off) and it was agony to know she was scared and at the hospital, unsure of what was happening. 

But what a MARVEL modern medicine is! Just look at these replacement parts (much, much larger versions of the ones Coda received):



It was TERRIBLE waiting alllll day for word from the surgeon, but THE 2.5 procedure was a success, she was able implant the desired “press fit” parts that she was hoping for, and our girl is now Coda 2.0:

The surgeon warned us that Coda would look like a patchwork quilt with various areas shaved, and boy does she. But she’s OKAY. And she’s going to be better than okay, and that’s all that matters!

For six weeks (!!) it’s no play, no jumping, no stairs, no running, no official walks, and mandatory “sling” plus leash use for the best support, ANY time our girl is moving around. OYE.

Our girl came home with her surgical Fentanyl patch still on her body and she was basically a zombie for 36 hours until the surgeon advised we remove it.



Coda has to be in her crate most of the time (unless we’re actively snuggling her) and she abstained from food or drink post-surgery longer than I wanted!



Yesterday, the surgeon advised me to boil chicken to entice her to eat once the Fentanyl patch was removed and I was SO relieved when Coda finally ate something. It was longer, still, before she began drinking any water, but she’s made huge strides within the past day.

We’ve been taking her outside regularly to feel the breeze and attempt to stand, and it’s done wonders for our girl.

And she showed further signs of life when she took a few assisted steps to plop down in her beloved warm laundry as I sat beside her crate to fold.





And the BEST news of all is that she began walking and bearing weight on the leg during short backyard walkabouts this afternoon, and it was pure JOY to see her moving around.



Of course, the movement leads to more exhaustions, so we’ve had lots of glorious snuggle time. :)





It’s a relief to feel that we might be out of the initial woods of these scary post-op days but we have a LONG journey ahead of us.

Stitches will be removed in about 10 days.

Detailed follow-up x-rays will happen in about five weeks.

And at the six-week-mark, we’ll begin a physical therapy walking plan to build muscle and strength back for our girl. 

If Past Me could see Current Me and how fiercely I love this pup of ours, I’m not even sure what I would say.

Except: Maybe don’t total up the medical bills. ;)

So much more to say in the future about this whole process, but for now, I’m grateful for the puppy steps we’re making, and I’m praying for ongoing recovery for our BELOVED girl.

More later this weekend, peeps.

Happy. Stinking. Friday. Of a tough week.

Over and out. 

P.S. More to come in a later post, pending histopath results, regarding the potential disease that caused Coda’s situation!