Kinnick's Surgery

Kinnick had shoulder surgery on September 17th. It all started when we thought Kinnick sprained his left front foot in December, and ever since then he limped on it sometimes. It seemed to have gotten progressively more common and worse as time went on. So I asked our vet, Dr. Jones, about it when Herky had his booster shots last month. She said that she would like to see Kinnick. Dr. Jones felt him all over and watched him walk and run. Dr. Jones decided she wanted to take X-rays, but she remembered that when they did X-rays for Kinnick's sprain in December it was a big hassle and several people had to hold him down. So she said he would be sedated for X-rays. She X-rayed his left shoulder and elbow, and then called to say that she wanted to meet to discuss the results.

Dr. Jones said Kinnick OCD, but not the kind you think! It stands for Osteochondritis dessicans. Basically part of the cartilage in his left shoulder grew abnormally and got thickened and calcified. Then part of it broke off and was floating in Kinnick's shoulder joint now, causing him to limp. You could actually see the cartilage piece floating in the joint in one of the X-rays, which is very uncommon. It is usually pretty hard to see the pieces (called joint mice). Dr. Jones recommended that we take Kinnick to see a specialist in Anderson, Indiana. So on the 17th, we drove 2 hours to Anderson, Indiana and met with Dr. Elkins. He agreed that the surgery was necessary and said that Kinnick also has a mild form of OCD in his right shoulder too, but he doesn't think it will ever require surgery. After talking to Dr. Elkins, we left Kinnick at the vet hospital to have surgery that afternoon.

In the surgery they gave him anesthesia, made an incision over the shoulder area, dislocated his shoulder, removed a small portion of the cartilage and then drilled/cut holes in the rest of the cartilage so new blood vessels can grow into the cartilage. He used staples to close the wound, and Kinnick stayed at the hospital overnight on a morphine drip. Yesterday I called to check on him, and they said I could come get him last night. So I drove a total of four hours, but Kinnick did very well. He just slept in the back of the Trailblazer on the way home. He has been doing pretty well at home, mostly just sleeping. He is not allowed to jump, run, or walk up stairs for two weeks, and then he will have the staples removed. After the staples are removed, he can slowly return to regular activity, but he will probably have a limp for as long as 2-3 months until it is fully healed, but then his limp should go away, and he should be able to play better than ever!

He is wearing a t-shirt in some of the pictures to protect the incision. He also tries to scratch it with his back leg, so I put a sock on his back foot.