gimpy bitch

here's our sagan (last week, in the snow that's gone now). poor sagan. kara took her to the vet last evening because ... she's kind of lame.

we thought it was her hip but it turns out it's her cranial cruciate ligament - in her knee! this ligament in her right rear knee is apparently ruptured. the vet launched into an explanation of treatment options. basically treatment involves obtaining radiographs to rule out other problems, and then surgery. the x-rays would run about $400 and the surgery, including internal fixation instrumentation of plates and screws, would be another $1600 to $2000.

we're saying no to this. thank you, no. sorry, sagan, but no. kara didn't say this to the vet last evening but the answer is no.

sagan's cost us enough already. she had a cyst on her paw a couple of years ago - a weird, red, bulbous, nasty thing between her toes - that was quite worrisome and she had surgery there. it was removed, and it came back. then it went away by itself. weird. and last summer there was an issue with the same leg that prompted us to take her to the emergency clinic - nothing was found at that time but it might have been then that this ligament was first torn.

she also went through a period of attacking max - latching her jaws onto his ear and not letting go until kara or i pried those jaws apart. that kind of behavior is unacceptable. there was a period of time during which sagan was one act of aggression away from being returned to the pound.

sometimes she still growls at max but there haven't been any actual attacks in many moons. all the same, she has that history and this makes us less inclined to throw more money at her.

she doesn't appear to be in pain. she's just a little unsteady. she limps. sometimes she walks on just the three legs, tucking the right rear one up near her belly. she's overweight (though not as much as rumble was) and this likely contributed to this injury. she weighs over 70 pounds!

so we're leaving her be. she's a fragile dog, for all her heft.

otherwise she's an excellent dog. she's very smart. she's crazy smart. she was well behaved in the vet office yesterday. she's good with the cats; she shows no aggression toward them whatsoever. she's very good about going into her crate when we go out or when it's bedtime. she likes to tell us when it's her bedtime! i give her hardly any attention and she likes to kiss me.

but no more surgery for sagan. she'll live with the limp. and we'll see what comes next.