Mia – Surgery Story
Little Mia
Little Mia…my eight pound pomeranian.   I will put in more details when I put together an individual page on her, but for now, I want to talk about her recent surgery.  Â
On Saturday, January 10, Mia tangled with Zoe, my friend Lilia’s 110 pound black lab….and Mia lost.   I came home from a seminar to find Lilia – who had come over with the good intentions of letting all three pups out to play.   Mia was nowhere to be found.   She told me that Mia had started barking at Zoe, and it quickly escalated.  Lilia said she threw her body over Zoe and Mia ran into the house to her hiding place under the bed.   When I returned and Lilia told me what had happened, we did not know the extent of Mia’s injuries.   When I reached under the bed, Mia bit me – something she would just never do.  Lilia said Mia had bit her as well.   I put on gloves and was able to get Mia out – though she was biting the whole time.  After bringing her into the living room and holding her, there were no visible signs of injury.   But the look in her eye was telling – it was blank.   I put her down and noticed that she lifted her left rear leg up, and though I moved it, she did not indicate she was in any pain. Lilia and I did not know what to do, so we decided to take her to the emergency vet.Â
After a trip to the VCA Animal Hospital, xrays revealed that Mia’s hip had come out of its socket.    The doctor said that they would anethesize her and manipulate the hip back into its socket – but there would be no guarantee that it would stay.  Surgery would be the only option.
After I picked her up Sunday, it was pretty obvious that after a short while, she was raising her leg and favoring it.   I took Mia to the new animal hospital in Yorkville on Monday, and scheduled her for surgery on Wednesday.
The surgery was called FHO – femoral head ostectemy, which is the same surgery they do for dogs with hip displaysia.  It involved actually cutting off the head of the femor and sewing up the muscle creating a false joint. Yuck! So I picked her up on Thursday after the surgery and her little leg was all shaved and had a 3″ incision with stitches!  But Mia was back to her old self – perky and cute!  Only problem – I was supposed to keep her still with limited movement for 28 days…..
It is now a little over a week after the surgery.  Mia seems to be healing, but keeping her quiet and still has been a challenge!  She has jumped onto and off of the couch a few times….I hope she is o.k.  She will get her stitches out next Friday.