I am so sorry, Jennifer.
Hoping for the best outcome.

Hugs Jennifer. Sierra will be ok, I'm confident of that, she's proved it over and over.

I think you would be one of the first people to step up if any one of us was in your situation, so I'm hoping enough of us here can step up, to help you.

Please keep us posted on Sierra's condition.

Sierra cried a ton on tue till about 1am from the anastasia she slept all day wed while i cooked and baked, no nap for me.
Thur she was a little more awake but was ok laying around.
Yesterday she was back to herself and did not want to lay but sdand and be with us! This is an issue and she needs to lay down to heal the right leg and prevent the left from farther damage. We have to keep a towel around her back end to hold her up to stand and walk around. She can not get up on her own and right now that is a good thing as she should not be moving. Im carrying her upstairs to sleep at night which also means when she has to pee in the middle of the night i have to carry her back down and follow her around in my rob freezing in the middle of the night. Oh the things we do for our babies!
She had a check up and laser treatment yesterday. Her leg is swelling so we have to put her back on steroids.
Im glad i have had this time off to care for her and worry about going back to work monday as she cant move around to even get water.
Just taking it day by day right now.

Oh, Jenn, so sorry for Sierra and you. Hope she is on the mend soon. I know it has been real tough for you, but the love you have for yours as we all love ours, we would move the tallest mountain to make sure they are healthy and safe. Take care and keep us updated.

Such a wonderful momma you are. Sierra is so lucky to have such loving parents!

i hope she feels better soon, she is very luck to have such awesome fur baby parents.

So i am one strand away from a complete breakdown.....

At 4am i had Sierra out for a potty break and her Left leg (1st one) started clicking....had a vet apt this morning anyways for laser treatment so it looks like the meniscus popped back out the vet wants me to get her a brace for the left leg as we wait for the right to heal in order to fix the left leg.
I called our Physical Therapist and she said the brace will not help if the meniscus is out of place and as long as the "strings" are intact the knee is stable and a brace does not help keep weight off the knees so the pressure will still be on the meniscus.

the brace runs up to and over $900 its not just a well why the hell not just do the brace better safe then sorry when you know you are looking at another surgery that will be a few thousand dollars.

I am just torn on what to do now and am looking for some help, anyone......?

Jennifer - I have little experience with dog menisci but for me, most of my right medial meniscus has been removed. I shredded the thing...sort of skiing - took my skis into the shop to be tuned and pivoted on my right forefoot. Bad move. It's known as a degenerative tear. They removed all but the rim around the edge. I function fairly well without it, most of my issues are with the tendons from the adductors to where they connect below the knee proper.

Don't know if this is helpful - so sorry for the continued problems.

Wish I had some advice for you but I have zero experience in this department. I just hope the physical therapist is right. <<Hugs>>

How much would it cost to put a cast on her leg? I'm thinking a cast would accomplish the same thing as a brace, wouldn't it? Or am I being totally stupid?

time for an update, Sierra's mood is starting to be affected by not being able to move around. This has by far been the hardest thing either of us have been through. I know her youthful behavior has been in part due to the active nature i have kept for her and keeping her in her crate sucks. Following her around holding her up with a towel is also draining on all of us. This morning she tried to help herself down the stairs from the bedroom as i turned around for a sec! almost gave me a heart attack, i caught her as she had her front 2 paws on the lower step! She had a laser treatment on both knees this morning, she has 2 more sessions left, we also took her stitches out today.  
The vet is working on pricing for a bilateral brace from Wound wear today, going cost is $500. I hope we can get the braces ordered this week as that will make her life much better if they work.

here she is showing some skin in her crate on Sat.



I forgot about this pic as well. it shows her past cancer scars poor girl has been through a lot.

Jenn, This was recommended in the gsd forum I belong to, acl issues and looks to be far cheaper, worth a look?

http://orthodog.com/index.cfm/products/cruciate-care-knee-brace/

Renee

Renee,
I had looked at that one but they do not offer the brace for both knees. wound wear's support seemed better as far as fit goes, and we can do both knees. Most of my googling happened in the middle of most nights. my vet also had heard of wound wear in her own research.

I have been meaning to text you about her. I am glad she is doing a little better. What does this brace look like?

Thanks for sharing that link, Renee. I had no idea there were leg braces for dogs for arthritis. I may have to do some more looking into this. Not to get off topic but these type suggestions help others with unrelated ailments. (My Dakota's arthritis is getting increasingly problematic even though I haven't shared any updates on him.)

Interested in knowing what you decide as far as a brace, Jenn. Not that I'm in the market (at the moment) for an ACL brace but perhaps something for arthritis is made by the same company as what you end up getting.

Thanks Val, my sisters 9 year old Golden is having issues, so when I am browsing this forum and the gsd one I stumble upon stuff and pass along to her. And I know some members have older dogs, when I seen Jenn's thread and then that one and seen it was cheaper, thought I would pass it along to this forum.

here is a link to the one we are looking at, there are some videos on how to put it on but not really any great images.

http://www.woundwear.com/


Val, that sucks about Dakota

Got Sierra's braces in and after talking with the company with pics on fit i think we figured it out. she has not been in them long as i was not sure it was right but now that i know, i think Sat will be her first full day in them. I am really hoping they help her. She has her first PT session next wed to start on both legs.
her spirits are improving, she is getting into paper and pooped on the floor!


her Mohawk on her back!

As with anything I'm sure they will take some getting used to, but she seems to be getting used to the braces alright. Hopefully all this will really help her out so she can get back to normal. Poor girl been through a lot.

She seems to get around really good in it! Second video, she gives a look at the end like "why you keep making me follow you!" Lol. I really hope this does the trick and she's back to her old self soon. She's such a sweet lil girl

she is moving around really good, those should make her so much happier know that she has some mobility. and she get back to her old self again.

How's she doing now that she's had some time to adjust to the braces? Are they making a noticeable difference?

We had them on her all weekend. Once we got all the kinks out they are staying in place ok, we do need to adjust them as they are slipping down even with the strap that goes over her back end, i have made that tighter but it must be slipping, her thighs are also small and i have the strap as tight as i can get it on the top so we just need to readjust every few hours. she still has a hard time if she lays on the tile she can not get herself back up so during the day at work we still have her in the crate with no brace. in the morning before i go to work, about 2 hrs she can move around with no brace to try and keep the legs gaining strength, when Ken gets home he puts them on as she will be moving much longer at night.
We have her first Physical Therapy tomorrow night for a re-evaluation and treadmill time, i will talk to the lady some more about the braces and use and what she thinks Sierra's treatment looks like.
she is acting more like herself so she must be feeling better!
Our family starts showing up tonight and fri night then we are off to a cabin on Monday, so im glad she is getting used to the braces and is more stable, even for the car rides as my girl that would lay and not make a sound will not lay in the car anymore!!!

So in the last month Sierra has made so much progress, she is getting up to 20 min walks, she starts out strong but slows down half way through so we need to work on her endurance, which i am sure will come in time.

Here she is at the start of our walk the other day!


The braces are still  PIA, they slip down the leg no matter how often i adjust them or the strap that goes over the top of her body, the velcro also gets clogged with fur that i need to use duck tape to remove, BUT they are still better then not having any support on her legs so i will deal with it. We have been using the braces when we are not home and on walks, when we are home we take them off and keep an eye on her, the PT wants her to strengthen the legs and does not want her in the braces all the time.

We have been trying to get her to climb the inside steps and for the first time last night she did the top portion of them, about 6 steps, we were so happy.

We still go to PT once a week and do the water treadmill, she is up to 8 min in there and then they do massage work on her, we will keep it up as long as we can keep paying for it and see improvement.
This is a long road to recovery and you need to take it slow and with a husky it increases the challenges so much more, like the stubbornness of them! trying to get her to do her exercises at home is a PIA but we do what we can.
so that's it for now. sorry i have not updated sooner.

Happy to hear about her progress, Jenn. Sounds like Sierra can handle walks better than Dakota now, I may have to get a brace for him if we can't work anything else out with him. So happy to hear the progress, especially with the steps!