Birds, Bees and Ruby's knees

It's been over 1 year since we adopted Ruby. She's lost 14 pounds thanks to Freddie's Canine Fit Club (watch for the infomercial), can run up Binx Mountain with nary a heavy pant, has gotten her Sheltie spin back, and is the nemesis of any nature muppet on Timber Crest Drive and in Richter Park. But we knew there was a chance that her bilateral luxating patellas (loose knee caps) were causing premature arthritis and would likely need to be corrected.

I met with Dr. Pond yesterday and had him evaluate our little Doobles. He said that her kneecaps sit to the inside of her knee joints and could feel the arthritis. The muscle atrophy in her back legs is noticeable and he acknowledged that she would continue to bear weight on her front end unless the knees were corrected. Her tendons and ligaments have also adjusted to the kneecap defect. We agreed surgery was the best course of action.

Fortunately, Dr. Pond travels to Danbury and, thanks to Dr. Dattner at Brookfield Animal Hospital, we'll do the surgery in their brand new clinic. We'll do one knee at at time: operate, physical therapy, completely healed - and then move on to the other.

I explained it to Freddie this way: We can correct the problem now or get a K9-cart in a few years. Ruby is 3 and has a full life ahead of her. Stay tuned for more...

Fred the Tree Man

And this is a video of Freddie chopping down our Christmas tree! We always pick the prickly tree because E and Dan love to put the lights on the painful tree :-).