Dr. Joseph Harari, our board-certified veterinary surgeon at Veterinary Surgical Specialists in Spokane, came out to the ranch today for a visit with a friend of his. I took the photo this afternoon of Joe and Alayne with our recent arrival, Trooper. Joe had examined Trooper last week, the morning after he arrived from a shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Joe suggested today that we have Dr. Britt Culver, our internal medicine specialist in Helena, do the surgery on Trooper’s hip — it’s essentially a femoral head ostectomy, or FHO, which Britt has done before on a couple of our dogs. Trooper’s hip joint has been obliterated from trauma at some point in the past, which also had broken his pelvis. The FHO procedure will "clean up" the joint and make it easier for him to use that leg. Once Trooper has healed from this procedure, Joe will proceed with the more complicated surgery on Trooper’s left front leg.
In this next photo Trooper is fascinated watching Spark, one of our barn cats, walk by the isolation yard. You can see how that left front foot turns outward:
Trooper, by the way, is no longer the shy, quiet fellow he pretended to be when he first arrived. No, sir. He’s become a happy, bouncing, jumping-with-joy character. He’s also found his voice, and he sounds like … well, a hound dog. To match those ears of his.
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