Surgery for Shelby

Shelby needs surgery. The idea of Shelby started with Jack. I had just gotten divorced and Covid hit. He went from a very active outside kind of kid to a very active video game player. Nothing wrong with that, but after Covid had passed I really wanted him to be able to get outside in his new neighborhood and play. I thought a dog would help.

A dear friend gave us a puppy from a litter born to a dog that lived in a junk yard out in the country. Shelby is a black lab and hound dog mix. She looks like a smaller version of a black lab but when she barks she is all hound dog. Jack fell in love at first sight. She was so small at first she fit in a cat kennel. As you can see she grew.

Unfortunately her the radius bones in her front legs grew faster than her ulna bones. The radius isn't made to hold the load of a dog's body weight so the ends of the bones crack and splinter under the weight. This leads to arthritis in the joint and bone splinters too. ( Doctor speak: Shelby has bilateral elbow dysplasia due to fragmented medial coronoid processes (FCP). Recommended bilateral elbow arthroscopy to debride the remnants of her fissured or fragmented medial coronoid processes to help slow the progression of her arthritis and improve her comfort. )

We had no idea anything was wrong until Shelby started to limp. She has to be on medication to keep the swelling down every day to help with the pain. Both of her front elbows need the surgery and the surgeon says if she doesn't have it soon the chances for the surgery to be a big benefit to her overall health will dramatically decrease.