Floyd Ripped His ACL

Floyd and Sara; Mason and I found Floyd on the side of a country road in Robertson County.

Click here for his background

Floyd, a six-year-old chow-lab mutt with a coat as copper as cedar bark, is a quiet dog. For the most part, he remains expressionless, rarely showing much emotion at all. He’s been a member of our pack for five and a half years.

Floyd’s biggest problem besides his withdrawn attitude is an angry streak that we can contain but have never erased. He won’t lunge, bite, or bark at other dogs, walks like a pro on a leash, and retains an unshakable loyalty, but he values personal space. And if another pack member invades it, he’s known to snap, all while wearing that same aloof expression.

For all his grumpiness, we love Floyd, understand his limits, and treat his outbursts with a calm assertiveness, which he responds to immediately.

But Floyd does have one passion that changes his normally stoic disposition into an obviously euphoric one, like he’s high on natural drugs. The moment we unhook his leash, giving him free reign over the six acres of woods behind our house, Floyd changes into a joyful mutt. It’s like the wilderness is his paradise.

From mid-March until mid-October, we can’t walk in the woods because the foliage and ticks are dense, but starting at the end of last month we’ve been trekking through the forest daily.

Floyd had been able to run through his utopian playground a handful of times. Then, one day, he returned particularly early in the walk, still wearing his elated face, but lifting his right rear wheel, paw hanging loose.

I checked the leg, found no visible injuries or swelling and waited. After a few days, he put weight on it, even stood on it to pee, but his limp didn’t improve.

Yesterday, we visited a specialty surgeon in Nashville, Dr. Kevin Au at BluePearl Vet. We needed a referral to even get through the door.

We found out that Floyd had ripped his ACL doing his favorite thing in the world, running through the woods. Next week he’ll have surgery, followed by eight weeks of living contained in a small room or crated. If he had been small or old, Dr. Au didn’t recommend the ordeal. But, because Floyd has a potential of six to nine more years on his legs, we feel it’s the only humane way to deal with it.

Out of the eight dogs that have been part  – at one time or another -of our permanent pack, three have needed the same surgery, and I know of two other dogs I meet daily on the greenway that have recently had medical procedures on their knees. Since ACL injuries in dogs are so common and RIDICULOUSLY expensive (thank the universe I’ve been working for three months,) I’ll be writing about the process. I hope these posts will provide someone else with help and insight.

Poor Floyd. He’s going to lose the entire 2014-2015 winter season of running through the woods. And poor us, I bet he’ll be a bear to live with