Fiona’s Knee Surgery and Rehabilitation

Our little girl, Fiona, is a 3 year old Shetland Sheepdog and the center of our world. The way she came to be with us was so serendipitous that it was obvious right away that Fiona was meant to be a part of our family. Her adorable, intelligent personality continues to astound us everyday. She is very attached to my husband, Craig, and I. When it boils down to it, she just wants to love us and be loved BY us. Over the summer, we began to see a disturbing trend of small, but short lived injuries to her left knee. She would pull up lame on a walk for a minute at most. She would stretch her leg a bit and be completely fine. As it began happening more frequently, we took her to the Vet and were informed that she had a luxating patella in her left leg which is essentially a chronically dislocated kneecap. It's not common in Shelties but is treatable on low grades. Unfortunately, over the past few months, the dislocations have become more frequent and then about a month ago, while walking, she pulled up lame on the right leg and was in a tremendous amount of pain. The vet said it was a grade 3-4 luxating patella and was significantly worse than the left leg. Unfortunately, it appears genetic and there isn’t much we could have done. Thankfully, there is a surgery available that could correct the chronic dislocation in both knees. Without it, our little girl will develop arthritis and growths in the patella that will leave her unable to walk within only a few years. We are absolutely going to get the surgery done for Fiona, but unfortunately it is very expensive. No time is ideal for a bill of this size, but the timing of this could not have been worse financially for us. No matter what, we will find a way to take care of our little furry bundle of joy, but we hope that perhaps a bit of kindness can assist us in making this happen for her as soon as possible. Watching her unable to walk and in such pain on a daily basis hurts our heart. For those of you unable to contribute anything financially, please share this with friends and family. That is just as important of a contribution in our eyes. Thanks for taking the time to read this and thank you for even considering helping our little girl. Hopefully, she will be on her feet and chasing her favorite ball in the yard in no time! We will post updates here on her status pre and post surgery for those who wish to remain in the loops. Thank you all again for your generosity!