One thing I thought I would never be looking into in Costa Rica was an orthopedic surgeon for dogs. As it turns out, that is exactly what I’ve had to do in the last few weeks. I’ve read it and heard it before, “Costa Rica is tough on pets”, but never really considered it to be true. After living here for almost five years, I can completely agree with this.

So far, one of my dogs, Lilly, who is a German Sheppard, has had her share of visits to the vets office. It started first when she come down with Erlichyosis (Tick Fever) and recovered well since it was detected early.

After that, two years in a row, she was bitten on the nose by a Pica Caballo spider. This bite was very dangerous and basically ate the skin off her nose and left it bloody and excreting puss for a couple weeks. She wasn’t too happy with the three times a day application of Dermapet either, but she recovered well and her nose is back to normal.

Then there was the time she was almost impaled by a branch at the beach while chasing Oso, my other dog who we rescued from a bar here in Costa Rica. They love to chase each other and Oso, made a sharp turn and Lilly kept going, and then Wham! I heard the snapping of wood and she was on her side unable to get up, crying with her legs flailing in the air.

I thought she was going to die right there on the beach. I had to carry her (all 65lbs.) down the beach to my truck and race to the vets office. She’s also had been sprayed by skunks several times and developed a fungus on her tail. Minor things compared to the others. Dr. Gilbert Cavallini of Cavallini Veterinary Hospital in Villa Real, Guanacaste has become a good friend of ours after many visits for both my dogs and others we’ve helped along the way.

So here I was, once again at his office with Lilly. This time she presented with a moderate limp. Again, after one of our morning walks to the beach, I let the two off leash to go run around and swim before we make our way back home. The beach we go to is very quiet and it is rare to see anyone else, which is why I go there.

Anyway, they disappeared into the woods (again in a high speed chase) and she comes back with a severe limp. I gave it a couple days and it persisted, even though she showed no other signs or symptoms of distress, such as a change in eating habits, changes in going to the bathroom, no pain with palpation or lethargy. She was pretty much her normal self except for her inability to extend her right-hind leg actively.

Because of a lack of other symptoms the doctor recommended an initial treatment of oral anti-inflammatory meds for 10 days. With minimal improvement he suggested further diagnostic studies be performed. We could have done this here in Guanacaste, but he suggested doing it in San Jose, because if they did find something, she would end up having to go there anyway and the Ortho would do his own diagnostics, so I would end up paying twice.

Like many people I know, my dogs are like my kids, meaning I would do anything I need to, in terms of taking care of their health. After discussing the options with my vet, Dr. Cavalini and my husband, we decided to send her to Pavas to the offices of Dr. Roger Alfaro. He is one of two Orthopedist that were recommended to me. I choose him based on many factors, one being the recommendation from my vet and also the number of successful outcomes with the type of injury she was suspected of having.

After speaking with the doctor, we decided to make the drive with Lilly to determine exactly what the problem was. It turns out, after diagnostic testing, that she had a torn ACL, Medial Meniscus and a small fracture of her Tibia. This was more serious than expected. I heard this and immediately thought of an athletic sports injury. Every football season, its guaranteed that some team will lose a player due to a similar injury.

I was just surprised that it happened to my dog, which to the best of my knowledge was not playing football at the time of injury. However, when you think about the mechanism of injury, it could very easily happen to a dog, just like a human being, but the fracture must have been caused by an impact. I’ll never know exactly what happened. I can just assume, once again, she was chasing Oso and he put a move on her and she tried to stop, pivot and ran into something.

So now we know what the injury is and the options for repairing the damage. The doctor had to order a plate and four titanium screws that were imported and were going through customs for a few days. The surgery was scheduled for September 13th.

After that she’ll need to be at the clinic until she’s weight bearing and the surgical site determined healthy (no infection), which they think will be two weeks. During this time she will also receive some physical therapy at the clinic to help regain the strength and stability in order to weight bear and ambulate properly. After that, 30 days of rest with light walking as tolerated.

I’m told the cost for this type of surgery and aftercare is in the thousands of dollars in the States. The cost here is slightly over a thousand US dollars if there are no complications. I’m hoping all goes well. The doctor says, if so, she should make a full recovery and return to her prior level of function. Summer is just around the corner and she loves to go hiking. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how she does.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.