Betty Rose just turned five in September. She ruptured her ACL in April playing fetch and – oh, yeah…Betty Rose is a golden retriever.
Ellie Miller is Betty’s owner and one of our radiography instructors in Kearney. They stopped by the Health Science Education Complex (HSEC) on their way home from Betty’s last PT session for some extra TLC from the junior radiography students.
“The students’ eyes lit up when I asked if they wanted to meet Betty Rose,” said Miller. “It’s a great stress reliever for them and Betty loves the belly rubs.”
The rupture had required TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) surgery – where they cut the tibia, readjust the angle of the tibial plateau and then anchor the new position of the tibia back into position with hardware. Betty’s rehab never progressed to complete healing, though, so the orthopedic surgeon reassessed her.
A rare complication of pivot shift (thrust during medial deviation of the tibial crest), forced the surgeon to perform a revision. They tightened up her joint capsule and ligament with sutures and removed the plate to make the placement of the sutures more accurate.
“We got to keep the plate!” Ellie said with a smile. “Betty’s doing very well, now, and already at a higher function than with her previous surgery.
Those eight sets of healing hands must have helped the mending process!
Betty’s radiographs