Meet Duke

My Story

Dukes family was unable to keep up with his rising vet needs. And rising they certainly are. Duke is about 9 years old. We knew immediately he was in overwhelming pain, it took some testing to find out why.

What we know so far is that Duke has torn his back right cruciate ligament. Fully torn, not just partial. There’s only one way to fix this. Surgery, by a specialist, an orthopaedic surgeon. Expensive, and is followed with lengthy rest and rehab physical therapy. This can be long and boring for the dog but usually has a great outcome.

Seems pretty cut and dried right?

Except Duke doesn’t have full use of his front left leg. There is a painful mass in the bone of his carpal (wrist). Cytology results are inconclusive. It could be cancer. It could be scar tissue from a traumatic injury that is now debilitating arthritis. This needs a full biopsy to know for sure, which can only be done under sedation. Duke was sedated for his X-rays as he’s too painful to manipulate while awake. He needs a minute before we make him go through that again.

He has arthritis in many of his joints. He’s quite underweight. His bloodwork and X-rays of his internals look great. He is a very sweet dog. He is well mannered, happy and settling in nicely. He loves company. He loves to eat so we will hopefully get him to a healthy weight.

Duke is taking a whole gamut of medication to help get his pain controlled. We are so thankful Duke’s family surrendered him. We may not be able to fix him. But we are sure going to try.