Indy Jones

Otherwise know as Indiana Jones Temple of Poophead Dog or just Indy does not like to have her picture taken.


But you'll forgive her right? Poor puppy just had surgery for the second time this year! She is now officially the $6,000 dog. Yup, that's right and you might say "There's no way I would spend that much money on a dog" and well you might be right, we could not however put this absolutely beautiful sentient being to sleep forever, she is ingrained and entwined deeply into our hearts and I'm so happy she is here with us and is on her way to recovery. So the new furnace can wait, the new windows can wait, new furniture can wait. Indy is here.



Indy has Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease which is a progressive degenerative failure of the knee ligament. There are certain breeds that appear to be predisposed to this condition including the Newfoundland, Bull Mastiff, Rottweiler, Golden retriever, Labrador retriever, Boxer and West Highland white terrier. There is some thought that there is a genetic component as well.

With only limited treatment options, we chose obviously a very expensive surgical treatment called Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy or TPLO for short, which according to new research is more effective in large breed dogs then the conventional ligament replacement surgery which sometimes has to be redone. So we opted for the more expensive surgery in hopes that we would only have to do each leg once. It's a fairly complicated surgery and involves cutting the knee joint and changing the slope or angle of the knee so that the ligaments are no longer required and the animal can once again move without pain. Indy will be in recovery mode for at least three months before she is let loose to run around and play with other dogs. She has arthritis in both knees now caused from the tear in the ligaments but we will keep her on a glucosamine-chondroitin supplement for life which should hopefully slow the progress of that ailment.

How times have changed. Anyone who grew up on a farm who might read this would probably fall off their chair and think we were right out of our minds for spending that kind of money on a dog, but she lives in our house, has her own bed right in our room and speaks funny dog talk to me when I get home from work. I love this dog and I'm so thankful that we were able to do this for her and for us.