Lame Moose

This morning I took a very nervous Moose (I was probably worse though) to Miami to see an orthopedic specialist. He is not usually crazy about car rides but today he was crying from the start. We had a consultation with Dr Wosar at Miami Veterinary Specialists this morning to check out Moose's knee and prospects for surgery. The doc says that it is most likely fully ruptured and surgery is his best bet at resuming normal activity. There are a few surgical approaches to stabilizing the knee including one less invasive approach called tightrope stabilization which is usually considered appropriate for non-Moose sized dogs. But after hanging out with the Orthodogs Yahoo group I learned of many larger Moose sized dogs that have had this procedure so I had a sliver of hope that the doc would consider it. But when I mentioned it he said it does not work on larger dogs and he will not do it. I have my doubts about this opinion and I could have taken Moose to other docs to look into it but in the end it would have delayed things and I might have been told the same things at the other 2 places and spent more $ on consultation fees and mostly the more invasive approach is considered to be successful so I decided to go with his plan and hope it was the right decision.
I mostly felt comfortable with the place but was a little frustrated when the doc was trying to get Moose to sit by pushing his butt down (doesn't seem like a good thing for an injured dog) and when I got him to sit and lay down on command he laid down on his bad leg so instead of trying again they called a 3rd tech in, muzzled him and wrestled him into the right position! My vet and I have always been able to do this with a tiny bit of patience so I was not overly excited about that. Other than that the staff seemed good and very playful with Moose while we were waiting.
So Moose was scheduled for Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) surgery this afternoon and they are planning to keep him at least overnight so I won't see him again until tomorrow when it is over.