Monday was our appointment with Cookie at Liverpool University Small Animal Teaching hospital for her leg problem. The day started with us having to distract her while the other dogs were fed. There was a strong possibility of anaesthetic so she had to be starved from the previous evening but missing a meal for Cookie is never a good thing and she was definetly not a happy bunny.

We have been very lucky with all of our dogs and this is the first time we've ever been referred to a specialist vets so this was all new to us. On arrival it was hard to not be impressed not only by the building but the warm welcome and professionalism of the staff. We completed some paperwork and then handed in our insurance details to the office who deal with all of the claim process for a small fee. From my point of view this is fabulous as I have very little experience claiming on any of our policies for the dogs and to be honest I had other things to worry about.

Despite Cookie's obvious discomfort and lack of mobility she was still determined to try and play with every other dog in the waiting room and her tail continually span in typical helicopter fashion.

After a short wait we were met by Tom Cox, the Vet who would be looking after Cookie and we followed into a bright modern consultation room. The notes had already been sent over from our own vets which helped in terms of what medication she was already on etc. We went through the history of the injury with Tom and he did a short examination of her. After this he said that he'd like to x-ray her to confirm his thoughts that this was indeed a rupture of the cruciate ligament. We left Cookie and were asked to return a few hours later to have a talk through the results.

I don't think that we had any surprise when we returned to be told that this was what we'd feared. Tom took us through the x-rays pointing out the damage and then spoke to us at length about the options going forward. It was clear that we'd been referred here because of the hospital's expertise in dealing with this type of injury. After talking things through we had no doubt at all that we wanted Cookie to have the TPLO surgery as we feel this is the best outcome for her quality of life going forward.

The hospital had already provisionally booked Cookie in for surgery pending her results and we left for home very sad and concerned but totally confident that she was in absolutely the best place she could possibly be...

The video below is very informative and sent to us by a few friends on hearing about Cookie's injury which is very much appreciated.