December 13, 2010 Mika's Dr. Appointment & her stay with us

Niki and Katy, with Moonsong Malamute Rescue, met in Ketchum with Mika to get Dr Acker's opinion about her knee injury and slow recovery.  Dr. Acker is a nationally known orthopedic vet who has a really good reputation for his surgical skills.  His diagnosis was that because of her larger size Mika would need a new and different operation called a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TLPO).

This is an expensive operation but Dr. Acker agreed to do it at a reduced cost because Moonsong has rescued her and is willing to foster her during her rehabilitation.  It will take some time for Moonsong to get donations in place to help pay for the operation.

It turns out that I am the volunteer who will aid in this at our home in Boise.  Consequently, Mika came back from the Dr. visit with Katy on December 13, to begin a much longer stay with us.  One interesting behavior we noticed is that she looks for dog toys and will carry them around and stash them where she sleeps.   The first nights she slept in our garage on a futon couch all the dogs seem to enjoy when they are out there.

Mika appears to be completely house trained, but when Katy started feeding Mika a raw food diet unfortunately she had diarrhea during the night and had an accident on the outdoor rug we have in the garage.  This only lasted one night, however, and we were careful to take her outside as often as possible for a few days.