Dr. Lozier doesn't favor TTA over TPLO, because he says that they are both good techniques and a good TPLO is the best option he knows and recommends. He mentioned what he knows about tightrope and he personally knows Jimmy Cook, who invented the technique. Dr. Lozier explained to me that regardless the success of the tightrope technique, it's really no more than another option from the traditional techniques, and he also agreed that Sammy's stifle doesn't make him a good candidate for the technique. Dr. Lozier did a complete exam of Sammy checking for not only the stifle but also for any other thing that could get in the way or should be treated. I finally felt that somebody really care for the dog they are treating unlike all the other places where I took Sammy with the exception of Dr. Aluas.
I am almost 100% sure that TPLO is what we have to do for Sammy. Dr. Lozier explained what he knows about the small percentage of TPLOs that go wrong, and in his opinion most of them were technical errors. Dr. Lozier has performed thousands of surgeries and had only a few bad experiences due to complications, but he still explained that there's always the possibility of something going wrong.
Sammy is using his knee more and more, but I am pretty sure now that he either will end up with chronic pain or is never going to recover acceptable functionality of this leg without surgery. The only problem with the surgery and the careful pre-surgical work that Dr. Lozier performs is that it's extremely expensive. This is going to either put a big dent in our savings, or maybe it's going to get paid by selling one of our cars, which would also help us save more money in insurance and gas just in case Sammy's left knee also fails. Unfortunately, regardless of the cause of the stifle failure, there is a 50 to 60% probability that the other knee would have the same problem.
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