The surgeon called a little while ago. He said that he went in there and the meniscus was in about 5 pieces and was all over the inside of his knee. There was a little bit of CCL left, but a soon as he put pressure on it it snapped. The tibial plateau was at 25 degrees, which is prime for CCL rupture. He said there were minimal to low moderate degenerative changes in the knee, and when I told him the initial injury was in March he was very surprised that there was so little progressive damage. He said that the vets would talk to me about suppliments for him, and I said that he was already on high doses of glucosomine and salmon oil, and he said (quote) "Wow, you're a good dog mom"
(thanks again for the suppliments Fairy Dog Mother!!) He said that most likely the suppliments were what were keeping the damage at bay, so we'll be keeping those up for the rest of his life!
They aren't cheap, but waaaay cheaper than another new knee! And we'll be adding them to the other two's food from here on in as well.
In regards to the other knee, he said that there was some laxity to it, probably because of the added stress from the inury. However, he was of the opinion that since the current knee was in such good shape, he didn't think that we were looking at another one. But, he did caution that he "didn't have a crystal ball, and that that's not a guarentee."
I asked about taking him home, but he said that that is up to the vets at the practice, so I'm still waiting to hear from them. Ok, on the phone now, I have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out when we can bring him home. I asked about food, but he's not eating until tomorrow, so if they want to keep him until Friday I'll bring food in. I really don't want him eating Science Diet and getting the runs on top of everything else! Though if they feed him the i/d he'll be fine, since that's just rice anyway. I'd guess that they would feed that since it's low residue.
The surgeon isn't at my vet's office, so I asked about getting in touch with him with any questions / problems and he said that his home number was on the paperwork that I'd be getting. Nice!
That's about it for now. I'm not going to stop and see him, I don't want to get him wound up.