Scout's Story

In December 2014 my fiancé and I rescued a 6 month old golden retriever. He was our second dog and instantly became our companion.

Roughly 6 months later, he was running in the yard when he began limping. The emergency vet diagnosed him with a sprain, the following day our regular vet did the same.

Three days later he had gotten worse and we were referred to the U of M Small Animal Hospital, which I had no idea existed. Despite X-rays, testing and multiple visits, no one knew what was wrong. Within 15 minutes at the U of M Scout was diagnosed with a broken hip. Unusual for a golden this age but we went ahead and had him operated on.

Months of carrying him and not allowing him to be too active ended with a more severe diagnosis. Scout has a rare blood disease typically only found in small dogs/terriers where the femoral head is attacked and dissolved. His other hip needed surgery.

After hours of consultation we decided to go ahead with a total hip replacement. Of course this meant months of carrying him, keeping our 1 year old retriever from being too active and hoping that this was the end of his health issues.

Fast forward to now and we have the happiest, friendliest and most active golden. His hips are great and he loves to walk, run and swim. No one would ever know what he has gone through but we are so thankful to have had the amazing experience with the U of M Small Animal Hospital. Our dog is a one in a million and they treated him that way.