9 years ago...

[Herb G]

I built a ramp for my dog who had just had surgery for a torn ACL.
He couldn't climb stairs, so I had to build a ramp on my deck so he could get outside & back in.

I built it from 2 X 4's and PT plywood. It took me about 3 hours to slap it together & it has held up all this time just fine.
I put a decent grade of I/O carpet on it so my dog wouldn't slip.

Well, after 9 years, the carpet wore out. I went poking in my basement & found a piece of the original stuff I bought
all those years ago. I cut it & installed it yesterday.

The dog I built the ramp for died back in June, but his little brother is still here to use the new carpet.
 
He noticed it as soon as he went out yesterday.

A side note: the carpet was made in the USA. Hard to find anything these days made here that lasts that long.

[Cooler]

My Chesapeake Bay Retriever tore his tendon too.  My vet referred to it as a "knee", but the surgeon called it an "elbow".  I asked the surgeon why he called it an "elbow" and he said, "It's where you would expect a knee, but the structure is like an elbow.  So it's an elbow."

There are two types of surgery for this.  One grafts Kevlar to the tendon and re-attaches the tendons.  This apparently is satisfactory to small dogs.

For large dogs they they replace the elbow with an artificial one that does not require any tendons at all.  They attach the joint by first milling a half-lap on the femur and tibia bones and screwing into the bone.  After about 6 weeks the bone re-grows and fills in the screw threads making it much stronger.  

I asked the surgeon how long they last and he said, "Well, a replacement joint in a 150 pound man lasts about 15 to 25 years.  Your dog weighs 117.  I expect it will outlast the dog."  (It did.  It worked flawlessly.  He passed at 13 years of age.)

For the accountants out there:  The surgery cost $5,000.00.  I took a month off from work to take care of the dog (two weeks vacation, two weeks unpaid).  Had to have a MRI to check out other problems:  $3,000.00.

I had to sell my SUV because the dog could not make the jump into the rear seat anymore.  The car was just one year old, and I took a bath on that.  I bought a sedan and removed the rear seat and replaced it with a plywood platform.  (The dog went to work with me each day.)

I could have bought 10 replacement dogs for the cost of fixing this one.  The things we do (like building ramps) for our pets.

[daddo]

My renters destroyed a carpet in one year- go figure. 

 I should have used it outside.